Posted the other day about my Mr Buddy heater for my shop. Today
was the first I'd even used it for several days, and the longest I've
used it so far.

Unfortunately I forgot to check the exact tem pin the shop when I
got out there. It was well below 40 F, that's all I can say. Cranked
the heater up, and the temp had gone up several degrees within the first
5 minutes. Those plastic strips I have hanging from the doorway really
help. I was only out there long enough to do a bit of measuring, and
drilling 4 pilot holes. Then I discovered that I apparently did not
have the drill size I neeed for the final hole sizes. Didn't take note
of how long I was in the shop either, I haven't worn a wris****ch in
probably 12 years minmum, and the battery in the shop clock died years
ago. It wasn't an extended time out there tho, and when I left the temp
reading was right at 50 F. This was also the first trail run after I
lowered the heater. Now it's a bit below head level when standing, and
just a bit above head level when I'm sitting. That positioning helped
comfort level a lot.

The only down side was my smoke alarm went off a few minutes after
lighting the heater, and I had to unplug the battery. I think the smoke
alarm is screwed up anyway, because some time back it took to beeping
every little bit, and it beeps loud. I can hear the damn thing with the
shop locked, and me out in the yard not even real close to it.

The Mr Buddy heater fits my needs a lot better than anything I've
tried so far, but on the other hand, my shop is only 3X12'. Plus, I
usually do my gluiups in the house anyway, so I think it'll work out
well for me.



JOAT
You can't always judge by appearances, the early bird may have been up
all night.

On Fri, 4 Jan 2008 19:06:12 -0500, (J T)
wrote:


Unfortunately I forgot to check the exact tem pin the shop when I
got out there. It was well below 40 F, that's all I can say.

Homer Simpson drooling voice 40! ahhhhh... / Homer Simpson
drooling voice

It was 4F when I went to work yesterday.

"J T" wrote in message
...
The only down side was my smoke alarm went off a few minutes after
lighting the heater, and I had to unplug the battery. I think the smoke
alarm is screwed up anyway, because some time back it took to beeping
every little bit, and it beeps loud.

That usually indicates that the battery is low and needs to be changed.

I use the big buddy heater for an upstairs room (17x12) in my shop, if the
temp is 40 it takes about a half hour to heat to 50. When I use the room fan
I can get it to about 60 in about an hour and a half. IN the downstairs
(garage/shop) I use a propane fired torpedo heater and that doesn't take but
a half hour to raise the temp to a comfortable working temp. The garage is
35 X 35, once I get the downstairs heated the upstairs stays relativly warm
just about all day. I should really insulate the garage but that takes more
money than I can afford yet.I would have to put up studs to the block then
insulate it. I figure when I get the new doors it should be a little warmer
since the old wooden doors are more like screens!

The garage is heated by radiators fueled by an oil furnace, but with the
price of oil these days its cheaper for me to use propane, for 150.00 in
propane I can heat the whole building as needed all season long! I do have
to crank up the furnace on nights I'm afraid of a deep freeze though.


SD

"Bonehenge (B A R R Y)" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 4 Jan 2008 19:06:12 -0500, (J T)
wrote:


Unfortunately I forgot to check the exact tem pin the shop when I
got out there. It was well below 40 F, that's all I can say.

Homer Simpson drooling voice 40! ahhhhh... / Homer Simpson
drooling voice

It was 4F when I went to work yesterday.

It was -7F when I went to work this morning.

Sat, Jan 5, 2008, 12:54am (EST+5) (efgh) doth sayeth:
That usually indicates that the battery is low and needs to be changed.

You sure? It's only been out there 3-4 years.



JOAT
You can't always judge by appearances, the early bird may have been up
all night.

Bonehenge (B A R R Y) wrote:

On Fri, 4 Jan 2008 19:06:12 -0500, (J T)
wrote:


Unfortunately I forgot to check the exact tem pin the shop when I
got out there. It was well below 40 F, that's all I can say.

Homer Simpson drooling voice 40! ahhhhh... / Homer Simpson
drooling voice

It was 4F when I went to work yesterday.

It was about 40 when I left for work this morning. I opened the office
window when I got home, but had to close it when the sun went down.

Oh, got to pick a bowl full of oranges today also.


--
If you're going to be dumb, you better be tough

On Jan 4, 7:06 pm, (J T) wrote:

Unfortunately I forgot to check the exact tem pin the shop when I
got out there. It was well below 40 F, that's all I can say.

So why did you need a heater? That's tennis in shorts weather....

