Shop heating cost comparison

I know it's been discussed before. What's the cheapest way to heat--thinking intermittent shop heating. I was rechecking the calculations I made a few years ago with today's pricing and found the site linked below. Insert your cost and you've got your answer. Note the electric cost they refer to is electric resistance heat--not heatpump (air or ground source etc) as you'd get more BTU per KWH with them but how much depends on the efficiency of the unit and the air/soil temps.

Of course you have to think of the other issues like return on investment if purchasing new equipment, ease of use, and other issues. For me thinking of heating my shop:
* I don't have access to Natural Gas.
* Best I can run w/o purchasing a new heater and installing additional wiring is 3 - 1500 watt electric heaters simultaneously.
* As for propane I'd need to purchase a shop heater as well and then either plumb it to my fireplace tank or buy and use refillable tanks.
* I have a 10,500 BTU kerosene heater.
* They don't mention wood but then I don't have a wood stove.
Residential Energy Cost Comparison

That is about what I found when I improved the heat in my shop.I had been using a kerosene fired torpedo heater. Works OK but noisy and in the way. After figuring in the cost to add gas line or a propane tank etc., I went electric. Power was already in place (200 Amp panel) Just added a 5000 Watt ceiling hung heater. Now I have heat any time I want real fast. I do want to add a ceiling fan to pull the heat down from the peak but it heats nicely just as it is.

I have a nice waste oil system in my shop that works good, the home farm shop has floor heat with a gas boiler, it works well too, we keep the heat on all the time, once you get everything warmed up it stays nice, but if you leave the heat off for a few days it takes a while to warm it all back up, these shops are 60'X75', if I had it to do over I would have put floor heat in my shop,, but I didn't know much about it back then...

Chris, If you are thinking intermittent shop heating, don't worry about the cost per BTU. Especially an air to air heat pump. During sub zero temps when you need them the most, they won't work. Not using one all the time isn't worth the investment.

I have a well insulated attached 2 car garage, 24x24. It takes almost nothing to heat it. One 1500 watt electric baseboard.

Another 24x24 stand alone garage I rarely heat. When I do I have 3 1500w IR I can focus on myself and stay nice and toasty.

As for my pole barn, no insulation. Sun warms it during the day. Good enough for me.

I like the idea of having a generator for two purposes. One portable back up power, the other to power a chainsaw.

I have two portable IR LP MR Heaters. They can be connected a 20# LP tank. It can produce 6,12,18,000 Btu’s. It can take the chill off small garage. It burns much cleaner than a oil heater or any LP heater connected to the top of a bottle. It can also be used as a back up heat source in your home. I have about 6 20# bottles which can be used on a grill too.

I find it cheaper to get LP tanks refilled at TSC than it is to exchange tank for a full one.

This isn't an answer,but I've wondered how one of those electric salamander heaters would be if you had it on a thermostat and weren't going to be in there for more than a few hours on intermittent days?
They're expensive,but I saw one on an auction sell pretty cheap in comparison to new,and there was one on CL the other day,said never used,asking half price of new.

If your fireplace tank is a 200 gal. or bigger, I guess I would run a line to it and install a ceiling mounted vented furnace. I have a 40,000 in my shop but they are available in bigger sizes. Lots of insulation is the key, and good doors!

I'm going to stray off the subject a tad and get on my soap box a bit. I'm in that kind of a mood! LOL The cheapest way to heat your shop can be summed up in two words: TIGHT and copious amounts of INSULATION. It takes time and money to make your shop tight and it costs money to insulate, not just two or four inches, but six inches or more. You can tighten it up with whatever materials you wish, duct tape, cardboard, tin, whatever you can find cheap if you are on a tight budget. You don't have to spend much. I have three shops, two were fixed up with new materials and yes it was very expensive going with new stuff but they are TIGHT and don't take much to heat on the coldest day. The third shop, my woodworking shop is a leaky old wood framed hog house that I lined with used roofing tin on the outside to cover the old rickety wooden drop siding. Underneath the steel siding is 1" yellow insulation board. The inside has a vapor barrier on the walls and ceiling of old grain pile tarp that I got for free, and covered with old 1X6 and 1X8 lumber that used to line the overhead bins in a corn crib. 4" of fiberglass insulation in the walls, I wish there was more, and 12" of blown in the ceiling. The walls and ceiling are all used 1x boards, not tounge and groove, just plain old boards. The heavy grain tarp vapor barrier seals up the leaks between the boards. Super easy to heat but by no means gleaming white. The three shops have hanging propane heaters and run off of one tank. The thermostats are kept at 50 most of the time. Our old farm house has propane heat and runs off a separate tank so I can easily keep track of usage. The house is kept warmer, of course, but the house uses sometimes as much propane per month as the three shops. Most times the three shops together use maybe $100 per month more fuel if my son and I are active out there.

What does this have to do with the cheapest type of heat? Nothing! LOL If you take some time to scrounge around you won't have a lot of money invested and you can have a shop that doesn't require much of whatever you do use to heat it. Now you can shove me off my soapbox. LOL

May Renzor blower fan just went out after 5 years... One year after the warrenty. Cost me $ 180.00 to replace. The reason I got a Reznor because they were the (best) ....when I looked it over the unit I have is made in Mexico. Mine is rated at 83% efficiency. I like the heater, I hangs for the ceiling, saving floor space which has value, it warms things up quick and runs on a thermostat. But they do brake down😓. So I think the real question is,, does your heating choice fit your needs.

4500 watts is not going to heat much, you will probably want about 50000 BTU, which I think is about 15KW.

Insulate the crap out of it and put in a VENTED propane or NG furnace. I do not like unvented because moisture is a by product.

Tim, I have floor heat in my shop, 30X40 I have electric boiler, keep it 60 degrees all the time. I would advise any one building a shop or pouring a floor in one to spend the money and at least get it plumbed up for floor heat. I insulated it very well and I love it...

Used motor oil is dirt cheap right now. I hear that they are having to pay people to haul it off. How about a used oil heater?

Have had a Reznor used oil furnace for 20 years in a 3000 sq ft shop and burn on average 1200 gal a year, 1400 gal last year. Gas backup furnace is a must and be ready to spend $5000. for the oil furnace.

Awww, thanks I guess, for the comments. I wasn't looking for advise--only passing on info on how to determine which sources of heat costs more.

I use figures from sites like this to find the cheapest way to generate heat for me. Today I was re-verifying at what point electric is cheaper than kero. I now have price per gallon of kero below which I will use it. Above that I'll use kero and electric to warm up the shop then turn the kero off and use electric to maintain the temp. It still would take too long to save the money I'd spend in buying any new heater.

I don't see how you can get any cheaper than wood off the farm.

There's always solar! And then you can plant profitable crops on that wooded area.

(quoted from post at 20:44:03 01/31/15) Tim, I have floor heat in my shop, 30X40 I have electric boiler, keep it 60 degrees all the time. I would advise any one building a shop or pouring a floor in one to spend the money and at least get it plumbed up for floor heat. I insulated it very well and I love it...

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Nothing warms like radiant floor heat. Any other heat just heats the air.
The cement floor and your feet are always cold.
You open a door etc and the heat is lost. With the floor heat, when
you close the door the room is warm again almost instantly.
Best investment I ever made in my shop.
Only problem is when you roll under something on the creeper
and that nice warm concrete puts you to sleep!