Baseboard elec. heaters for shop use?

[Krylon..]

Anyone use the 8ft basboard elec. heaters that you can buy at Lowes or Home depot? They come in 110v or 220v. The guy at Home Depot said the 220v unit only use about 10 amps. Wondering what would be more efficent(and work better), 110v or 220v?

My garage is only 23x20(460 Sqft.)... I am not trying to get the garage super hot, just comfortable in the winter time so my hands dont go numb.

Thanks!

[teajay]

220 usually puts out "more heat" by using more power -- Which may be a good thing for you. A 220 unit would also not plug into the same outlet you were using for a grinder/drill/saw/etc which may reduce tripping breakers. Generally, an electric heater is going to pull _alot_ of current which would limit what else you could run on the same circuit.

Interestingly, _all_ electric heaters have exactly the same "efficiency" of converting electricity to heat -- it's 100%. For every watt that goes in the powerline of the heater, 1 watt of heat will be generated. No way to make something from nothing, and no way to "evaporate" electricity except as heat -- there's nowhere else for the power to go. Even if the heat is generated in the line cord, it's still heat. Since all heaters convert the same (power wise) - your options are generally thermal mass and form factor.

As you likely know, almost any other heat source is generally going to be cheaper as far as operational costs go. Gas/Oil/Propane is just cheaper per BTU for heat.

[d.d.machine]

You might look at the little oil burners from mobile homes,,,, Mine is only 18" wide and about 30" deep and stands about 48" tall ... its small but cranks out the heat and best of all its dirt cheap to run .... I run it 10 hours a day 7 days a week and use about 100 gallons of oil a winter. just throw a 55 gallon drum out side and run a 4" stove pipe and your good to go ,,, I got mine thrue a local heating place used for a case or brew.

[Krylon..]

Originally Posted by d.d.machine

You might look at the little oil burners from mobile homes,,,, Mine is only 18" wide and about 30" deep and stands about 48" tall ... its small but cranks out the heat and best of all its dirt cheap to run .... I run it 10 hours a day 7 days a week and use about 100 gallons of oil a winter. just throw a 55 gallon drum out side and run a 4" stove pipe and your good to go ,,, I got mine thrue a local heating place used for a case or brew.

I am not familiar with those. Is it somehting like this:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...00000000624090

[image]http://i.walmart.com/i/p/00/03/51/11/19/0003511119595_215X215.jpg[/image]

[EMG7895]

Go to Home Depot and get one of those propane heaters cost about $99 and throw out a ton of heat.
Something like this:
http://www.mrheater.com/seriesdetail.asp?id=155

[ImNotRight]

Originally Posted by EMG7895

Go to Home Depot and get one of those propane heaters cost about $99 and throw out a ton of heat.
Something like this:
http://www.mrheater.com/seriesdetail.asp?id=155

and they work good to plop ring gears and bearings or whatnot on top to heat them up

[K2Orion]

i'm not sure about electric baseboard heaters in a shop that might see water on the floor or the occasional hosedown
just seems like not such a great idea

plus there are cheaper ways to heat

[Krylon..]

Originally Posted by EMG7895

Go to Home Depot and get one of those propane heaters cost about $99 and throw out a ton of heat.
Something like this:
http://www.mrheater.com/seriesdetail.asp?id=155

Thats what I think I will be looking into... Thought about the turbo type heaters too, but with limited space, I dont want to catch anything on fire. And these would be alot cheaper than baseboard!

[rkcrawl]

Originally Posted by EMG7895

Go to Home Depot and get one of those propane heaters cost about $99 and throw out a ton of heat.
Something like this:
http://www.mrheater.com/seriesdetail.asp?id=155

Be careful with these. Don't use them in a tight airspace...CO build will get you. But they do throw off LOTS of heat.