Shop or Garage heat

My "Shop" is a detached 25x40. I have been planning to put some sort of heater in it for years. I have a patio umbrella heater that I normally just roll over to my work area.
Two issue, my head is on fire and my feet freeze. That's not to mention that I'm constantly scared of killing myself from carbon monoxide.

I have a used house furnace in the shop attic waiting to be ducted and plumbed. I got serious about it this year and was figuring out the details and pricing propane tanks (it would be painful to run a gas line). After a little thought, I'm changing gears and have decided to build one of these style passive solar heaters.


My shop faces north so the south wall is prime for a passive solar heater. I am planning to build two separate 4'x8' panels using window screen as the heat absorption material.
Each panel will have a 4" inlet near the shop floor and a 4" outlet near the shop ceiling. I will run duct booster fan's on each panel wired to a 120 snap switch to turn on around 100 F.

I'll document the build here in case any of you are interested. I have been considering this for years and now is the time to get it done. Most tests I've seen show 45 degree air being heated to around 150. This should keep my shop around 50 degrees most times with only the power to run a 30 watt fan. I can then supplement with a torpedo heater for quick heat on an as needed basis. I am hoping to get this project up and running for under $500.

Interested

Look at putting a 10 foot radiant tube heater in.

My shop is 26x32 with ten foot walls and open rafters. The walls are insulated and sheet rocked. The rafters are insulated without sheetrock. I keep the shop at about 65 all through the winter.

Wonder how durable it is.

Mouse said:

Wonder how durable it is.

Click to expand...

The link I put in the first post has a 9 year update. The only moving parts are the fan. Some don't use a fan but I plan to use common HVAC Booster fans which are installed in houses with conventional heating. My HVAC installer friend says they last as long as a common residential furnace.
The "Glazing" outer plastic I'm looking at using has a rating of 10 years before it starts to yellow. Those sheets are $25 so if I have to replace them in 10 years I'll be fine with that. I'm more curious how much heat they will add to a 1k sq ft garage.

I build the first frame last night. I'll test it this weekend before cutting holes in my shop and mounting it.

Sounds like a cool project. I actually had one in my FB feed the other day with pop cans that the guy painted black rather than the screens method. I read through some comments about it for a while and thought both were intriguing.

Here is the first frame. Ready for paint.



I put a couple of 1x6 supports. That I will use to mount it to the wall, probably on French cleats.

I bought the glazing panels and was trying to figure out what ducting to use. Then I remembered I have rudimentary cad skills, a printer and a new spools of ASA.




BOOM.

Hot off the press.

Ready to test.

Yesterday I drug it out of the garage and leaned it on the deck facing south. No fan or forced induction and it was pushing out hot air on a not so sunny day. Test run complete, now I need to skin the frame with some aluminum facia and get it mounted to the south wall of the shop. I think I will build another one and see how much heat I can get from two with duct booster fans pulling cool air out of the shop into the heaters.

My shop faces south, but I’ve thought of tearing out that wall and doing glass storefront type glass across there. Double as a greenhouse for plants and maybe adding some extra solar heat. I have a gas line run to my shop but no heater yet. This seems like a good idea.