Banishing Brass Monkeys from the Garage / Workshop.

[paul.jameson]

I have the good fortune to be retired and to have a good sized workshop in which to indulge my hobby. I have had the less good fortune to receive sizeable electricity bills for heating the workshop. Yes, it is of wooden construction, well insulated with 75mm of Kingspan insulation panels in both walls and roof but there is no escaping the fact that once the heat from the summer dissipates as winter approaches, the place gets cold. This is not helped by the fact that within the workshop are a large number of metal items such as bikes, spares, lathe, mill, drill press and a multitude of hand tools which all become cold and remain that way until spring.

Heating for many winters has been by two oil filled radiators, switched on when I go into the workshop and two low wattage tubular heaters kept on constantly “to keep the chill off”. But the electricity bills have become ever larger and I have lost the argument that it is all due to my wife leaving the lights on in the house. The penny has dropped with her that it costs a small fortune to keep the workshop warm.

So, last winter I began to look into other options for heating the workshop. These ranged from installation of a wood burning stove (not ideal in a wooden building) to an extension of the central heating system from the house (complex and costly). Another contender was the type of warm air heater used in camper vans and lorry cabs. Cheap to run, they give out plenty of hot air which quickly makes the workshop feel warm, even if the metal in it remains cold. There were two snags from my point of view. One was the need for purchase and storage of the diesel fuel and a tank to feed it to the heater. I dislike the smell of diesel intensely and using it in this way would, I thought, inevitably spoil my enjoyment of the workshop. The other snag was the fan blowing the air around. I have lived in a house with warm air central heating and found that as the air blows round, so does the dust and lots of other things, some of which are alive. It used to be a major problem to prevent the home brew from going off before it had finished fermenting in that house.

My thoughts turned to the idea of a heated waistcoat over my clothes. I had tried one some years previously which kept me warm, but at considerable expense in small torch type batteries. A search on the internet revealed a bewildering variety of options which served to confuse more than anything else. My wife came to the rescue, having used a different internet search. “Have you looked at WarmNsafe?” she asked.

WarmNsafe make heated gear for motorcycling in during the winter. They also use it, as motorcyclists themselves so it is very well thought out. And, best of all, they produce a range which works off a rechargeable battery instead of having to be plugged into the bike’s electrical system. So a 7.4v heated vest, rechargeable battery and charger became last year’s Christmas present from my wife. It didn’t stay in the gift wrap until Christmas though. Having tried it out, I wore it most days throughout last winter and it kept me warm at minimal cost. Depending on the heat setting used, the battery will last all morning and into the afternoon before recharging. The heated vest is like a base layer next to the skin so the outer clothing keeps the heat in. There are 6 to 8 heat panels around the vest, located differently depending on whether it is for a man or a woman. The battery pouch has an integral sprung hook to go conveniently onto your belt or the battery can go into a pocket. Heated leggings are also available but you need a second battery for those. Best of all, you can use it when riding the bike in the winter when you might also want to connect up the heated glove liners or socks to the terminals provided at wrists and ankles. The clothing is washable, with reasonable care. With the increases in electricity costs this year, I anticipate completing the recovery of my wife’s investment in the system during this winter.

By mid – December 2022, the only heating used in the workshop so far has been a 60w tubular heater beneath my wife’s 1927 Standard’s engine and radiator. Today, 14th December, following several days of very cold weather and with snow covering ground and workshop for the past 4 days, the temperature inside is 39 degrees F or 4 degrees C so roughly the same as inside the fridge! But I can still work on the lathe or on assembling the bike, although I notice very quickly when the battery for the vest goes flat! Recharging it takes about 5 or 6 hours at a cost of a few
pence.

I have no connection with the company other than as a very satisfied customer but if it is cold in your workshop and the electricity bill is already far higher than you would like, try the 7.4 volt Heated Clothing range below the Heated Clothing tab at www.warmnsafe.com Better still, persuade someone that this could be the ideal Christmas present for you.

[Julian Murphy]

Good post Paul.

Gerbing and Keis always get good write ups in the BMW world of hardened all year round adventure riders.

https://www.sportsbikeshop.co.uk/motorc ... e_0/max_20

I use a Sealey infra red heater. Heats objects (ie me), but not the air.

Still difficult handling lumps of cold metal, or standing still at the lathe though.

[JohnnyBeckett]

hi i wear dickies padded overalls and a good pair thermal shocks and i can work all day outside in the cold and snow and i keep nice and warm and i have got a pair of padded waterproof ones from dickies and i use them as well wen i am riding my motorcycles in the cold and rain and a good pair gloves

[Ian.Taylor]

My garage is 20x20 and well insulated.
I can work with the barn doors open comfortably at 40 f Now winter is here and the temps drop to 25 over night reaching 30f during the day.
I have 2 propane tanks a 20 & 40 lbs. I have attached a 2 head propane heater rated at 35000 btu.
I use one now and 2 later when the temps get really cold.
I run both for maybe 3 hrs then shut them down.The garage remains warm for a few hours.

I'm looking at a Propane 50000 BTU unit that also vents fumes outside for next year. I can set it to 32 all winter until I need heat.
I'm told by friends who use this set up a 100 lb tank will last the winter.

