"Denver Woody" wrote in message
...
So after belly-aching about the different types of natural gas heating
options for my garage and getting several expensive bids from contractors,
I
was leaning towards installing a 45,000 Btu HotDawg heater myself. That
option was still going to cost around $750, as I would've had to pay some
friends to do the gas and electric (at fairly cheap labor rates). It was
recommended to me by a relative to consider just an electric unit, as the
natural gas prices here in Colorado are projected (by the gas company
itself) to increase about 75% this winter. Also, it was expected that the
electric unit heaters would be cheaper to purchase and install anyway. So
I
wound up ordering this unit...

http://www.marleymeh.com/Develop/pro...theat/QBRH.htm

at this site...

http://www.thermalinc.com/comfort/berko_brh.htm

I got the BRH-562 5600W/19000Btu unit that wound up costing $145
(including
shipping). My brother-in-law will install the 240V/30A line for only the
cost of parts (negligible). So I've saved a ton of money and will get a
220V outlet in my garage for the eventual tool that will need it, and I
expect it will be a long time before the difference in heating costs
between
electric and natural gas compensate for the purchase/installation savings.
Plus, it may just not be the case here in Colorado that natural gas is
cheaper to operate than electric...I don't know, I haven't done the math.

I do have one question (other than a request for a general analysis of
thoughts above), and that is what are the safety considerations of a
forced-air electric portable heater. The manual in the first link above
does mention about allowing it to operate in dusty environments, but I
have
no experience with this type of heater. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
DW

I guess I have a question and an observation. First, how did you go from a
45,000 BTU gas heater to a 19,000 BTU electric? Seems like a large
disparity. I would have guessed you needed the 45,000 BTU since a 30,000
BTU Hot Dawg is also available.
My comment (very open for discussion - I'm not an energy consultant) is
this. First, I'm only going by the energy costs here in Chicago. I have no
idea what prices are in CO. Electric rates here are roughly $0.07 /kWh and
gas (last winter) was roughly $0.13/therm (1 therm = 100,000 BTU). Your
electric heater is rated at 5600W, which would cost $0.40/hr to operate. In
contrast, 19,000 BTU would cost about $0.03/hr. You gotta run a fan either
way, so I'm not including that...probably negligible anyway. The 30,000 BTU
Hot Dawg is available for $420 + shipping (we'll call it $450). Let's say
there's a $300 difference between that and the electric unit. At the
difference in energy costs, it would take 800 hours to break even. It's not
a direct comparison because we're talking about 19k vs 30k bTU. I'm leaving
out the cost of running gas or electric because my guess is that those would
come close to evening out. For a gas unit, you'd obviously have to run a
gas line, but you wouldn't have to run a 30A circuit. A lot of us don't
have 25-30 amps to spare anyway, so electric wouldn't even be an option.

It all depends on how much you're in the shop and how you heat it as to
where the 800 hours falls. My guess is that for most of us, 800 hours of
use would take us out quite a few winters.

todd

todd.