Airplane Hangar Heating

Tom_133

I have an upcoming job that wants to me to put heat in a 40' x 50' with 15' ceilings maintenance hangar. It is likely that the small planes will be as tall as 9',4" so infrared doesn't seem doable. They are open to suggestions, I have calculated 80-90K btu's and at this point would love to so see a fast recovery system. I am thinking a couple of hot dawg heaters, but that just doesn't seem like the best plan. Any ideas, or anyone know of Infrared for a low ceiling application?

Thanks all

Jamie Hall

The hangars I've had birds in have often used hot dawgs or, if they are more sophisticated, infrareds along both sides at the overhead level. Not right overhead in the middle. Keep in mind that that height for small planes is the top of the tail -- the wings are usually lower (on the order of 6 feet for high wing aircraft; 3 to 4 for low wing).

SWEI

In-slab radiant would be fabulous for this, but I'm guessing it's already poured?

Overhead radiant heats quickly and will not suffer as much from infiltration as forced air will.

Tom_133

That 15' ceiling is killing the infrared possibility!

SWEI - It's poured and as with everything else it's on a budget.
Though overhead radiant would be a nice choice. I haven't done any of that, and this may be a silly question but how does it do when the massive door opens a few times a day?

SWEI

Tom said:

That 15' ceiling is killing the infrared possibility!

I see the long linear infrareds in a lot of auto, truck, and bus shops mounted at heights over 15 feet.

Though overhead radiant would be a nice choice. I haven't done any of that, and this may be a silly question but how does it do when the massive door opens a few times a day?

Not as well as in-floor radiant does, but still far better than forced air. Radiant heats objects first and the air second. If all the objects are warm it takes a fair bit of cold air to chill them down. When just the air is warm, it is easily displaced by incoming cold air.

bob_46

I've installed some of these, 15' shouldn't be a problem.

https://www.reverberray.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/LBDES3_DES3-Series-Brochure-10-11.pdf

Tom_133

bob,
that may be the one.

15' is my ceiling height I am not concerned with it not working because it's too tall I am most concerned that most of the planes are 6' tall and a few that are taller. I don't want to have to put on my resume that I melted a plane!!

That reverberray looks like less clearance than most, I need around 80K so I may run 2 30' at 50K and let it rip!!

Thanks

Jamie Hall

Tom said:

bob,
that may be the one.

15' is my ceiling height I am not concerned with it not working because it's too tall I am most concerned that most of the planes are 6' tall and a few that are taller. I don't want to have to put on my resume that I melted a plane!!

That reverberray looks like less clearance than most, I need around 80K so I may run 2 30' at 50K and let it rip!!

Thanks

If you are using that reverbarray or something like, it should work fine. As I noted above, I'd put them on each side of the hangar, overhead, not in the middle overhead. You're not going to melt a plane! You might warm it up a bit -- though probably not that much. It's an entirely different sort of heat than a radiant floor or something like that.

With direct radiant, the height is not an issue particularly -- if the mechanic can see the heat emitter, he'll feel the heat.

What it won't do is warm up the air much -- so opening the hangar door isn't going to make much difference.

It also won't warm up the aircraft enough to eliminate the need for an engine heater for cold weather starting. If that's what you're after -- rather than keeping someone working on the bird from freezing -- that's a completely different problem.

I've used the same sort of thing in cow barns (!) to keep the critters a little warmer -- not much different overhead clearance, and I've yet to melt a cow...

Gordy

I would approach with caution as to the expectations of the conditioning of the space. Also be in tune as to how often in, and out traffic will be.

Over head radiant seems to be the most viable, and economical option.


Seen plenty at over 15' ceiling height. Would not worry about the aircrafts proximity to the heaters either.

Solid_Fuel_Man

I did a 150 x 80 hanger last year with overhead radiant propane heaters. 22' ceiling and a massive double canvas mega door. We figured on more heat loss from that door than the building itself. For the life of me I can't remember the manufacturer of the units. 6 total, 200,000 btu two stage is what the engineer insisted we install even though that was almost DOUBLE the calculated heat loss.

Tom_133

Ok, so I hate starting a post and not finishing it.

I am ordering the Detroit Radiation or Re Verber ray kit as was shown in this post. The clearances to combustibles are ideal and the heat should work perfectly.

Thanks all for the help.