Dan:
ANY unvented heater will put moisture into the air and it will
condense on cold objects and cause rust. You have to use a
vented heater when you have this intermittent use type of
situation.
If you are only going to heat it intermittently, you need
something with a fairly large BTU output especially if the
ceiling is unheated. Home furnaces are sized for maintenance of
a temperature. If you've every had a power loss in the winter,
you know that a furnace may run for several hours before the temp
gets up.
Consider putting in ceiling fans to help keep the heat from all
rising to the top. Or create an artificial ceiling by stapling
plastic to all of the roof cross ties of the trusses.
Anything taking up little space will be expensive as you most
likely won't find something used.
I heat my workshop/single car garage all winter. I had a used
oil space heater with a thermostat originally in the partially
insulated 16 by 18 building. It actually had too big a BTU
output (55,000) so it spent too much time on pilot (It had a
thermostat) and would soot up. We bought it for $50 along with a
250 gallon tank when people were upgrading to LPG or natural
gas. Something on this line would probably be the cheapest and
easiest to install. You can run the chimney through a window.
Prior to using this oil burner we had borrowed another without a
thermostatic pilot. This was harder to set as you needed to
change the settings depending on the outside temperature. It did
have the advantage that it had a 5 gallon tank on the back. This
also allowed us to use the cheaper #2 fuel oil.
I am currently using a 45,000 BTU LPG space heater in the now 16
by 32 well insulated building. The problem with LPG is you need
a bulk tank. I was able to borrow a 100 gallon tank. 100 lb.
cylinders are too expensive to operate from continuosly and there
are also rental charges. Unless you can buy/borrow/or get given
one.
So the cheapest route is to find an upright oil space heater with
at least 45,000 BTU with a built in tank on the back. Some do
come with small blowers as did our thermostatic controlled one.
Then vent it through a window. We did it originally by removing
a pane and replacing it with a piece of tin with a hole the size
of the chimney pipe. The chimney (actually just the metal pipe)
went outside and up on a gable end as that had the least
overhang. It was held away from the building with sheet metal
brackets we fabricated. It went about two feet above the roof,
and was about as high as the peak. We made a cap by bending a
sheet tin roof over the end, and it was braced with some wire to
the roof.
Since then I've insulated the building and put in a properly
insulated chimney. The furnace is on the north side and the
chimney is in the center. That was done so that the vent pipe
would help heat the room. I have a small box fan blowing on the
pipe which is interconnected with the automatic blower on the
space heater. The pipe inside is warm, but not so hot that you
can't leave a hand on it. But it's not so cold that the moisture
condenses out and to run down inside the chimney.
Using an existing natural gas line may or may not work. It
depends on how far the heater is from the pressure regulator
outside the house, and then in some localities you may have to
have it professionally installed. All expensive.
Blake
///
/// mgs@autox.team.net mailing list
/// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
///
|