Looking to warm up the shop to be able to do some work in it. 3/4 of the walls are insulated but nothing on the ceiling so I know I will loose some heat. Shop is 30x40 with 10’ walls. I bought a Dyna Glo Deluxe 70,000 btu heater today but it won’t start. It is kerosene and my first time messing with one. I am taking it back tomorrow should I get a kerosene torpedo heater? Or go with a propane? I liked the idea of the kerosene because I could also run diesel in a pinch and also not have to drag a bottle around with it. Some heat sure would make skinning and working on my sons tractor much more enjoyable

I have a 30x40 garage. Pole constructed, insulated walls and ceiling. I have two 220 volt heaters with blowers mounted on the trusses. Can run none, one or both. On a 20 degree day, I can fire up the heaters and it’s 60 degrees in a half an hour. I typically don’t leave the heaters on unless I’m working in there.

Over head radiant gas heater on demand would be the way I would go instant heat and can be run on propane or Natural gas. Why not insulate the ceiling that is where more heat is lost than the walls as hot air rises. You can even get them as smaller space heaters or hang larger ones on the rafters.

I haven’t had the time to get to insulating the ceiling my goal is to get all that done the summer and install a mini split so looking for a stop gap measure for this winter and also a back up for later on

At the very least, add an osb/plywood ceiling in the corner or half you want to work to keep the warm air down where you need it. Without it you’ll just heat the roof. Even without insulation, just that barrier will help a ton. Might just be me, but I don’t care for the smell of kerosene heaters.

I'm with you, I would rather deal with the cold than smell a kerosene heater.

heating without a ceiling is going to be frustrating, it'll work but youll use a ton of fuel. Used tin can be found pretty cheap and installed fairly quickly. Personally if I had electricity I would do an electric heater after I put some tin on the ceiling.

If you wanted something really quick and easy on the ceiling you could buy about $500 worth of 4x8 foam sheets and screw them up there and it would dramatically cut down on fuel use, may be a firehazard though.

Thinking about it further, you could actually get a $127 roll of vapor barrier plastic, staple that up and you'll pay for it in heat use. MN and Missouri are typically far different temps so maybe it wont matter as much.

Run a propane bullet heater not diesel the fumes will run you out, then up grade this summer.

The ceiling is far more important than the ceiling I've found.

I had a big woodstove in a non insulated pole barn while trapping in Missouri awhile back. No matter how much wood I put in that woostove, unless you were within a few feet of the stove it was colder inside the barn than outside. It was the weirdest thing. I learned that pole barns are built to be coolers or freezers. Wood holds heat...Steel does not.

Good luck!

We had a 28’x30’ shop that has in floor heat. But before we got the boiler hooked up, we used a 175,000 BTU space heater. It kept the shop nice and toasty!

I heat my buildings using a 200,000 btu Redi Heater. It runs on kerosene. If you are getting too much smell, it may need a tuneup. I only run it when working in there and take breaks to go out for fresh air.

I use a 180,000 BTU in the barn. No insulation and snow blows through a few hole. I burn diesel. Makes the barn about 32° - 38°F. Depending on what the temp is outside. Cheap to run and keeps it comfortable for me. I can't stand it too warm.

Diesel burners stink. I got a 20x30 shop, no insulation, have a small propane torpedo deal. It will get it toasty in there in 30 minutes.

I have a 30x50 fully insulated garage, including insulated doors. It is metal inside and out but insulated. I use a kerosene heater and a Mr Heater tank mounted single burner propane. The kerosene heat goes straight up, no radiant. The propane lets me direct some radiant heat on me where I am working and that helps lots. It is less than ideal but works. As a stopgap I would definitely recommend the propane over the kerosene. In your case, maybe two propane heaters to have radiant warmth over a greater area. In the long term, kerosene is about 20% less expensive for the same BTUs.

I would box off a small corner put a top on it with height no higher then 7 or 8 feet. I then would use a small wood stove or make one. If you want the whole shop heated, I still will go with wood, but I would need the celling lowered to be the most efficient.

I did metal work for years in the corner of a big machine shed by hanging tarps all the way to the ceiling. Used a 300 gal tank for a wood stove and when really cold would drip used oil in it. If your roof has nothing but metal, if you really get it warm in there and there is moisture you will get rain from the condensation off the roof. That was a no no working with metal, it would rust right before my eyes.

Electric overhead heater would double our Electric bill from 200 to$400. a month

and that was in a walled ceilinged insulated Stall.

LB White propane heaters are pretty good but last I knew were non vented, a lot of times you can find them used in an old hog house and they usually still work, they’re a tough heater.

70,000 btu ought to be plenty. may take a couple hours to warm up good. you probably are not doing some simple thing with the one you bought. if it really is defective just exchange it

Thinking I’m going to switch to a propane one. Trying to decide between a torpedo one or the convection one. The convection one doesn’t use electricity so it could be moved around anywhere we wanted it. And ya I’m trying to get us by this year

I’m either spray foaming the roof this summer or putting a ceiling in. Can’t decide which way I want to go yet

We were at a crowded restaurant the other night and got stuck in an outdoor overflow area. It was enclosed but barely. They had 3 of those big mushroom radiant space heaters going. It was cold enough you could see your breath, yet was able to sit around in shirtsleeves if you were close enough to the heaters. Radiant heat would be the way to go.

Dad's wood shop is about 26 x 40 and he heated it with a wood burning furnace. It had a blower, but no duct work. Just forced hot air into the shed. Worked, kinda sorta, but burned a lot of wood for the amount of heat it produced. If I was to replace that, it would be with some form of rocket mass heater......stacked fire brick combustion chamber, then run thru the 55 gallon steel drum, then thru a thermal mass like a brick bell. Or a commercial built unit like the Liberator Rocket stove, with exhaust run thru the thermal mass. Both of those are going to radiate heat for hours, and if it cools down, fire it again.

This isn't what I'd build, but gives you the idea of what is going on. Close to 99% combustion of all smoke and gases.......fire gets to 1,500*F plus, but by the time it gets to chimney, is down to 150*F to 200*F. The heat is stored in thermal mass to radiate out over time.

We use a 250,000 BTU Kerosene heater torpedo style for our 30 x 60 Metal facility. Works great to heat it up pretty fast. Then I switch to a 55,000 with less noise after we are heated up nicely. We also have a wall heater propane type 30,000 BTU for help as needed to maintain the temperature after the torpedos are shut down.

You will most likely have a major condensation problem if you let the heat hit the inside of an un insulated metal roof. The building we have on the go in Canada is 22x64 in the living space. Looked into spray and blow in insulation. Couple builders recommended 1” ridged foam on bottom of trusses for ceiling and as many inches of blow in insulation as you can afford blown on top of foam panels. Ridged foam acts as vapor barrier and isnt much more $ than wood. Blow in is less than 1/2 the cost of spray foam. Be sure to use chutes to avoid plugging soffit vents with blow in.

We plan on heating main area with wood stove and comfort cove wall mount radiant heaters in bed rooms and bathrooms.

put in a wood burning stove,

One thing about spray on foam is when the steel rust from the inside you have to replace it and the insulation, I know the shop is a mess because of this.