I am looking to put in a low profile heater in my shop. 1700 sq ft.

THe shop wont be insulated. However there is 4 mil plastic on the ceiling and all the location where air can get in is sealed with the expanding foam.

My goal is to be able to heat the shop to around 50 degrees when its anything less than say..mid 30s and when I am going to be in the shop. I am usually out there 2-3 nights a week for a few hours at a time. This would be the only time I would run heat.

I am looking seriously at a 75k btu Mr Heater Big Maxx propane. NorthernTool has the best price for around $440.
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200316365_200316365


The other option is the Reznor brand, but this unit runs $600+.
http://www.djsonline.com/reznor_UDAP_Unit_Heaters.htm

I can get a modine unit, however most of them are 36-40" tall, which poses a problem for my 12' ceilings.

The other option I was looking at was the radiant heat tubes, similar to what most firestations and car washses use. It heats up objects which heat up the air. These are more expensive though...$800 ish.

SUggestions and opnions are accepted. I hope to make the decision within the next 2 days.

Oh, I want a vented system as the torpedo heater I have (new) tends to get fumey do to a lack of fresh air.

I was an insulation contractor for 20+ years. I would not try to heat an uninsulated building in Ohio. It's about like pi--ing up a rope. Wasn't quite so bad when propane was 50 cents a gallon. My advice would be wait until you can insulate. You could put the heater in, turn it on when you come in the building,stand in the fan draft, turn it off when leaving. It's better than freezing to death.:) :)

Someday I will insulate, but right now I cannot afford to insulate. I really try to keep myself out of debt and would rather pay a higher cost to heat the barn when I am in it and remain debt free, than to spend all the money on insulation right now and incur debt. I dont like to spend money I dont have and since I built the barn this summer, mostly from savings, my discretionary funds are pretty well depleted.

I figure it will cost me $2K-$3k to insulate the barn. For as little as I work out there it would take me many years to re-coup the cost...and since we are planning on moving in a few years..... I do have plastic on the ceiling to keep the heat from going out the ridge vent.

A 100k btu propane heater will cost about $1.80 an hour, assuming it has to run non stop for 3 hours, that is about $6/evening.

A 100k btu kerosene heater will cost about $2.25 an hour. (Kero is $2.79 out here, however kerosene has around 130k btu per gallon, propane only 100k.)

When I run a 70k and a 55k btu heater in the barn, they dont run all the time, even when its 20 out. So I am figuring about $4 per night I am out there and have heat on.

If I run heat 3 x a week for at $4 night, thats $50/month. Probably only heat Nov - Feb, 4 months...so $200 a heating season...would take me 10+ years to recoup the cost of insulation.

Now, if I worked out here all the time, it'd be a bigger reason to insulate. I mostly tinker on small projects in my barn...fix flat tires, work on the truck, tractors, etc.

Sorry for the long post...just thinking outloud as to how I came to my conclusion of being ok with not insulating right now.

If you havent seen the photos of my barn, they are here:
http://duramax.onlinedesk.net/photos/index.php?album=%2Fpole-barn%2F&image=IMG_4327.JPG

I just installed a 75K Reznor in my garage. It's very quiet while it is running. I have been told that some of the less expensive furnaces can be quite loud.

I can't really comment on the differences between the 2 brands. I spoke to a contractor and he told me Reznor was the best.

By the way, very nice shop you've got there.

I ended up buying a brand new 200k btu modine hanging furnace for the shop. The price was right ($400), so that is why I didnt get a Reznor.

The unit is currently setup for natural gas and I have to convert it to LP.

Does anyone know if when I go to get the orfices for LP if I can get smaller ones so that the heater becomes a "125k" btu heater?

I am afraid that if I leave it as a 200k btu heater, that it is too big and I'll have big fluctuations in temperature in the shop, so i think I just want to get smaller orfices to make it use less fuel.

At 200k btu, its listed as using 2.19 gallons of propane per hour. That'll cost me ~$4/hr to run assuming it runs non stop.

Any HVAC guys have some ideas or suggestions?

I assume its the orfice size that controls how much fuel is burned, not the pressure regulator.

It's a Modine PD 200 AA 01 11 200,000 btu heater.

http://www.amazon.com/PD200-0111-Nat-Gas-Heater/dp/B0002VPY1C

Depending on what kind of "work" you're doing in the barn, I'd just get a dual or triple tank-top Mr. Heater to heat your immediate work space.

For me I like to have the general area warm and since my work area covers at least 1/2 of the barn, I might as well heat it all...so my dmax is warm :)

As mentioned in earlier posts, this isnt a 24/7 shop to heat. Just a few hours here and there, and most saturday's.