Stumped on Pole Building Heat....

propane is not much better than wood then.

 

i agree!
except its been raining/cloudy here since June...

 

Meh, those radiant tube things are mostly a non issue as far as I know. Thought about going that route, just trying to pinch pennies at the moment.

 

You missed the rest of the quote lol.

 

12,000 BTU Ductless Air Conditioner, Heat Pump Mini split 110V 1 Ton With/K | eBay

I have looked at these off and on before I went forced air in the house, but consider this an option for the building also. I cant edit the original post, but the building is 32x40 (not 32x30).

 

Your heat is 5.21 cents per KWH!!! Ours is closer to 13 to 14 a kwh!!

 

That's probably just the bare KWH rate...then you add the "transportation charges", fed tax, local tax, power cost adjustment factor, fuel surcharge, the boss wants a new truck charge, etc...then you get the real cost per KWH.
The way I calculate it is total bill $ ÷ KWH used. EX: $100 bill ÷ 937 KWH used = 0.1067¢/KWH real cost

 

That isnt peak, surcharges, or delivery charges. Ill grab a copy of my bill here in a few.

 

Here you go, this is how "cheap" it is. Btw, if I didn't solely heat with wood, this would be 700 bucks or so.

 

$221.47 ÷ 2404 KWH = 0.0921¢ per KWH...still a darn good rate!

 

I guess I only compare it to what it used to be. This is my only utility bill, couldnt get nat gas here if I wanted to... even though I'm 1/4 mile from the rover pipeline lol.

 

Yeah I have a 4" or 6" high pressure NG line right across the street from me, and can't tap into it...and the idiots still send me promotional stuff in the mail all the time...I should call them and tell 'em to sign me up!

 

We don't even see that price!! We just see that cost for the first 800 kwhr and the price for each kwhr after that. And then at the bottom they add on the town tax and the base rate.

Yea that's still good!! That's like 30 to 40% cheaper than our Co Op. And they just got a ruling that there rates were illegal since they been building and charging us for a new reactor that they just abandoned last year after spending billions on it! We got a 15% rate reduction since they didn't deliver. And to make up for faying for the dam thing for almost a decade at this point.

 

Keeps getting better and better!
Heat a 32x40 for less than $100 to comfortable working temps !!!!????
I don't know where your at (climate wise )but I gotta believe you'd only need that kinda demand 3 months out of the year and maybe $50/month another 3 at most. Electric is a no brainer in your app .

 

What I call comfortable working temps, and what most would call comfortable temps might be two different things lol. I just didnt want temperature swing. Its insulated really well, ceiling is blown in too. I have a milling machine, lathe, welders etc in there. Ill heat it nov-mar, and in the spring most likely keep a fan on to keep air circulating.

 

Going down the heat pump route you really want to look at the Heating Season Performance Factor (HSPF) because most of them are sold for people wanting to add AC in an area of their home vs. sole heat source.
It's essentially a measure of how well it converts watt-hrs to BTU's down to 20F.
Below 15F the refrigerant boils, but is unable to achieve the superheat required to actually efficiently transfer heat - you're better off running electric space heaters at this point.

Need to rerun the true cost of electric vs propane before comparing the two after seeing the bill - .0921/kwhr
A good quality heat pump can produce 8-9btu/watt so going on the lower end of expectations...

 

So rerunning the electric space heater cost @$0.0921/kW-hr
1.5X24X27DaysX.0921 = $89.52 cost for current period - about where you had originally estimated, full 30days would be $99.47

First want to debunk some myths around heat pumps having to work "harder" in colder temps - they really don't, they use a slightly lower watt input, and produce less output... i.e. efficiency goes down
From earlier 1kW=3412BTU for a 100% efficient electric heating element.
A heat pump can transfer 5-10Btu/watt input Decent units ~8btu/w

With current electric heating element 1.5kW doing a decent job
1.5kW X 3412 = 5.1 kBTu
1.5kW heat pump could produce 12kBtu of heat THATS a 57% increase in energy efficiency

Doesn't mean it will truly drop your cost of heating the shop to $43/month.

 

To do a real calculation of what size heat pump you really need it would require a building envelope calculation with wall thickness number of doors, windows, ceiling height etc.
-been a while since I’ve dusted off those brain cells

 

I heat my shop with a wood burning barrel stove and if you keep it a bit off the floor, fuel in vehicles, equipment and so forth is not an issue. I have all of that stuff in my shop and don't feel like there's any danger at all in burning wood. Unless you have an outdoor wood burner, any heat source could be an ignition source including an electric space heater.