Serious issue preventing me from working on my -10

[aarvig]

Originally Posted by Palamedes

... it's fricken cold out!

Seriously it's 19?F outside and the heaters in my garage have waived the white flag..

I can't wait for it to warm up..

19 degrees! Thats a heat wave. Its -10 here this morning. Yes thats MINUS 10. There are no justifiable reasons to quit working on a project unless it is below zero.

[Jerry Cochran]

61f in Newberg OR 2S6 and I had to close the hangar door because the Sun was way too bright in the PM yesterday!

But that's Oregon in Feb. for ya!

Just sayin' ;-)

Jerry

[DaleB]

It's been warm, then cold, then colder here. We had a week or two of temps in the 40s, followed by low teens or worse. I don't think it's been above freezing outside for a week or so now, and of course at night when I can work in the garage it's "darn cold". I typically fire up the kerosene and electric heaters half an hour before I go out to work, and wear a sweatshirt.

I don't mind sweating in the summer, but I do hate this winter cold BS. That's why we're taking an extra day or two down in TX to check out places to live. I want to be able to hang a snow shovel on the wall of the hangar and have people ask me what the heck it is.

When it's cold enough the heaters can't get it above 40 in the garage, I stay inside and work on the electrical diagrams, or look for parts, or catch up on the things I have been neglecting while working on the plane.

[BillL]

Before complaining about working in weather, look at this video. Watch the whole thing, then . . . be inspired!

Personally I would not want to do it, but it would be an adventure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ruArctYYbM

FYI this was posted here a few days ago, I just added this link.

[maniago]

I just came in from the garage. Been using a forced kerosene heater in there all winter long. Get a good CO detector with a read out and have at it. Helps to have a pretty leaky garage - bit more margin on the bad gasses. It does warm my garage up in about 10 mins and I turn it on and off manually as I need it. For sure, I'm not out there in shorts and a teeshirt though.

[Palamedes]

I have been using a propane bottle heater and it works-ish.. the garage today was about 10?F which wasn't fun, and the little propane heater really has a radius of about 5 feet..haha

My garage is more than a little leaky.. it's a lot leaky!

I'm pondering insulating the garage doors but not sure how much that would help or if it would just put a lot of strain on the garage door opener..

I like the idea of adding a dedicated heater to the garage, but without fixing the "leaky" problem I would just be heating the great outdoors.

Until I sort it out I'll just bundle up and "suffer" =) A couple more hours went into it yesterday. I think my propane bottle is running low though.

Does a kerosene heater heat a larger area? I've never used one.

[bcondrey]

For the first couple of years on my first RV-10 I suffered through winters (Omaha area) with a kerosene heater in the garage. I then broke down and installed one of these: http://beacon-morris.com/html/garage_heater_bru.asp

Best thing I ever did! They come in multiple sizes and are thermostatically controlled. Early in the build of my second RV-10 we built a new house and I installed another from the start.

Being able to warm up the garage to enable working in shirt sleeves in the winter is a wonderful thing! Also, don't discount the benefit of being ability to stand on concrete and work with tools like pneumatic rivet squeezers that aren't cold-soaked!

Dale along with several other RV builders were just over last weekend when the OAT was in the teens - we were able to chat, drink coffee and munch snacks in amazing comfort...
Bob

[JoeB]

I was using a multi-fuel torpedo heater, but the exhaust and noise was too much for me. So I built a Barrel Stove, I used concrete blocks around it to protect me, the dogs and exposures and acts as a heat sink. Works GREAT! had the garage around 70 degrees and it was 3 outside. Took a while to build and inspect and re-inspect everything, last thing I want is a chimney fire, but so far so good, now just have to actually find TIME to work and I cant use temp as a excuse.....

[BillL]

Originally Posted by Palamedes

I have been using a propane bottle heater and it works-ish.. the garage today was about 10°F which wasn't fun, and the little propane heater really has a radius of about 5 feet..haha

My garage is more than a little leaky.. it's a lot leaky!

I'm pondering insulating the garage doors but not sure how much that would help or if it would just put a lot of strain on the garage door opener..

I like the idea of adding a dedicated heater to the garage, but without fixing the "leaky" problem I would just be heating the great outdoors.

Until I sort it out I'll just bundle up and "suffer" =) A couple more hours went into it yesterday. I think my propane bottle is running low though.

Does a kerosene heater heat a larger area? I've never used one.

I don't know what kind of garage door you have, but I have 4" wall and ceiling and an insulated door. It is -3 outside and with sun it stays 40 ish. I have an old electric heater from a furnace, and using 25 amps@220v - it heats the garage just fine. With two cars it comes up 10 deg/hr on a day like today, starting at 40. Late December it was -10 all day and I got the garage toasty at 70. It only dropped to 50 over night so if kept warm it heats up faster.

You could easily add 1" styrofoam to the door, but need to seal the perimeter with webseal, and a "d" seal for the floor. 2" is better and if heavy, preload spring some more.

Beware of kerosene as it has sulfur and tools are the last thing to warm up. The water and sulfur make H2SO4 - acid and will condense on tools in a tool box. Over time corrosion is an issue.

For your climate, seal, insulate, and a 220v electric heater should do quite well.

[DaleB]

I have one of the round kerosene convection type heaters. It would work better if I didn't have 10' ceilings in the garage. I'm sure it's toasty warm up where the cobwebs are. I use an oscillating IR electric heater to move warm(er) air around for better effect. I've thought about a ceiling fan too. The kerosene heater is quite happy burning Jet A, by the way, and it's silent.

We replaced our wood garage doors with insulated steel years ago, and I can tell you that it made a BIG difference and the garage door opener has not complained. There is a big torsion spring counterbalance anyway, so it shouldn't put much (if any) any more strain on the opener.

I was in another guy's garage where they had blown insulation into the walls. I am thinking about doing that myself, but I'm really hoping this is the last winter I'll be building in the garage. It's too late to mess with it this winter, but probably when we have new siding put on the house this spring I will do it from the outside. Can't be too expensive, and I would not complain about having a warmer garage even if I'm not out there building every night.

Bob's place is VERY nice! The other RV-10 builder I visited last month had a similarly nice garage. These guys have a Garage Mahal compared to mine... squeaky clean and toasty warm. I don't think I'll be installing the big gas heater though.