(J T) wrote in news:1040-477EEA0A-2868
@storefull-3333.bay.webtv.net:

Sat, Jan 5, 2008, 12:54am (EST+5) (efgh) doth sayeth:
That usually indicates that the battery is low and needs to be changed.

You sure? It's only been out there 3-4 years.


JOAT
You can't always judge by appearances, the early bird may have been up
all night.

4 years is the max I'd ever want to see an alkaline battery (or any other
standard battery) left in something. They *do* leak and they *do*
corrode. Eventually, you'll want to use the thing again and have to
clean off the corrosion. (For parts, if nothing else.)

YMMV, of course.

Puckdropper
--
Marching to the beat of a different drum is great... unless you're in
marching band.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm

"SHOPDOG" wrote in
news:BEAfj.22$LL6.4@trndny06:

I use the big buddy heater for an upstairs room (17x12) in my shop, if
the temp is 40 it takes about a half hour to heat to 50. When I use
the room fan I can get it to about 60 in about an hour and a half. IN
the downstairs (garage/shop) I use a propane fired torpedo heater and
that doesn't take but a half hour to raise the temp to a comfortable
working temp. The garage is 35 X 35, once I get the downstairs heated
the upstairs stays relativly warm just about all day. I should really
insulate the garage but that takes more money than I can afford yet.I
would have to put up studs to the block then insulate it. I figure
when I get the new doors it should be a little warmer since the old
wooden doors are more like screens!

The garage is heated by radiators fueled by an oil furnace, but with
the price of oil these days its cheaper for me to use propane, for
150.00 in propane I can heat the whole building as needed all season
long! I do have to crank up the furnace on nights I'm afraid of a deep
freeze though.


SD


I don't have any real numbers, but insulation makes a HUGE difference.
Your heating costs will drop with insulated buildings, and you'll not
have to worry as much about a deep freeze. That being said, our
uninsulated and unheated pole barn was only about 25 degrees F when
outside it was 0 F. (I didn't take measurements, just went by feel.)

There's very few things you "can't afford not to miss" (as the TV
commercials put it.) Insulating is one of them, however. I enjoy my
insulated and warm buildings. :-)

Puckdropper
--
Marching to the beat of a different drum is great... unless you're in
marching band.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm

"J T" wrote in message
...
Sat, Jan 5, 2008, 12:54am (EST+5) (efgh) doth sayeth:
That usually indicates that the battery is low and needs to be changed.

You sure? It's only been out there 3-4 years.


Whenever my smoke detectors start to beep, replacing the battery always
makes it stop.

Mark & Juanita wrote:
Bonehenge (B A R R Y) wrote:

On Fri, 4 Jan 2008 19:06:12 -0500, (J T)
wrote:


Unfortunately I forgot to check the exact tem pin the shop when I
got out there. It was well below 40 F, that's all I can say.
Homer Simpson drooling voice 40! ahhhhh... / Homer Simpson
drooling voice

It was 4F when I went to work yesterday.

It was about 40 when I left for work this morning. I opened the office
window when I got home, but had to close it when the sun went down.

Oh, got to pick a bowl full of oranges today also.


This morning when I went to pick up the newspaper, I noticed that it was
raining cats and dogs. I know that because I stepped into a poodle.
Har, har, har, har, pant, phew, that was a ribald corker.
throb,
jo4hn

[old joke alert]

In article pRLfj.46891$UZ4.31481@edtnps89,
"efgh" writes:

"J T" wrote in message
...
Sat, Jan 5, 2008, 12:54am (EST+5) (efgh) doth sayeth:
That usually indicates that the battery is low and needs to be changed.

You sure? It's only been out there 3-4 years.


Whenever my smoke detectors start to beep, replacing the battery always
makes it stop.

Smoke detectors also go bad after 10 years or so. One failure mode is not
detecting smoke. Another is going off at random times between 3 and 3:30am,
never during the day! Both are equally bad!

I just replaced all 11 of the suckers in my house.

--

Mike McDonald

In article ,
Jeff writes:
On Jan 4, 7:06 pm, (J T) wrote:

Unfortunately I forgot to check the exact tem pin the shop when I
got out there. It was well below 40 F, that's all I can say.

So why did you need a heater? That's tennis in shorts weather....

Nope, that's Nanuk of the North weather. Time to break out the fur parkas!

Soon it'll be time to worry about cooling the shop. (Why is it that all the
books are on how to heat your shop and none on how to cool it?) Before long,
it'll be 95 in the shop at 10:30 in the morning!

