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Heaters for workshop and office
Hi All
😳 Yes it’s a bit early but wanted to start looking (maybe there some summer deals) I need some heaters for the workshop when fitting vehicle graphics, the workshop is big and not well insulated so Infer-red will probably be best, does anybody have and use and can recommend me something.
Also our office space is large with a high roof, the roof is insulated (old chicken sheds) but the walls are not (one wall actually) we are looking at insulating the wall but will still need to heat the office, what do you recommend for this space?
thanks for the help.
cheers
Warren
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66 Replies
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We got 2 of these. They are very good, and only heat people, not the surrounding air.
Can’t remember how much they were – they were either £150 each, or £300 each. The
£300 figure rings a bell, but that may have been for 2 of them. -
hi we just got one from here for the workshop put it up and its fantastic
since it went up its never been cold enough to switch it on 😮http://www.electricheatingsolutions.co. … w_P92.html
derek
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Thanks guys, what sort of area will this cover, one person or the side of a car or van?
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Hi All
I was wondering about using something other than infra red for the office space. I heard these work well and are very efficient.
http://www.higha-efficiency.com/airtoair.html
Does anybody have this type of heating and does it work OK? I was told it does act as a de-humidifier and will dry out the air, not sure if this is good or bad for vinyl and applying (printer is in separate room)
cheers
Warren
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What sort of cost is in something like that Warren ?? Having had a look at the site and the fact they are offering flexible terms for payment I am guessing they are on the pricey side and would pay for themselves over a long period of time. Not sure if it is the sort of thing that would be good for rented premises if that’s the case.
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They are £1500 +vat (fully installed), they can actually be taken with you when you leave as they are just screwed to the wall and a small 3in hole through the wall which I thought was a good option.
The reason is the office is a large space with 2 of us working, I have worked under infra red before and it’s not great especially for my wife who will be behind it all day really so felt it’s better to heat the room instead.
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as i said privately …. a Latex will do the job 😉
They can run at 100 deg! -
quote Dave Rowland:as i said privately …. a Latex will do the job 😉
They can run at 100 deg!wouldn’t be in the same room :lol1: and how much are air conditioners for the summer 😮 :lol1:
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Same for me, latex heats the whole shop up, and in the summer I just open the door and mix up some mojitos!
The heating last winter never got turned on once. -
Might not be a bad idea then Warren, I had thought they would be a lot more expensive than that from what I saw & wasn’t sure about being able to remove them and refit them somewhere else with ease.
I take it you have now ordered your latex machine then Dave and just waiting on it arriving.
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almost… or it be a jv33
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I have the mitsi heavy industries version at home, I would highly recommend it, also looking at installing in work.
G
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depending on your floor space i would go with the industrial gas blowers, best heater ive bought and didnt cost the earth to run, and you get an added function of it blowing cold air in the summer 😀 oh and im sure you get goverment grants on them…..but not sure if the NEW goverment are still allowing that scheme 😀
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quote Nicola McIntosh:depending on your floor space i would go with the industrial gas blowers, best heater ive bought and didnt cost the earth to run, and you get an added function of it blowing cold air in the summer 😀 oh and im sure you get goverment grants on them…..but not sure if the NEW goverment are still allowing that scheme 😀that would also kick up a lot of dust too would it not?
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Misti air to air units will also run as air con – also as it’s classed as a renewable help is available (interest free loans in Scotland) though it will not qualify for the incentive scheme.
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Yeah the air to air units clean and filter the air too and can be used to cool the area as well as heat. Not so keen on a big blower heater, also need to get some infa red for vehicles 🙄
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quote Mo Gillis-Coates:quote Nicola McIntosh:depending on your floor space i would go with the industrial gas blowers, best heater ive bought and didnt cost the earth to run, and you get an added function of it blowing cold air in the summer 😀 oh and im sure you get goverment grants on them…..but not sure if the NEW goverment are still allowing that scheme 😀
that would also kick up a lot of dust too would it not?
yeh only if ur workshop is dusty :lol1:
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Yer your suppose to sweep the floor occasionally Mo :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:
My biggest problem is not dust but dog hair, never known a dog to moult so much. She is short haired as well, surprised she’s not bald the amount of fluff I collect.Those industrial gas blowers are very good at heating the roof up :lol1: :lol1:
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we are quite lucky, I have a granolithic floor in the workshop as it used to be an old bakery so it’s pretty much dust free. Although we did have to wait a long time for the dust to settle after we refurbished.
