Barn Ideas

My friend's system heats his residental hot water which is also used in his heat. I don't see why the same system couldn't be used in a nearby shop.

One thing to remember though is that water is heavy. My friend is having to get his panels relocated to the ground because his roof isn't strong enough to take the load. I blame alot of this on the scuzball contractor that installed the system and didn't reinforce the roof or mount on the ground in the first place.

My shop system runs off nat. gas. Although we live in the country we got lucky enough to have a nat. gas pipeline running across the front of the property which feeds the nearby town. When they installed it they also laid in a low pressure line we could tap into.

I have a semi-finished basement which is a walk-out with lots of glass and faces north. It was always chilly down there. As much as I like the radiant heat, the basement floor was poured and the family room carpeted. To solve the problem using my new favorite heat source, I installed a second water heater in the basement and installed two Twin-Flo heater units (see link)in the wall of the family room ( the back side of this wall was unfinished space)and one in the spare bedroom. I used the recessed verticle installion panel shown under installation kits on the web site. Put in two pumps and two T-stats (one in family room, one in spare bed room). When the T-Stat calls for heat it turns on the appropriate pump. When the heater unit senses 120 degree water in the coil it turns on the fan. Cool air is pulled off the floor and warm air is vented up. A very nice retrofit!

A friend has a beautiful BIG newer home. He said the master bedroom and master bath were always cold (like max 60 degrees in winter). Luckily the basement was unfinished. I worked with him to run PEX radiant tubing between the joists under these areas (about 900 sqft), then we added another 40 gal water heater (propane), a pump, a T-Stat and control and then insulated the joists areas (important). His system works GREAT! He likes it so well (says he loves stepping into the walk-in shower now that the floor is warm), that he is considering piping under the whole first level of his house. We'd have to change the water heater to a boiler to cover that much area, but he loves the heat.

Let me know what you are looking to do and I might be able to help a bit. I get my tech info from the local plumbing wholesaler. But if you have a fax I could fax you a basic plubing and wiring diagram (hand drawn)sometime next week.

• Twin-Flo III Heaters

Thanks
Ben

I started building one as soon as the ground thawed in 2001, it is 24 by 24 in my back yard on a small city lot, it will be taking me several years, too, because I'm disabled. This year I got the trusses built in place, and the front and back drive through doors built in place, and got the fiberglass around the top. In 2003 I'll get the steel on the roof. I have room behind it to park, too.

If you build a large building, you can partition off part as a heated shop, then you won't have to heat as much. If this is a shed building, long and narrow, you can build an extra wall and have one or two stalls heated. If it's a rectangular building you can partition off a corner, and have several entrances from the outside, and even have a second drive through door to drive from the storage to the shop. A door that works good inside to drive from heated area to unheated area are overlapping strips of conveyor belting. I saw this in a meat packing plant between the freezer at 40 below zero and the meat cutting area at about 40 above zero. I also saw it in a small engine repair shop I worked for between the shop which was around 65 to 70 and the storage that was outside temperature, down to zero. They also use this in grocery stores, but they don't use the cheaper conveyor belting, they use expensive vinyl.