--

Mike McDonald

On Fri, 4 Jan 2008 21:23:06 -0500, (J T)
wrote:

You sure? It's only been out there 3-4 years.

Considering they recommend changing the batteries in smoke detectors
in your home twice a year... yes.

On 05 Jan 2008 09:31:39 GMT, Puckdropper
wrote:

"SHOPDOG" wrote in
news:BEAfj.22$LL6.4@trndny06:

I use the big buddy heater for an upstairs room (17x12) in my shop, if
the temp is 40 it takes about a half hour to heat to 50. When I use
the room fan I can get it to about 60 in about an hour and a half. IN
the downstairs (garage/shop) I use a propane fired torpedo heater and
that doesn't take but a half hour to raise the temp to a comfortable
working temp. The garage is 35 X 35, once I get the downstairs heated
the upstairs stays relativly warm just about all day. I should really
insulate the garage but that takes more money than I can afford yet.I
would have to put up studs to the block then insulate it. I figure
when I get the new doors it should be a little warmer since the old
wooden doors are more like screens!

The garage is heated by radiators fueled by an oil furnace, but with
the price of oil these days its cheaper for me to use propane, for
150.00 in propane I can heat the whole building as needed all season
long! I do have to crank up the furnace on nights I'm afraid of a deep
freeze though.


SD


I don't have any real numbers, but insulation makes a HUGE difference.
Your heating costs will drop with insulated buildings, and you'll not
have to worry as much about a deep freeze. That being said, our
uninsulated and unheated pole barn was only about 25 degrees F when
outside it was 0 F. (I didn't take measurements, just went by feel.)

There's very few things you "can't afford not to miss" (as the TV
commercials put it.) Insulating is one of them, however. I enjoy my
insulated and warm buildings. :-)

Puckdropper

Insulation works ;-)

I heated an 8x10 aluminum siding over wood frame building with a 1250
watt electric heater (fan + radiant) for years. The walls had 3.5" of
insulation; the ceiling had 6" or 8". The gaps between the sections
were caulked as were the door and window frames. This was in Atlanta,
and used mostly in the evening with typical winter lows in the range
of 25-35F. I would go out and push the wall thermostat up, go back in
the house to eat supper, then go out to a reasonably warm (55-60+)
workshop. The thermostat had an "almost off" position that was around
35F - just warm enough to keep things from freezing.

In the summer, I cooled it with a 5000 btu window air conditioner -
the ancient (30+ years) Sears A/C was still working when I sold the
property several years ago.

Even old garage doors do better with weatherstrip around the sides and
top. I added that to the "boat door" in the basement and raised the
temperature in that area by 10F or more. The house is 30+ years old
and the previous owners did nothing to seal the gaps. I've gone
through a lot of caulk, weatherstrip, insulation, etc. - but have
utility bills that show the improvements: $20 of caulk and
weatherstrip made $20 difference in gas for heating from one month to
the next. That's instant payback ;-)

John

John wrote in news:kk00o3tepad62a5o9oflre7pttt7tc668s@
4ax.com:


Insulation works ;-)

I heated an 8x10 aluminum siding over wood frame building with a 1250
watt electric heater (fan + radiant) for years. The walls had 3.5" of
insulation; the ceiling had 6" or 8". The gaps between the sections
were caulked as were the door and window frames. This was in Atlanta,
and used mostly in the evening with typical winter lows in the range
of 25-35F. I would go out and push the wall thermostat up, go back in
the house to eat supper, then go out to a reasonably warm (55-60+)
workshop. The thermostat had an "almost off" position that was around
35F - just warm enough to keep things from freezing.

In the summer, I cooled it with a 5000 btu window air conditioner -
the ancient (30+ years) Sears A/C was still working when I sold the
property several years ago.

Even old garage doors do better with weatherstrip around the sides and
top. I added that to the "boat door" in the basement and raised the
temperature in that area by 10F or more. The house is 30+ years old
and the previous owners did nothing to seal the gaps. I've gone
through a lot of caulk, weatherstrip, insulation, etc. - but have
utility bills that show the improvements: $20 of caulk and
weatherstrip made $20 difference in gas for heating from one month to
the next. That's instant payback ;-)

John


When you get most the big drafts found, get an infrared thermometer and
start measuring temperatures around things. It'll show you the cold
spots. I found some spots around the AC unit where the temperature was
reading almost freezing in the shop building... It warmed up about 5
degrees in there when I took the AC unit out of the window and closed it.