Seems like we where wiping down and dust extracting for ever. i have housed the printers in small pvc covers. We actually used those portable greenhouses you can get at garden centres. they work great.
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I have just got the electric bill from my landlord, and my consumption has gone up by over £100 for the year, although he is charging the same price per unit. My conclusion is that keeping the heater on every night for the printer is what has done it, so I need to look at alternative heating.
Like Warren, but on a much smaller scale, my unit is breeze block, uninsulated, on 3 sides, with a corrogated roof and a glass/wood front, and it is FREEZING in the winter.
On the other hand, we had an appraisal at the pub recently, looking at energy waste and cost savings, and a heat exchanger was recommended to give hot water. I rather like the idea of the heat exchangers you are talking about here, and am going to have a proper look. -
quote Lorraine Clinch:I have just got the electric bill from my landlord, and my consumption has gone up by over £100 for the year, although he is charging the same price per unit. My conclusion is that keeping the heater on every night for the printer is what has done it, so I need to look at alternative heating.
Like Warren, but on a much smaller scale, my unit is breeze block, uninsulated, on 3 sides, with a corrogated roof and a glass/wood front, and it is FREEZING in the winter.
On the other hand, we had an appraisal at the pub recently, looking at energy waste and cost savings, and a heat exchanger was recommended to give hot water. I rather like the idea of the heat exchangers you are talking about here, and am going to have a proper look.Unfortunately Lorraine, without insulation, you are just heating the sky.
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quote Lorraine Clinch:I have just got the electric bill from my landlord, and my consumption has gone up by over £100 for the year, although he is charging the same price per unit. My conclusion is that keeping the heater on every night for the printer is what has done it, so I need to look at alternative heating.
Like Warren, but on a much smaller scale, my unit is breeze block, uninsulated, on 3 sides, with a corrogated roof and a glass/wood front, and it is FREEZING in the winter.
On the other hand, we had an appraisal at the pub recently, looking at energy waste and cost savings, and a heat exchanger was recommended to give hot water. I rather like the idea of the heat exchangers you are talking about here, and am going to have a proper look.Crikey, I only make that about £1.97 a week, that’s not such a bad deal is it? I just ran a test on one of our 3k fan heaters and it works out it’s about £12 a day to run… so that’s going in the bin tomorrow..
I think propane is the way forward for me, having said that storage heaters are pretty good, the unit adjoining us has them and he reckons it only costs him about £20 a month in the winter to run 2. The other alternative is a wood burning stove (if you can stand the heat) they chuck out between 5 and 8kw of heat
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But won’t they also create moisture? Bit like gas heaters?
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Lorraine, yes you are right propane heaters will produce a lot of moisture so you have to be a bit more careful with where you site them and it’s probably a good idea to run a dehumidifier as well.
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Another thing to consider is your property insurance. Many insurers will not cover you if you use a propane gas heater.
I like Warrens heat pump solution. Expensive upfront to install, but low running costs long term and you can brag to your customers that you are "doing your bit for the environment" which goes down well with local council tenders 😕
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electric is something not considered when printing… its does cost a few quid to run a printer
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The air to air I am getting acts like a de-humidifier, if you have or are getting a latex printer then this might be a good option for your print room 😉
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quote Warren Beard:The air to air I am getting acts like a de-humidifier, if you have or are getting a latex printer then this might be a good option for your print room 😉
I think that it must be moisture in the workshop athmosphere which causes the vinyl to buckle when it goes through the printer with the heaters on, so I would guess that the air to air system will help with this too. I will be looking for your feedback on the unit when you have had it installed Warren, thanks.
Lorraine
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I’m sure you won’t be the only one looking for feedback from Warren once they are installed Lorraine
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if you want to keep the chill off the area I use these tube heaters, not expensive to run, designed for greenhouses
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keyw … wpzwb3p2_e
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It is being installed this Weekend, the price was more than I thought too as I was quoted a price including vat but because it’s "green" it only gets 5% vat which means more than I thought so overall including installation is £1800.
