New Detail Shop; Floor Heat or No?

[Waxman]

Am I crazy to favor the initial cost savings of conventional propane blower style heaters (1 for shop area, 1 for office) over installing floor heat tubing and boiler in my new garage?

Will I be happier, long-term, with radiant in-floor heating? Save money on propane? I realize all that concrete is a big thermal mass.

What are your thoughts, in general, on this? If building a new garage for detailing or even personal use, would you put in floor heat over other gas heaters?

 

[soapy]

I would put floor heat in especially if you are heating with propane. It is one of the most expensive ways to heat right now and you need all the effeciency you can get with it. A good boiler is going to 95%+ efficient and the best you could hope for on a blower setup is about 80%. It will pay for itself in the long run to go with floor heat. Plus floor heat is more freindly to the workers.

 

[Waxman]

Thanks, Soapy. I like the 95% efficiency statistic, vs. 80%. Good to add to the comparisons.

 

[MEP001]

I like the 95% efficiency statistic, vs. 80%.

Remember that to get that number you have to use a boiler that has a 95% efficiency rating.

I'm curious if anyone will chime in as to whether a floor heat system is sufficient to provide "comfort heat" in a detail garage with a large door that will be opened and closed. Concrete can only radiate so much heat, and when a lot of it is released it may take a while to recover the ambient warmth, something that may be a concern.

 

[ibspuds]

Waxman,
At worse case I would run the tubing in the floor. This would allow you the opportunity to someday have the option to complete the installation. I personally ran tubing in both my basement and garage when I built my house. Then a year after I moved in I completed the installation, I am glad that I did it. I used to own a quick lube and always wish I had floor heat. If I would have ran the tubing during construction I certainly would have completed the installation. Should have, could have!!!!!

 

[Whale of a Wash]

I am in a colder climate than you, but am heating all my car washes with floor heat. I think it recovers quickly from opened doors due to the large mass. I am not sure about the temp swings you may find in a work environment, or the time it takes to change the temp. I think which ever way you go, maybe consider to put 2" of that pink foam under the whole slab. I did that at a garage i have ,and the concrete is alot warmer eveywhere and made the whole building alot easier to heat. In our climate the latest thing is all geo-thermal heat pumps, They are heating and cooling fairly reasonable. Either with wells or tubing laid out all over the property down about 8'.
John

 

[Waxman]

My car wash has radiant heat throughout. Bays stay deiced and equipm. room is toasty.

Yep, agree on the foam board underneath. A friend and I installed the foam for the car wash in about 4 hours. Well worth it!

 

[galen]

I'm not sure if this would work Dave but I recently bought a wood pellet stove and notice in my research that there are pellet furnaces and boilers. Most of these heating devices will burn corn also, or a 50% mixture of them. But corn is up right now. Wood pellets bought by the ton is reasonable. And have burn times of over 24 hours. And so efficient that they don't emit smoke. You would have another chore of stoking the fire each day. But I don't mind it. Our house has never been this warm. I'll try to find the link to the boilers. I'm on propane and right now it's over 2.00 a gallon. This way of heating beats propane all to hell. Do a search and you will find many different ones. http://cgi.ebay.com/150-000-BTU-ALT...R-FURNACE_W0QQitemZ350004076448QQcmdZViewItem

 

[soapy]

I have a tire store with 6 large overhead doors and it uses floor heat. The temp recovery is very quick and it keeps the workers feet and working area much warmer. I added a couple of ceiling fans to kkep the air circulating and it has worked out great the last 20 years.

 

[bigleo48]

Waxman,

Do the floor heat with a couple of dual tankless units (like the Kiturami world Boiler) that will also do your domestic hot water. Also install a large fan coil and you'll have the best and most flexible setup at a resonable cost (about $12K total).

Big Leo