[cmfalco]

the temperature inside is 39 degrees F or 4 degrees C so roughly the same as inside the fridge!

Heating and cooling solutions are geography-specific. I live in a desert so summer temperatures are more of a problem than winter, although it does drop below freezing some early winter mornings. To make year-round temperatures survivable I have a 4-ton, 48,000 BTU heat pump, whose specs say it uses approximately 4 kW when it's on. We pay 16 cents/kWh so if it were on constantly during a full 8-hour day the cost would be $5.

However, the duty cycle when heating is certainly less than 25% even when it's quite cold, which it seldom is and, even then, rarely during daytime hours. Although the average nighttime low in January is 42 ℉, outdoors quickly warms in the morning to the average high of 65 ℉. Even at a 25% duty cycle during the day, which is an overestimate, that would be $1.25 for a long day spent in warm comfort in the garage. The duty cycle is higher in summer since some days it has to fight against outdoor temperatures that can reach ~120 ℉ (rarely), although ~110 ℉ is fairly common. Whether or not a heated vest is a reasonable alternative for winter, summer where I live requires AC.

Assuming I work in the garage three full days each week, the cost for heating would be less than $4/week (the cost of a medium latte at Starbucks). Heated shirts, vests, etc. seem to sell for ~$200 so one would pay for itself in a year in electrical savings. However, that ignores the intangible, but very real, comfort-factor of not having cold fingers hold 39 ℉ tools while working on 39 ℉ metal. Thanks to the heat pump I don't have to decide between staying a warm house, or working under refrigerator-like conditions. That said, I'm sure a Siberian motorcycle mechanic would think 39 ℉ was like working in a tropical paradise.

As a relevant aside, my garage is built of cinder block so has an insulation value of only ~R2. My thermostat has three programmable time zones (call them 'daytime', 'evening', and 'overnight') whose temperatures and start/end times I can set. I set the default temperatures of all three time zones to 50 ℉ during the winter and 87 ℉ during the summer to keep the garage from ever becoming too cold or too hot and possibly causing problems with chemicals or instruments. To keep from using too much electricity I find 68 ℉ during the winter and 78 ℉ in the summer to be comfortable-enough temperatures for working so, as soon as I walk in on days when I will be working in the garage, I override the default with one of those settings. However, if I forget to reset the temperature when I'm done for the day, it's no problem because the thermostat automatically returns to the default setting when the current time zone ends.

[Bob.Murphy]

Brass monkeys are alive and well here in Edinburgh.

My 'shed' is a two-storey brick-built building that was supposed to be a house - but was never occupied. I used to have a wood-burning stove in the workshop part and that was very warm - so warm that neighbours would gather there for a chat about bikes, cars, trailers and life, so no work would get done. Today its -6C outside and the infra-red heaters are struggling so I'm working in the kitchen !

The wood-burner had to go to make room for the Colchester lathe and Bridgeport mill, the sacrifices I make for my hobbies .

Below 10 deg C my hands stop working and my fingers go dead, this getting old lark is no fun.

Bob.

[JohnnyBeckett]

hi i use a waste oil burner in the workshops and we get a lot of old oil out of cars lorry's etc , so we get lots of free heat

[chris.shearwood]

Hello Paul,
That heated clothing sounds like a good idea for working in your garage. You could get your wife some too and then you wouldn't have to heat the house!
Regards, Chris

[markus.nikot]

Paul,
yesterday I saw a report on TV about a logistics company that uses exactly these jackets for its employees in warehouses. Due to the energy crisis, they were forced to save gas and reduced the heating of the halls. In order to keep it bearable for the employees, they invested in these jackets and were able to save 30% gas in the first step. Further lowering of the hall temperatures is being tried. Since the low temperatures at the workplace do not comply with the German health and safety laws, an exemption had to be obtained before the attempt, typically german!
In my workshop this morning it was -5 degrees Celsius! I have an oil blow heater with 22kW and can heat the hall to 10 degrees in half an hour – but the device needs 2 liters of the expensive juice per hour. I have decided to postpone the necessary work to warmer times and therefore prefer to go for a walk in the snow.

Markus

[tomwalker]

My workshop is brick built 40'x20', cavity wall, well insulated. A spell of unusually cold weather such as the one we are going through at the moment in the UK brings the temp right down, and I have a kerosene fired warm air heater which blows your hat off if you stand in front of it. Which is fine, but it uses 20 litres of kero a day if left on flat out. This is not necessary, just gives you an idea of the amount it uses. The problem is, it only has to be on for 15 mins to warm the air up, but the machinery, shelves, cars, bikes etc, anything metal, which is sitting there at a few degrees above freezing, cools the air so fast, that all that lovely hot air soon ends up in the top 8ft of air space, and where the action is, its back to freezing.
The answer is to keep your shed at low level warmish, whatever you decide that is, IF,( big IF) it is well insulated. So my mate has just built a reasonable sized workshop and installed electric under-floor heating. It is very well insulated, and the power is supplied by solar panels on the roof. While these only work during the day, they do work in the winter. And the nature of underfloor heating is such that you dont really know its on, but it works well.
He has batteries and an inverter, and it wasnt cheap to install, but hes younger than me, so has longer to reap the benefit!!