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RE: Shop Heating, my saga

To: <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Subject: RE: Shop Heating, my saga
From: "Gene Merritt" <gmerritt@netins.net>
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 21:39:06 -0600
Here's how I added heat to my shop:

My brother works for a local heating contractor, so he found a used
80,000BTU home furnace for his own garage, so he gave me the 100,000BTU unit
he had been saving for that purpose.  (I think both units were purchased for
close to nothing.)

I ran my own black pipe, but I had to retighten everything twice to stop the
leaks.  The inspector required me to prove there were no leaks, so I
attached a gauge to the end of the line and pressurized the system with my
air compressor and demonstrated that it would hold 20lbs for 24 hours (or
something like that).

Since we had access to a heating contractor shop, I was able to purchase
full sheets of galvanized steel at cost, plus we spent an afternoon using
all the tools of the shop to make all the cuts, bends, creases, lock joints,
etc. needed for a compound curved plenum (the furnace doesn't sit directly
under the trunk, so the plenum had to make up the difference), and a trunk
that runs the length of the garage.  From that I ran three 6" diameter lines
to the other side of the garage and then added a total of seven 4x10" vents
(plus three 4x10" vents in the upstairs, attached by flexible vent hose.)

Does this sound like an awfully large furnace for a 24x30x10 garage with a
12x30x8 attic?  :-)  Heat sure is nice!

It wouldn't be wrong to say this was overkill, but my dad's garage only had
a potbellied stove and a box fan to move the air, so it was too hot next to
the stove and too cold across the room.  I guess I overcompensated, but as
my best friend says, "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing."  My wife
uses the "doghouse" comment on me as well....


[This message delayed, as it needed manual intervention by the list
administrator.  Yet another person who has their mailer set to just
automatically include everything in the reply.  Sigh.  mjb.]

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