I have heard about electric operated oil heaters. I think they plug in and look like a small radator. I now am heating my 14×45 shop with a wall mounted heat pump/AC. The heat pump isn’t efficent below 40 degrees.
If anybody out there can help with information about oil heater, Iwill be grateful
Rex
Replies
Electrically hungry
Who ever invented work didn't know how to fish....
Rex,
I have 2. They work. But they are expensive to run. When we bought them, we also looked at kerosene heaters which we couldn't use for inside the house. They were MUCH more robust and MUCH less expensive to run.
VL
All they are is an electric heater coil immersed in an oil bath that that spreads the heat out to the fins of the radiator. They are neither more or less efficient than an ordinary electric heater.
Their advantage, and this would be especially useful in a wood shop, is that the radiator surface only gets warm to the touch, dust striking the heater wouldn't burn and smoke the way it does in a conventional electric heater with red hot elements. Like all electric heaters they are cheap to buy but an expensive way to generate BTUs.
John W.
How much heat do you need?
Being near Houston I don't need much heat. When I do, I have a single element "Mr. Heater" infrared unit that sets on top of a 5 gallon can of propane. I think the low setting puts out about 8000 BTU and on the low setting it will go for about 25 hours. Here it costs $9 to refill a can of propane. There are minimal fumes. 2 hours per day is all that i generally have it on, on the days that I use it at all. I never run it on the high setting but I think it is 12,000 btu and a 5 gallon can is supposed to last 17 hrs on that setting.
One nice thing about this arrangement is that I can move it around. They make 2 and 3 element versions also. 8000 btu heats my 600 sq ft shop fine (but 40 degrees would be an exceptionally cold day here).
I paid $39.95 for the unit at Lowe's about 2 years ago. A propane refill station is a mile away from here. I keep two cans and rotate them.
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy (maker of fine sawdust!)
PlaneWood
Rex,
It's hard to imagine that an electric oil heater would be more efficient than your heat exchanger below 40 degrees...they are both using copious amounts of electricity...however, your there living with it. I have a freind who installed a heat exchange system like yours for his whole house in the late 70's up here in the Boston area...his Jan. heat bill was over $500 back then...other alternatives were sought immediately.
Back in the 70's alternative heating solutions became almost cultist up here in NE. There was no Internet back then so information was shared by word of mouth. Efficient heat exchange was first determined by what kind of heat you wanted....flash heat to remove the chill....or sustained heat to keep it cozy all day.
For flash heat a double 55 gallon drum was the best...burning soft and hard woods, the drums were stacked on top of each other with a stack to the outside. The fire was in the lower drum....gases passed to the upper drum before exiting.....warms a large space quickly.
For sustained heat you can't beat the majic of a coal and water system. In a small Scandinavian Stove you have a small coal fire...on top of that a 30 gallon drum of water. Near the top of the 30 gallon drum there is a pipe that comes off that attaches to a loop of cast Iron base board or old radiators....and returns to the near bottom of the 30 gallon drum. Most would install a circulator on the return side to pull the water thru....however, it is possible to engineer it so a circulator is not necessary. The beauty of coal fire solution is it only took one shovel of coal in the morning and one at night.... The down side was getting rid of the coal ash...
As you can see, most of these solutions could be installed very cheaply...another characteristic of the cult....lol...
Go to forums like http://www.doityourself.com
They have ####heating related forum and can link you to other site specific places that will already have dealt with the question. There's probably few new questions that are asked on the web, just new people asking the same old questions in different places. I usually do a quick search on google and find the answers to my questions.
Your main problem is lack of insulation! Your best spent money would be on sealing up the gaps and reducing the heat loss. We used to have a heat pump and we never did feel warm! But a lot of the problems have come down to poor building practise. Things like vented crawl space with all the duct work contained within. Ducts to the upstairs bedrooms in the outer walls. loose fill FG in the attic, you can see the dirt filtered by the air flowing in places. But I'm working on it and its getting better! My 20 x 20 shop was not insulated when I first started using it, I still have some places to take care of. I use a 30,000 btu propane heater to bring up to usable temp and a 15000 btu infra red propane to maintain. I would like to insulate the floor soon..........if time would allow....................
My shop is 12'X16' and has a gambrel style roof that is 13' high on the inside. I had it built with 2X6 studs. I insulated the walls and ceiling on the inside and the put up sheetrock. I use a oil/radiator heater. If I want to work in the shop I go out and turn it up to high and go back in the house for at least 1-2 hours. The heater will keep you warm if you are near it. Half of the shop has loft storage 8' off the floor. When the heater is placed under the loft, it does ok. Bear in mind though, I live in Texas. We think mid 20's at night is cold. Don't laugh if you are from up north. We are used to it being 106 for 3-4 months at a time in the summer. Sometime in the future, I would like to have a gas fired heater that used outside air for combustion. I believe that is the ultimate if you have either natural gas or propane.
Rex -
Just my opinion, and experience -
These oil filled electric radiator heaters are (1) power hogs and (2) fine for a bathroom or small bedroom. We have one in our 26' chassi mount motor home used to avoid running the propane furnace when in a full hook-up park. In the winter it's just sufficient to keep it cozy in that little RV. We have one in an unheated bathroom in the house we're remodeling - it makes it warm enough to take a shower as long as it's turned almost full on its highest setting. I can almost hear the electric meter spinning into meltdown. (grin)
I'd hardly expect one of them to be sufficient for heating a wood shop of any size, but then being active working in there, I don't suppose it would take much heat to make it bearable. Like someone alluded to - scrounge some old cast iron radiators or something like that, rig up a water heating unit, maybe even wood fired, and take pride in building your own heating system (grin)
From Beautiful Skagit Co. Wa.
Dennis
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled