BTU output of fan coil unit

Jack Waller

Hi All. I am hoping to avoid wasting a lot of time on this. The scrap yards often receive copper alum used coils that are in pretty good shape. Is it possible to guestimate the output. I would like to rig up a small unit heater near my workbench rather than maintaining my high mass radiant floor heat at 70* room temp. Does it not make sense to just locally supplement an area that is marginally heated overall, to save on gas?

Jack

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Certainly makes sense but a radiant unit heater would likely prove more effective and economical. They do however work via line-of-sight, so two units may be preferrable if you generally keep the space quite low in temperature. A single radiant heater in a cold space can leave one side of you comfy and the other side uncomfortably cool--not a particulary good situation when you're working at a bench.

Jeff Lawrence_26

Kinda like

Sitting around a campfire during a cold snap. Your front, facing the fire, is warm but your back(side) is near freezing.

Jack Waller

Supplementing heat of floor

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear (as usual). I generally keep my shop at about 60* which is fine for active work, given any on-floor work is fairly comfy, but sometimes standing still at the bench becomes chilly and of course it takes forever if I crank up my floor not to mention the cost. I would use a small fan to distribute warm air from the coil. Still need to know how to evaluate a coils output.

Jack

hr

If the coil is at the scrap yard

it may in fact have a split or leak!

Any way to build a radiant ceiling or overheat area above the bench. These warm quickly and feel better than warm air blowing on you.

I put some radiant ceiling in my home right on the sheetrock. I used Radiant Engineering ThermoFin with PAP tube. Feels like the sun is beaming down on you.

hot rod

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Brad White_101

Poor Jack...

Everyone seems to be going around your question. May I take a crack at it?

What you need to know are the numbers of rows and the fins per inch, the basic stuff.

You can get coil data from any manufacturer, First Company, McQuay, Trane, TSI (I like TSI Coils)...

You can then get a general idea at a given flow rate and more importantly, temperature.

Other details such as fin depth, corrugation and so on will also affect the output as will the airflow across it. Sort of like juggling peeled hardboiled eggs, bowling balls and running chain saws, all of those variables...

But you can get a general idea and that is what you seek.

If you can get a copy of the Series 58 coil catalog from TSI (Division of Rae Corp. out of Pryor, Oklahoma), they have a lot of good data in there with correction factors, velocity (goes to airflow), number of rows, temperatures of water, temperature drop, air temperature in.... you get the picture...

Most coils are ARI rated so you can get relatively comparable results between manufacturers. I would say within 10-15 percent.

Good luck.

Brad

Jack Waller

Summer breeze

What's wrong with a little warm air and some radiant - that's what we call a beautiful summer day here in Alberta (:>) Seems like Brad is the most motherly of all you guys!

Jack