How do you heat your hangar?

[bobnoffs]

here's another FWIW..................
state of the art kerosene heaters claim roughly 100,000 btu output on 3/4 gallon of fuel. so roughly that cost is $2.75 for an hour.

a propane ''salamander'' of 100,000 btu will use 1.1 gallons of propane in an hour. bulk propane is $.70/gallon.

[bret]

Do you NEED to be in the hangar? I could not imagine building the plane there, although, some have. Insulation is the key, I did drywall top and walls, and insulation including garage doors, (at home) one little toaster size 1500 watt heater kept the temps at T **** temps even while it was -0- outside.

[rv7boy]

Originally Posted by LettersFromFlyoverCountry

...There's another piece of equipment that I'd highly recommend for building: A good pair of fleece-lined jeans from LL Bean.

Bob, that's a great suggestion. Those fleece-lined jeans from LL Bean are also nice for those Saturday morning breakfast flights in the winter. I have two pair, and I live in Alabama.

[rvsxer]

In the early 90's I was renting a t-hangar from the airport operator (the city of South St. Paul, MN), for the Cessna 140 I owned. I was selling the 140 to start the RV-6 and I didn't want to lose the hangar so I built a 20' X 20' shop inside using lumber, batting, plastic, etc. I heated it with a 5000w electric forced-air heater. When the city building inspector came to look at it his eyebrows went up and he asked me "Temporary?". Yes. "How long?" 2 years (it took 7). He then issued my permit. The heat bill was low (average $35-55/month) and it was a great place to work. Raised a lot of eyebrows.

As far as permanent heat, most of our new hangars are getting floor heat (Uponor,etc.), with a few using gas fired radiant. We are seeing fewer gas forced-air, with the big unit up in the corner of the ceiling, due to the relative inefficiency and rather uneven heat.

[dweyant]

Has anyone installed a ductless mini-split heat pump system?

My hanger is 50x50, and heat would be nice, but cooling in the summer would be really nice as well....

Sort of afraid what it would cost to cool though.

-Dan

[Plummit]

Originally Posted by dweyant

Has anyone installed a ductless mini-split heat pump system?

My hanger is 50x50, and heat would be nice, but cooling in the summer would be really nice as well....

Sort of afraid what it would cost to cool though.

-Dan

Heat or cool is the same price with a heat pump. You're running a compressor and moving refrigerant. The reversing valve just changes the direction of flow. Electricity is one of the WORST ways to heat anything as far as efficiency goes, but if you don't have gas fuel (natural or propane) there's not a lot of choice.

A related question is: how much electrical capacity is available? I work in buildings that have minimal capacity for upgrade due to the incoming power already being maxed out.

~Marc

[JonJay]

Originally Posted by dweyant

Has anyone installed a ductless mini-split heat pump system?

My hanger is 50x50, and heat would be nice, but cooling in the summer would be really nice as well....

Sort of afraid what it would cost to cool though.

-Dan

Yes. A 28k BTU unit keeps my hangar 65-70deg F in moderate weather and 60 when it is really cold. I just installed it a couple months ago so the $$ to run it is still unknown. Heat pumps are very efficient in the Pacific NW relatively mild climate.

[Weasel]

Originally Posted by dweyant

Has anyone installed a ductless mini-split heat pump system?

My hanger is 50x50, and heat would be nice, but cooling in the summer would be really nice as well....

Sort of afraid what it would cost to cool though.

-Dan

You would likely want a fairly large "mini-split" setup for a 50x50 depending on how well insulated it is.

By comparison I have a 50X30 that is separated into 2 offices and a shop. Each office has a 12,000 BTU unit and the shop area has 2 wall mount units. total capacity of all 4 units is 48,000 BTU/H. works great for be and provides versatility of only conditioning the space that is being used. ( the shop is only conditioned when working several days a week).



If the area you want to condition is all one space (like a hangar) you would probably be wasting your money with the mini split setup. They cost a lot more per BTU output than a standard split system or package unit.

[BillL]

Like cooling and CHT's look at ambient - a guy in Miami can heat with a light bulb, it won't apply to Minnesota, WI, SD, ND - - you get the picture.

Kerosene - This contains sulfur and that will adsorb to the humidity in the combustion process - that makes sulfuric acid in the condensate. Tools (and other dense metal pieces) will heat more slowly, thus potentially forming a thin film of condensate. In a large hangar it may not be a factor, but i know of a guy that ruined many $1000's of tools this way. Ambients were -10F

I am looking at the radiant, or forced air propane heaters, so this thread is helpful.

I envy you guys with 220v and AMPs available.

EDIT: I found that K-1 kerosene is only .04% sulfur, so way lower than I remembered. Still be careful with tools.

[PixelWorker]

I know forced air heat isn't popular these days since there are more efficient options but I have to say I am very happy with the forced air gas heaters in my 60x60. Add to that the big *ss fan I have to push the heat down from the ceiling and the hangar is comfy no matter what the temps are outside. And the utility bill has always been reasonable since I'm just using the heat when I'm there.

Before I had the heat installed I used one of these propane heaters to heat up the space. 200,000 BTU quickly heats up the space but burns through the propane. They have smaller units too. They are $120 at northern tool.