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How do you heat your unit?
Hi All,
Now that winter’s fast approaching and I’ve just had an electricity bill for £520.00 for the last 3 months (summer !) I’m wondering whether to keep using our 2 Infra red heaters (3 kw. each) or try some other form of heating. Our workroom is approx. 25ft x 30 ft with a suspended ceiling, so should be easy to heat, but electricity does seem to be very expensive now.
Any ideas ?Alan
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27 Replies
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Use this as your wallpaper on your computer 😀
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Thanks Dave,
That pic and a packet of Extra Strong Mints and I’m sorted !!Alan
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Hi Alan,
I’m in a "council run" unit of about 1400sqft and for some reason, best known to them, the council won’t switch the heating on and its absolutely freezing right now. Could you spare a couple of those extra strong mints :lol1: :lol1:Cheers John
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At the last place I had, I used Quartz Halogen Heaters. These were 3kw but the beauty of them is that they only heat living tissue! This saves trying to heat the whole area, you fix it where you are working and when you are leaving the area, switch it off. the rest of the unit stays cold but you will be nice and warm.
Drawback! Vinyls need to be kept warmish!
Another solution would be to work quicker and harder therefore getting a good sweat up 😀
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john i am sweating buckets next door has left the radiators on :lol1:
Derek
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We have a single gas powered heater/blower suspended from the ceiling which is very efficient at heating our unit (1000sq ft) and resonably economical too.
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We’ve got two ceiling gas powered heaters in the main factory workshop (8000 sq.ft – 30ft high) they manage OK – but takes a while to heat up & then sweating buckets in the afternoon (as long as nobody leaves the roller doors open…. All of the office spaces have 3kW heaters – OK for most of them, but extra heaters for the women in the sales office as they are ALWAYS cold. My office / workshop about 22’x 26′ with suspended ceiling needs a couple of them on in the morning just to get the vinyl up to temp – then 2kW all day – well I’ve got two fan vents to the outside..gets kinda chilly even without them running!!
The electric ones run away with a loads of money..must be 6 or 7 of them on most of the day right now – and the gas ones on for 6 or 7 hours a day £££ chi-ching £££…glad I’m not paying the bill!!
…I’m just waiting on Shane… "I’ve got three 10,000 BTU A/C chillers going to try & keep my beer cool"..just you wait..it’ll be a chilly 30 degrees celcius in a few months…just you wait!! 😛
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well we have gas fired heaters in the workshop, but sadly they are not used. must see how they are fixed up.
but currently STILL looking into B&Q Airforce heaters for offices, these are HeatVac principle, Outdoor fan unit with a bit that sits inside, so heater during the winter and aircon in the summer. Also professional AirCon installs do have cheap bills so we have been told a million times.
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We installed one of these do it yourself AC units this summer mainly to keep the humidity down but it was also a big help when t-shirt pressing. The big bonus is that using it now as a heater the workshop has never been so warm and apparently it’s 300% efficient (although I have no idea how they work that out). I do know the compressor only draws 6 amps or 1.2 kw but easily outperforms a normal fan heater. The two part AC units can be had for as little as £250 ex vat and are a doddle to fit (about 3 hours max).
Colin
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colin, that was the B&Q one? prices have gone up since the summer sale..
i believe you buy the outdoor and indoor units seperatly, my last look was £300 + 300 = £600 inc vat
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Dave
No that price was for both the internal unit and external condenser. It was from http://www.just-coolers.com/ but I am not sure of their latest prices as they vary with demand. I ended up installing 3 more of these units for family and friends so got it down to about 2 hours! I only paid £239 + vat and delivery for the last two systems once they got to know me. They do all the brackets and extra pipe etc if required. The site explains fitting etc and I think you can download instructions. Hope this helps but if you want any further info pm or mail me.