Puckdropper
--
Marching to the beat of a different drum is great... unless you're in
marching band.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm

John wrote:
On 05 Jan 2008 09:31:39 GMT, Puckdropper
wrote:

"SHOPDOG" wrote in
news:BEAfj.22$LL6.4@trndny06:

I use the big buddy heater for an upstairs room (17x12) in my
shop,
if the temp is 40 it takes about a half hour to heat to 50. When I
use the room fan I can get it to about 60 in about an hour and a
half. IN the downstairs (garage/shop) I use a propane fired
torpedo
heater and that doesn't take but a half hour to raise the temp to
a
comfortable working temp. The garage is 35 X 35, once I get the
downstairs heated the upstairs stays relativly warm just about all
day. I should really insulate the garage but that takes more money
than I can afford yet.I would have to put up studs to the block
then insulate it. I figure when I get the new doors it should be a
little warmer since the old wooden doors are more like screens!

The garage is heated by radiators fueled by an oil furnace, but
with
the price of oil these days its cheaper for me to use propane, for
150.00 in propane I can heat the whole building as needed all
season
long! I do have to crank up the furnace on nights I'm afraid of a
deep freeze though.


SD


I don't have any real numbers, but insulation makes a HUGE
difference. Your heating costs will drop with insulated buildings,
and you'll not have to worry as much about a deep freeze. That
being said, our uninsulated and unheated pole barn was only about
25
degrees F when outside it was 0 F. (I didn't take measurements,
just went by feel.)

There's very few things you "can't afford not to miss" (as the TV
commercials put it.) Insulating is one of them, however. I enjoy
my
insulated and warm buildings. :-)

Puckdropper

Insulation works ;-)

I heated an 8x10 aluminum siding over wood frame building with a
1250
watt electric heater (fan + radiant) for years. The walls had 3.5"
of
insulation; the ceiling had 6" or 8". The gaps between the
sections
were caulked as were the door and window frames. This was in
Atlanta,
and used mostly in the evening with typical winter lows in the range
of 25-35F. I would go out and push the wall thermostat up, go back
in
the house to eat supper, then go out to a reasonably warm (55-60+)
workshop. The thermostat had an "almost off" position that was
around
35F - just warm enough to keep things from freezing.

In the summer, I cooled it with a 5000 btu window air conditioner -
the ancient (30+ years) Sears A/C was still working when I sold the
property several years ago.

Even old garage doors do better with weatherstrip around the sides
and
top. I added that to the "boat door" in the basement and raised the
temperature in that area by 10F or more. The house is 30+ years old
and the previous owners did nothing to seal the gaps. I've gone
through a lot of caulk, weatherstrip, insulation, etc. - but have
utility bills that show the improvements: $20 of caulk and
weatherstrip made $20 difference in gas for heating from one month
to
the next. That's instant payback ;-)

Just a comment but I've got a 25x25 garage, currently partially
insulated (yeah, I know, but right now I need to work in it and I need
to fix the roof before I do anything permanent inside that's likely to
get destroyed when the roof leaks all over it, which is what happened
to the rest of the insulation, and the ceiling). I've got three
heaters in it--one of those 1500 watt electric radiator-looking
thingies, an Aladdine kerosene heater, and a 30,000-80,000 BTU propane
heater from Home Despot. Going full blast the three together will
keep it above 70 with the temperature down to -1F outside. If I go
out into the garage and the temperature outside is 20, light the
propane heater and turn it up, then light the Aladdin, by the time the
Aladdin is lit the temperature in in the mid 60s and it will go to the
80s if I don't turn the propane down. Once the temperature's up I
turn the propane heater down and go with the electric and the Aladdin
(the propane heater will go through 30 bucks worth of propane in a day
if I let it) then the temperature will generally stay reasonable--I
leave the propane heater on pilot and if I get uncomfortable I'll turn
it up a bit. Downside is that while I can adjust it to a pretty low
flame, if it's turned down too far it smokes.

The propane heater will go through a couple of 20 pound tanks (it
needs two connected to maintain full power) in a couple of days, the
Aladdin uses a half a gallon or so of kerosene a day, the electric
just consumes its 1500 watts steadily.

I wouldn't have gotten the propane heater at all but I called all over
town and nobody seemed to have kerosene anymore except Home Despot for
7 bucks a gallon. Of course as soon as I got the propane heater
hooked up I filled up at a gas station that I don't usually frequent
and they had a kerosene pump (blasted Connecticut phone books--there's
a separate one for every middlesex, village and farm and apparently I
missed one)--in retrospect I'm glad to have it--it's _nice_ to be able
to work really warm if I want to.




John

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)