I’ll report back on it in a week or 2 after installed.
cheers
Warren
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I would expect that the colder it gets outside, the less efficient the heat pump becomes. Is there a minimum temperature that the system will work to? Eg if it’s -15 degrees outside will it still produce any heat or do you need to supplement it with a conventional heater Warren?
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with mine at home it works to -15. It becomes less efficient at this temp as it needs to use heat to defrost itself, it will stop sometimes to only use the heat for itself. This is more of a problem with air to air as you notice when no more warm air is getting blown in – if you were going for air to water for example the water would not cool enough in that time to make any difference. All in all I would say it becomes less efficient from about -7. My system at home has it’s good points and bad points, all in though I’m likely to be moving soon and will put the same system in the new house with a slightly different configuration
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Warren, do you not get a grant towards the cost of purchase?
Just talking this morning to a Government-backed group who look at energy consumption/conservation in my area, they have already done an assessment on the pub, and have now arranged for them to visit the shop. We discussed the air-to-air system, and she said that at very low temperatures they are not as efficient, so has to be installed in premises where temp drops are not so crucial, as in, for example, nursing homes.
Still an interesting proposition.Lorraine
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What to remember is we have 2-3 weeks when it’s really cold, we have months of needing the heating on and last year my system saved money. Not a huge amount but that’s mainly due to having the house warmer than I had ever been able to afford to do before. The storage heaters I had were beyond useless. If it was warm in the house in winter I was worried about the bill!
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quote Gavin MacMillan:What to remember is we have 2-3 weeks when it’s really cold, we have months of needing the heating on and last year my system saved money. Not a huge amount but that’s mainly due to having the house warmer than I had ever been able to afford to do before. The storage heaters I had were beyond useless. If it was warm in the house in winter I was worried about the bill!
Gavin, they don’t know what really cold is down south :lol1: :lol1:
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I wish I didn’t either Martin! Going by the last 2 winters I went out last week and bought a new winter jacket and a new pair of trainers, I’m not freezing my ass off again walking the dog 2 or 3 times a day and my feet were getting freezing sitting in the office even though this was the warmest place in the building, not easy to feel warm when you have a whole day at your desk!
-14 here for about 3 nights in a row last year, that’s the coldest I can ever remember. Worse than that though was that it didn’t get above freezing for weeks. I remember we had a really mild day of about +5 and I was out walking in a t-shirt it felt so warm!
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did you get this fitted Warren, if so any feedback now that it’s brass monkeys outside?!
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we got an old mitsu in kitchen area… does a good job but hardly used.
we have cheapos in the 3 offices we have… they are crap… need gas refills i think… the aircon produces a lot of waste moisture that needs dumping and that needs pumping out… the air okay. The heat is okay but its not saving us a bunch of money
one thing…. if u got three phase and multiple units, put a unit on a phase each and they are 15amps each so standard plug/sockets need to be checked by sparkie.
I think a distribution system and then split to multiple areas is the way to go… thats our mistake.
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Feedback:
Yes been in for a while now and amazed how well it works, we set it to come on 30min before we get in as it takes about 10min before it starts blowing. We keep turning it down more and more through the day as it gets hot in here.
Not sure on running costs yet so will wait for my quarterly bill to compare 🙄
Yes very happy with it at the moment, I was always a bit skeptical about how well it would heat such a big space but all good.
cheers
Warren
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yeah that reminds me… timers… they have some form of 24 hour timer but ideally needs to be 7-day a week as it will start on Sat/Sun
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one little irritation is you can only set the timer for one day so we have to set it every day before we leave but it’s only 2 buttons and it’s set (unless you want to change the settings) The main problem with this is Monday mornings are a chilly start :lol1:
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Warren I am guessing they gave you some idea on running costs before you purchased it, be interesting to find out how your actual running costs compare to the sales pitch :lol1: :lol1:
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cheers Warren, roughly what size of space are you heating?
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Having only had my wide format printer since September, I’m now discovering what affects the cold/damp is having. Poor prints due to curly wurly vinyl, generally poor results. The printer is in an office within a 1500 sq.ft. unit, that has a not got a door on it (the office) at the moment!
So, I’ve bought a small oil filled convector radiator. It’s pretty good, but I’ve also bought a huge roll of insulation because there’s gaps everywhere, and fit a door of course! I’m hoping my new insulated room with luxury-delux heater should do the trick!