Colin
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We already have two 3kw Infra Red heaters which do a good job of keeping you warm when you’re working underneath them. Our problem is that we work in a converted barn, and our electrics have been cobbled together over the years, and when we get our electric bill in, the landlord has to read the other units sub meters and divvy up the costs. We always seem to end up on the wrong side of reasonable, so I’m thinking of getting a propane gas blower to keep the unit at a decent temperature, and not be so reliant on electricity.
Until then it’s the extra strong mints…. -
quote ALAN COOPER:I’m thinking of getting a propane gas blower to keep the unit at a decent temperature, and not be so reliant on electricity.
Check with your insurance company before going down this road Alan, you may find it’s a big NO-NO
or should I say a big NO-NO
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Thanks for the info Dave, I’ll check that out.
Are Fishermans Friends hotter than mints? -
Depends if it’s male or female 😀
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i’ve only just today switched mine on, i insulated my timber workshop when i built it, so as to retain heat / keep cool, all i use is a 400w 6ft long greenhouse heater on a thermostat, set to about 15degs, no good for a big unit, but suits my 12×10 mini workshop !! it keeps the chill out of the air, and the vinyl workable ! once it’s been on a few days, the temp is quite comfortable, so long as i’m doing something !!
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Ahh, please think of us this winter… -10°C will be considered quite balmy, and it’ll probably dip to -30°C on and off.
Our shop has underfloor hot-water heat in the back and a sizeable hot-air furnace up front – and they’re on 24/7 🙁
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It could be worse gvp, it could be us :rofl:
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Just a thought for some of you blokes with a reasonably large workshop.
Would you be able to wall them into a smaller areas and still be practical and efficient ?
Just heat the areas you are using and not the entire building.Ok, I’m off out to the fridge for a cold stubby, anyone want one ?
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quote Dave Lowery:It could be worse gvp, it could be us :rofl:
Yep, and today we’ve also got 50kph winds! Outside install anyone?
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We heat with 3 computers, 12 fluorescent lights and 1 Cadet-Plus all in an office constructed in the centre of the building. It must be well insulated as its nearly always warm. We supplement with a fan heater a few days each year at the coldest time.
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i am in the process of buying a wood pellet heater hope its easily run cause it freezing here at the minute
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quote Lance Sherrard:Just a thought for some of you blokes with a reasonably large workshop.
Would you be able to wall them into a smaller areas and still be practical and efficient ?
Just heat the areas you are using and not the entire building.Funny you should say that, I’m building a partition this weekend for a 16ft x 12ft office area as when you’re working at a computer you get cold quickly, however once you’re moving about you soon generate your own heat.
I got a largish infrared heater from http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=45029&criteria=heater&doy=9m11 for £30 and a smaller unit from B&Q for £15 – hopefully that’s all I’ll need for the winter as last year there were several brass monkey’s in the unit, all crying their eyes out.
Failing that, I’ll get some thermals or one of these:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Mod … 4&doy=9m11
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Mod … 4&doy=9m11
😮
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Have just had an overhead gas powered blower/heater pipe thing installed.it’s been lying about for 6-7 years and it fired up first time 😀
Workshop is about 1000ft square and it’s made a lot of difference.Especially as its the only heating we have!!! workshop wise
Been tracking the meter for the past day and reckon its running at about £1.50 a day 😮 if our calculations are correct Prices we have are for KWHours the meter is in m3!!! -
Slight cross post.
p4trick
I think the SEI have a grant for businesses that use biomass fuel. You should check it out before you go that way.
Are you using it with a buffer tank and convector heaters or a normal radiator circuit? -
quote Fred Mc:Have just had an overhead gas powered blower/heaterwe had one of those a powermatic gas blower (not cheap to run)… but brilliant heaters..you can switch from hot to blow cold air….fab for drying the screenprinted stuff 😀 and it worked brilliant in the 2000sq foot workshop, we also got a grant from the local council on buying one, so maybe worth your while asking 😉
nik
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Here’s a tip
Just tell your local council that you are installing a wind powered, green. solar powered, environmently friendly, recyclable, heating unit and they will trip over themselves to give you a grant/pat on the back/mention in their next propaganda/newsletter.
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