Hangar heat?

[Lionclaw]

We've had a cold week here in Dayton, and it's getting uncomfortable working in my unheated and uninsulated hangar. I'm considering sealing up the top of the hangar with plastic sheeting and getting a high output propane heater (50k+ btu). The heaters all say they are for outdoor use. Is it something I can safely use in the hangar? Does anyone have any recommendations?

[jetjok]

Andy,
I have been using a propane catalytic heater in my hangar for years. These heaters burn very clean, and if there will be sufficient fresh air coming in, you will be fine.

[RV10Man]

I'm a licensed plumber in OK. I think you'll fine with the propane heater. I have 3 hanging, radiant propane fired heaters in my hangar and have never had any problems. There's plenty of air leakage all over the place in a hangar.
The only problem you're going to have is, as the hangar gets warm, (remember, heat rises) the ceiling will start sweating and before you know it, it'll start raining on you. From the ceiling.

Marshall Alexander

[rleffler]

If you are concerned, you can always plug in a CO detector.

[Fearless]

Andy,

I have one in my 900 sq ft garage(hangar) to use during winter building sessions. Mine is a 36,000(38,000) btu ventless natural gas model. My garage is drywalled and insolated with a gas line branched off the house to it. I never taken it past the second setting and leave it on pilot when not working in the garage. They do make a LP model if I remember. I have small gaps at the bottom of my overhead doors but I do leave a window cracked while in the garage just in case. I live about 150 miles south of Dayton.

Whatever you use it would be best if you can cover the ceiling to keep down the heat loss. Like Marshall said plastic might not be the best product for that. Maybe some type of cheap 4 X 8 sheet material.

[RJBrown]

I had unvented radiant heaters in an auto shop I built in 1984. It was a metal building just like most hangers. They reminded me that the number one byproduct of combustion is water. By the time I sold that building 10 years later the office furnace had rusted out completely and the red iron of the building was rusting badly. Even the fluorescent light fixtures were rusting. I will never use that type again. The black tube style of radiant heat works much better.

[Scott Hersha]

I heat my hangar in Cincinnati with a torpedo heater. My ceiling and door is insuated and it will heat the hangar to 60 degree in about 20 minutes when it's cold outside. I don't have a thermostat that turns it on and off, but you can get one. There is a smell that is not that noticeable unless you go outside for a while, and then come back. Leaving the walk-through door slightly ajar provides fresh air. You can come down to HAO and take a whiff if you want - it's not that far from Dayton... I'll be out there this weekend.

Scott
RV-8FB

[Kimmer]

Infrared heat is kind of in vogue now. My wife and I have an Ace home center/hardware store in northwestern Montana and are impressed with the infrared heaters that are in the market place now. We sell a brand called Comfort Zone and they have an outdoor model that comes on a telescoping stand seen on shop lights. I soon will roll over my -9A fuselage in our basement and it will not be too long before it has to go out a 6' x 4' window. Next winter looks to be in our unheated garage. Eden Pure is a brand handled by other Ace Hardware stores.

Kim Roberts
Thompson Falls, MT

[flion]

I'm using a kerosene heater and it takes the edge off down to about 30 degrees here; below that I have to have it pointed right at me to do some good. I can't afford kerosene and diesel will make your eyes water after awhile, so I try to limit my sessions using it. I'm trying to get a radiant propane heater instead because I know the exhaust from that heater is bad for me.

One of my hangars has an insulated roof but it also is vented and there's some leakage around the hangar door. I've kept a CO detector around but there's never a lack of fresh air. The other hangar is totally uninsulated and also vented, so there's even less problem.

I can't use electric heat because the circuits the airport provided us won't run a heater and a compressor without tripping. Heck, they barely run the compressor.

[yakdriver]

Be VERY careful with kerosene heaters. We had a guy using one to heat his garage and his wife came home one day and found him dead on the creeper underneath the car. You must have plenty of ventilation. Don