Heat for IBA Bay

[Roz]

I am adding a Hot Dawg Heater to my equipment room to keep temps in a comfortable zone. Looking to oversize the unit for the space so I can add a fan/vent between the ER and the IBA Bay to draw some of the heat into the auto bay when necessary. Thinking it may help us avoid issues when extremely cold.

Has anyone ever done such a setup? Wondering what type of fan/vent on a thermostat to get for the wet environment. Want something that can automatically close the vent slats if possible. Thanks...Jordan

 

[Randy]

A number of years ago an operator up in Michigan did what you want to do. If I remember correctly it didn’t work out very well. He had a blower in the equipment room pulling hot air out of the equipment room and venting over to the auto bay next to the equipment room. He couldn’t get enough heat over to the auto bay to keep it from freezing. My brother had tarps made that he uses to close off the ends of the bays and used a propane torpedo heater to the bay, now he uses a inferred gas heater mounted to the ceiling.

 

[Roz]

I have doors on both ends that close at 40 deg and a cold weather package on my Razor so I do not need to add much heat. We do not get ice, just looking to bump the bay temp up a bit if we use the bay all day on a very cold day. Not worried during the day, want to bump up the temp in the overnight when the system is not being used just for a margin for error.

 

[Jeff_L]

I have doors on both ends I just rely on my floor heat to keep the bay warm enough to keep from freezing. Works fine unless we have multiple days in a row in the teens and no sun.

I have thought about what you want to do, and if I did, I’d probably take the heated air from around the boiler and use a tube as a duct then punch it through the wall a foot or two from the floor right by the home position of the bridge. I’d put the fan in the equipment room to keep it out of the moisture of the bay.

 

[Randy]

I have doors on both ends that close at 40 deg and a cold weather package on my Razor so I do not need to add much heat. We do not get ice, just looking to bump the bay temp up a bit if we use the bay all day on a very cold day. Not worried during the day, want to bump up the temp in the overnight when the system is not being used just for a margin for error.

In that case you could try using an old furnace blower and a piece of 10" or 12" ducting into the auto bay controlled by a thermostat. I used something like that to move heat around my house when I burned wood. It work well enough.

 

[Lilwarrenb]

They make electric dampers for hvac. I have a 12" 24 volt damper at my house that you can set to open or close by thermostat. If the temp dropped below a certain temp and was calling for heat the damper could open and allow heat to be blown into IBA.

 

[Roz]

Who is manufacturer? Sounds like the right solution. Thx