Natural Gas heater for Work Shop

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Turbo_B

Member
Dec 13, 2019
23
South Carolina
Looking for a little advice- so here is my background.

Have a 200sqft work space with 9.5 foot ceilings in South Carolina.
Exterior walls are brick
Work benches are on every wall
A nat gas line is already plumbed into the space

A hanging unit heater would be great to get above the work benches and vent through the roof, but I can't find one under 30k btu input.
The Ashley DVAG11N direct vent wall unit is interesting, but I don't want to put a hole in my brick wall. Most feedback frowns on attaching this heater to B-Vent and letting it draw room air for combustion.

Suggestions on a reasonable sized heater that I can vent through the roof, and mount over my work benches?

Thanks!
 
30 k May be a little too big, but if you put it on a thermostat, it will shut off at whatever room temperature you have it set at. If anything, it’ll heat your work space faster…
Just my $.02…
 
I called Sterling this afternoon and they basically told me that a 30k unit heater will short cycle in that room and cause problems. Can't change to a smaller burner orifice because then I will have condensate in the heat exchanger and it will fail early. That's pretty much what I expected they would say - but really nice people to talk to!
 
Run the 30k. I have a 50k in a 378 sqft garage with 11ft ceilings. It works awesome to warm up a cold garage so I don't have heat it continuously. I've set my thermostat so the on/off differential is higher than most people run. Yeah the temperature swings are greater between cycles but it doesn't short cycle this way. A digital thermostat could also be set to a max of say 4 cycles per hour to limit short cycling.
 
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Holy smokes a 50k! Do you like it ok? Doesn't overheat the room before it cycles off?

What kind of thermostat are you using? I have one that will let me change the temp swing buy never seen one that would limit the number of cycles per hour.
 
Holy smokes a 50k! Do you like it ok? Doesn't overheat the room before it cycles off?

What kind of thermostat are you using? I have one that will let me change the temp swing buy never seen one that would limit the number of cycles per hour.

I love it, granted our winters are much colder than yours, but it takes a bit to warm it up from -40, so for that it's nice. If I left it on continuously it could short cycle a bit, but not after adjusting the thermostat. It takes a lot of heat to get everything in the garage including the concrete slab up to temperature, I couldn't imagine going smaller in my situation.

I even know a guy that has an 80k in his 24' x 24' garage.

Yeah most digital thermostats have a cycle per hour setting, need to see the manual to find that setting. My El cheapo digital honeywell thermostat in my house has that setting.
 
I'd cap the gas line, and plumb in a mini-split. It's what I've done in my last two shops, and I appreciate the air-conditioning all summer long, in addition to the heat all winter. Takes up very little wall space, minimal issues with dirty environment, uses very little electricity above 20F outside... hard to beat.
 
insulated/air sealed? electric heater?
 
I'd cap the gas line, and plumb in a mini-split. It's what I've done in my last two shops, and I appreciate the air-conditioning all summer long, in addition to the heat all winter. Takes up very little wall space, minimal issues with dirty environment, uses very little electricity above 20F outside... hard to beat.
I considered a mini-split. That's probably what I should have done as an update. The room has a window AC unit which keeps it comfortable and a gas line. Trying not to pull a 220v line and want to control my costs.

This winter we are going to try a ventless heater and a CO detector. Found a used one locally. The thing is in great shape; no rust, burner is clean. The door on the shop gets opened regularly so fresh air will cycle. Not my first choice but for the price I am going to give it a try.