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In theory the running costs should be a quarter of running a 4kw heater, as the air to air converts 1kw into 4kw, although you then have the running costs of it, plus any other equipment. Probably quite hard to assess unless absolutely no other electricity consumption changes!
I am, of course, usually wrong 🙄 but this is how I understand it!Lorraine
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Lorraine, for someone like Warren it will be more difficult to work out roughly what he is saving as he has nothing to compare it to but for someone like yourself with the Pub it should be a bit easier, just need to look at what you were paying in the years Prior to having it fitted and what your paying now. Should give you a pretty good idea as long as you haven’t also gone and fitted tons of other new electrical equipment. :lol1: :lol1:
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I’m heating about 800sq feet but also have a high roof (old chicken shed) so the heat rises, we face the flow down at the ground to circulate from the coldest part up and it works well.
I’m now also running 2 ceramic IR heaters in the workshop when working on vehicles so that will inflate the elec costs too so will be hard to tell other than what I spent in the first quarter to this quarter.
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I’m now looking at air source heat pump for my small office/workshop, as I understand it 1KW in = 3.5 to 4KW out as Lorraine has said and it is an airconditioning unit in the summer. I’m hoping that not only will it use less power but that a proportion of that will come from the solar panels I have fitted to the shed roof.
Alan D -
Alan, don’t forget that it is 100% off-settable in the first year, so even more reason to consider having one installed.
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Absolutely Lorraine, everything I read about these units is favorable and they have got to be better than the naff night storage units I have at the moment. When the home oil boiler packs up I’ll look closely at the air to water units that work on the same principal. Solar panels are have also been a plus – anything to keep costs down even if they are a longer term investment.
Alan D -
New heater installed yesterday, Mitsubishi 3.5KW unit air pump inverter. Very warm, very happy:)
Alan D -
Nice one Alan, It’s the Mitsi I have, best around I reckon (well it was at the time I researched them!)
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quote Alan Drury:New heater installed yesterday, Mitsubishi 3.5KW unit air pump inverter. Very warm, very happy:)
Alan DHi Alan, did you purchase and install yourself, or did you go through a company?
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Had it installed – Just over £1140 + VAT all in for the 3.5KW unit, 3 year gaurantee which wasn’t bad considering what I had been quoted for smaller Daikin models. Yearly service is £75.00
Apparently because its classed as super efficient its 100% tax deductable first year and I get the VAT back. I think this sort of heating is the way to go especially as the solar panels will contribute some of the electricity.
BTW I’m not a tree hugger 🙂
Alan D -
are these used through your radiators Alan, or is it a fan unit that blows air?
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I’m really interested in this as well Alan. We’re in the process of moving to smaller premises so would need this.
Thanks
Jason
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Blows air Ian, being an inverter type it is not on/off but gently goes down as you reach temperature and ramps up as more heat is required, whisper quiet and has a whole host of settings to suit operation. Air conditioner in summer with dehumidifyer or just fan. I got the 3,5kw model as the smaller one was only £80 cheaper and my floor area was on the limit for the smaller unit, it would have been going all the time.
Alan D -
Alan, did you fit this yourself?
Please ignore, missed the above post.
Jason
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New Year is going to see me with one of these, I am sick of being cold all the time! I had a ‘guesstimated’ price of £1800 incl., but that was on a larger space, I like Alans price, my unit is small, need to get some people in to look, and price.
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Lorraine the area I wanted to heat/cool was 18.5sq m which needed 2.1 KW apparently, there was 2.5kw units but these would be working all the time and as 3,5 was only £80 more I opted for that. The company I used are based in Billericay, Essex but do cover a pretty wide area (I’m near Cambridge).
I can post details if anybody is interested.
Alan D -
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Looking at that Jason I would say not, Alan said he had a 3.5Kw fitted & it doesn’t look like there is one in that range. There are a couple of other ranges they do though that include a 3.5kw unit.
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Mine is the Mitsubishi SRK 35 ZJ-S, it was supplied and fitted by TLC Building and maintenance Ltd – http://www.tlcinns.co.uk/ their bit half way down the page.
Alan D -
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That looks like it.
Alan D
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