Thread: shop heating?

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You didn't mention anything about insulation. You may be fighting an uphill battle.

As far as cost (even though you didn't mention it specifically) that's a local matter. Some places electric is cheaper than gas, others vice versa. Then alternatives like propane, kerosene, etc.

When I had my spray booth the air make-up had a 1 million BTU heater in order to maintain a spray temp around 80, and a bake temp of 130-140. Not exactly your situation, but it gives you an idea of what's involved to reach the optimum.

In a home shop a factor that's often not considered is pre-heating. It works especially well in a steel building like yours. Just because the air temp got up to, say 65, doesn't mean the beams and pillars did. They become heat sinks and sap the heat from the air. If you pre-heat the area and bring the structure and it's contents up to temp, then you have the benefit of some radiant heat, as well as these pieces not "stealing" heat from the air as quickly. Yep, it costs more time and money, but then so would a larger heating plant. BTW, some people swear by overhead radiant heaters as a solution, but in reality they're very directional. That's good if you're trying to focus the heat in a portion of the work area, but not so good if you're going for overall heating. Also, in floor radiant heating is nifty, especially if you work on the floor a lot, but is tough to do in a retrofit scenario. Again, it follows the principles noted above, you still need to pre-heat the structure and contents.