Comments on: Hot or Not? Halogen Shop Heaters

By: cliff

cliff — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 05:23:05 +0000

@ Coligny.. having lived in europe and japan, and now living in the U.S.A, I have to let you know that the US has more power available in each house than 4 or five houses in either germany or japan, @ my house i have a 200 amp service with 100 going to the garage.

By: Mel E.

Mel E. — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:34:37 +0000

Hot, works great in my garage in central ohio. I have two that I run along with a ceiling fan that keeps the air moving. I think the ceiling fan being on all the time circulating air helps the most.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:10:21 +0000

“How much power is available on your shops ?”

I have a sub panel in my garage that I ran off my main house panel. So I have 40 AMPS to work with.

As far as heating that garage, its not insulated at the moment and it gets a little cold (-12C today). I wear gloves when I can and I have an electric heater when I can’t. I don’t like to run it due to cost of electricity though.

By: Coligny

Coligny — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:13:48 +0000

How much power is available on your shops ? I’m in japan… and an electric heater max out an electric plug. Since usually there is just 1 power feed per room maxing out 1 plug is maxing out the whole room… So it’s heat or tools…

By: jim

jim — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:53:08 +0000

Used for spot applications they’re great. I got a tabletop model (looks like a tabletop oscillating fan) with a parabolic reflector for around $10 on clearance. I set it up on one end of the workbench pointing down the length of the bench. I used heavy clothes to keep my body warm, but my hands were always bare - the heater kept them nice and toasty no matter what I was doing at the bench.

By: ChrisW

ChrisW — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:48:18 +0000

The heater isn’t halogen. Only the 50 watt light is. I would rather have 1400 watts of halogen lights because they put out more light- unless I was trying to sleep under them.

By: rob

rob — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:26:25 +0000

works on the cta but you still frost the important bits. I like the propane reflector style heaters. My garage is heated and thank god I haven’t had to use a portable in some time. kerosene is horrible with all the venting. I’m on natty gas (heated garage built) and can get her up to 80 when swearing at the ghia.

By: kdp

kdp — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:41:41 +0000

I don’t know how well they heat, but you can made a pretty good IR paint stripper out of them.

See my post here:

http://toolmonger.com/2007/06/08/a-power-tool-for-removing-house-paint/

or the guy whose plans I used as a guide:

http://www.oceanmanorhouse.com/?page=paintremoverv1

By: DCook

DCook — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:48:33 +0000

I had one like pictured, and in my two car garage in south texas, it was not worth the trouble. I purchased a 55,000 propane forced air heater and while it is loud, I routinely work in the garage in a t shirt and jeans during our coldest spells. Ditto for combustibles as above.

By: Kurt Schwind

Kurt Schwind — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:12:23 +0000

I’m using a oil filled electric radiator style. No open flame. The major drawback is that I have to turn it on a good 30mins before actually working in the space. It’s slow to get going, but it’s very efficient and it’s definitely safe.

By: Gordon

Gordon — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:10:42 +0000

In my 2.5 car garage with 12 foot ceilings in Northern Massachusetts, eletric heaters seem to be fine if you are sitting in one spot. Instead i have a 80000 BTU propane burner that works great got it on clearance for $30 from amazon… Only problem is when i start working on any combustible, i heat the garage then turn the burner off, do my work and hope the heat doesn’t all leak out…

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:38:59 +0000

In my old two car garage in Dayton OH, it didn’t work out great. Definitely end up hot or not depending on line of sight or proximity. Worked okay if you were doing something relatively stationary and you could do the work in the comfort zone.