Heating my railway shed

[ikcdab]

My railway shed is fully insulated, 7.5m x 4.5m, so a volume of around 80m3.

In the past I have used a 2kw oil filled radiator on a low setting 24/7 to provide background heat. I haven't checked, bit I guess it's on approx 25% of the time. I then use a standard fan heater when required to boost to a working temperature for running.

The escalating energy costs means I might need to rethink this.

Is there a more economic way of doing this? I have seen ceramic heaters that claim to heat a room in "seconds" (sounds doubtful to me) or another better way?

What does everybody else do? Solar panel on my shed roof... In the winter?

Ian C

[shady]

Any form of plug in electric heater is practically 100% efficient , so swapping for one type to another will not make any difference to your bills.

 

The first thing I would do is get one or two of the plug in kWh meters (you can get them them for £10-15) so that you can see how many kWh of heat you are using from both heaters, if nothing else it might focus your mind on just how warm the shed needs to be!!

 

If electric heating is the only option then a heatpump would be the cheapest to run , but with a large initial cost and assuming you already have a layout in there the installation might be rather disruptive.

 

Bottled Gas heaters are currently cheaper to run than electric heaters, but probably not ideal for a railway room due to the water vapor.

 

If you happened to have Oil heating then a 12v or 24v vehicle diesel heaters would be cheaper to run than an electric heater.

 

Otherwise your best option is more insulation on the floor and warmer clothes!!!

 

 

 

 

[johnofwessex]

My brother installed an air source heat pump in his shed, the plus point being that you can cool as well as heat.

[2mmMark]

I find 12 to 15 degrees is a comfortable working temperature in my wooden shed workshop, which can be achieved fairly quickly with an electric heater.  I have one with a pretty basic thermostat. Something that I've considered trying is an electric towel radiator as used in bathrooms.  They are available with programmable thermostats but I don't know if the programmes have the low level heat settings I'd be looking for. 

When you're active,  you keep warm anyway.   The primary issue for me is keeping the workshop dry and free from condensation.  The walls of my workshop shed are lined with plywood and the roof has a lining of double layer insulating foil.   This seems to work well.  I've just got some samples of upgraded foil insulation from a company called Superfoil. These look promising but quite possibly expensive, I haven't yet checked pricing.

Cooling in summer is an issue,  Maybe a couple of extractor fans in the eaves of the roof at each end of the shed to draw out hot air could be a useful addition.

An alternative is to heat yourself with a heated gilet. There's a pretty wide variety available now.  A number of my fellow volunteers at Brooklands Museum use them.

I knew a chap, Maurice Seddon,  who was somewhat of an individualist.  He made his own 12v heated underclothing which he used at home in winter and also when despatch riding on his 1950s BSA (fitted with a car alternator!).
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2014/mar/16/maurice-seddon-obituary






 

[Les Bird]

My shed has insulated walls and roof. The floor is a double layer of half inch osb with a carpet on top. I generally find that running a small fan heater for a around seven or eight minutes raises the temperature to a comfortable level. As long as the door stays closed, the heat lasts a very long time. 

Edited September 17, 2022 by Les Bird