Workshop Heating

[brownsnewport]

What sort of heating do people use in their workshops?
We've only just taken over this garage, although Paul has been working here for 24 years, and we had a visit from the insurance company who said we can no longer use the space heaters which have been in use for donkey's years. Initially they said we had to remove them by 8th January 2012 but they've granted us an extention til Feb now providing we erect guards round them a metre in all directions which is going to be a bit awkward!

We've been looking at alternative forms of heating - the insurance company seem to want us to use something fixed to the wall/ceiling and they've suggested quartz halogen. Any comments on that?
We're a pretty small garage - 2 mechanics + apprentice - and 2 ramps, doing servicing and repairs.

Can anyone say what works (or doesn't work, or is too expensive to run!) for them please. Time is ticking on and we're only in our fifth week of trading so need to watch the costs but equally can't afford not to have any heating or to risk having no fire insurance by continuing to use the existing blowers.

Any help or advice will be very gratefully received. Thanks.
Charmaine and Paul

[dunsdale]

i have just built a new bodyshop .

I was going to install ambirad radiant tube's but this was not ideal for our build, but this type of heating is good for mechanical worshops, as generally the garage doors are opening and closing all day long, losing heat

Ambirads give of radiant heat heating the objects and not the air, same sort of idea as the sun

If you have a gas on site these maybe your best bet there are often second-hand ones for sale on ebay. Most people wire the heaters up to the door, so when the garage doors are opened the heater cut's off.

This saves on gas if somebody forgets to close the doors

I did a fair bit of searching around i always do tight bugger lol

found these guys to be really reasonable, they sell ambirad radiant tube heaters, and warm air heaters ( thats what i went for)

http://www.wholesaleheaters.co.uk/


Quartz heaters would be dear to run i think

[Weetabix]

We've just replaced our 20yr old waste oil burner with a newer Thermobile version.

Minimal running costs - plenty of waste oil produced on site.
Only pay a small license fee to local council.

[brownsnewport]

Thanks for the help. Can I ask why radiant heaters weren't suited to your build? We've been told they would be great but have also been told that they won't work here because of the ceiling height with cars up on ramps.
wholesaleheaters were the people recommended to us by the local parts factor who used them. They've measured up but won't do a quote until we have got gas installed - the supply is dead at the moment because it hasn't been used for decades.
Thanks again.
Charmaine

[brownsnewport]

Thanks Weetabix. We'd originally thought about getting a waste oil burner as we produce plenty of waste oil too. But there was an article in Professional Motor Mechanic very recently saying there was currently a consultation going on over whether to ban them. Apparently they are already banned in Scotland. That rather put us off as it would be a big expense if it ended up only being usable for a year or two and then had to be replaced anyway and wouldn't be saleable if nobody was allowed to use them. Do you know much about the consultation? Did Thermobile have anything to say about it?
Minimal running costs sounds wonderful to me - we're still finding out extra costs we knew nothing about, despite Paul having worked here for so long before we took it over. He never had anything to do with the paperwork and new things just keep appearing.
Thanks again for your help.
Charmaine

[dunsdale]

Thanks for the help. Can I ask why radiant heaters weren't suited to your build?

As radiant heaters heat the objects rather than the air, if we are carrying out bodywork sometimes the panels i.e roof panel can become pretty hot, and if we are trying to apply filler etc it can dry before you get it on, plus if we also have vehicles up on lift it can present a problem on newly painted vehicles.

Apparently they are already banned in Scotland

I live in Scotland and was not aware of this, it may only be applicable to new buildings, as i dont think anyone could be expected to remove their waste oil heater, i bet there are a lot of them still in use.


edit
Just read the link below it appears waste oil may be banned in the future in england, appears to be banned in scotland already

The actual heaters will not be banned as they can burn other fuels such as heating oils



http://www.zmosystems.co.uk/index.ph...tegory&path=64


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