Newbie question: heating 1000sqft barn loft

rngrover

We live in Minnesota and have finished off a 1000sqft barn loft (insulation plus sheetrock on walls and ceiling). We would like to *occasionally* heat in the winter time for meetings, etc, but electric space heaters are just not keeping up.

Any suggestions?

Jamie Hall

Not surprised that electric space heaters are having problems.

The first thing to do -- as always -- is to figure out what your heat loss will be under design conditions. The usual Manual J will work -- but you can also tweak on-line calculators, like Slant-Fin's ( https://www.slantfin.com/slantfin-heat-loss-calculator/ ) to come close enough.

Then decide what kind of heat you need for your use. Probably -- for meetings and so on -- you will want to be able to heat the air pretty fast, and not worry too much about getting the walls and furnishings and all up to temperature.

So... my suggestion would be to look into the big space heaters used in agricultural applications. They are available -- easily (well, there is a backorder problem -- what else is new?) in fuel fired versions -- natural gas, LP,oil) and electric versions (if you have the amps...) in a variety of sizes up to about 300,000 BTUh and are simple enough to install -- and are great for large undivided spaces with high ceilings.

Looking here: https://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/cat1a;ft_heaters.html will give you some idea of what's out there, but there may be other suppliers near you.

Rich_49

Is there any type of heat in the structure at present ?

PRR

Meetings? Is the barn loft floor *framed* for heavy occupancy? Neither of mine are. Meeting space is normally coded for much more load than residences or even offices, because a meeting can become a mob. (Ah, but not in my lonely neck of the woods, so figure your situation.)

And a casual study of my "new barn's" loft showed that after roof and walls, *floor* is the major heat-sucker. (Downstairs unheated.) I could not reasonably heat it steady without 6+ inches of fuzz in the joists. Which has to be flame-proof against the downstairs storage, so becomes as much work as the ceiling was.

For occasional (few hours/week) meetings in our areas, propane! From stone cold you may need hundreds of thousand BTUh to make it heat-up "today". Well insulated, under 50kBTUh may hold it past midnight.

(50kBTUh is 15,000 Watts so no likely number of 1,500W heaters will do the job in cold weather.)

EBEBRATT-Ed

@rngrover

Your probably going to want to oversize the equipment if it's not heated all the time so you can bring it up to temperature quickly. You could probably stick a propane tank outside and use a propane fired unit heater like a Modine Hot Dawg. They make both a 45,000btu and a 60,000btu models People use the to heat there garages. When the meeting starts you can shut it off and use the electric heaters to maintain temp.

A propane tank , a small propane line to the heater, flue through the side wall, thermostat and 120 volt power and you are done.

offdutytech

Check your local Menards they have ceiling mounted unit heaters. Mr. Buddy is the brand, we have installed them for customers in garages and barns like yours. The prices are good, get it when they have the 11% rebate. For occasional use should be just what you are looking for.

lkstdl

Another good option for high-ceiling occasionally-occupied spaces are the tubular infrared heaters. You feel the warmth from them right away -- like the sun coming out on a cold winter day. Reznor's Infra-Rez is one brand we've used.




When you insulated the roof, did you use spray foam or something "fluffy" (fiberglass, mineral wool, etc.) ? With any air-permeable insulation, it is important to keep it properly held back from the bottom of the roof deck (typically with baffles) otherwise you risk condensation and eventual mold/rotting of the decking. For only occasional use you hopefully will be fine for a while, but its something to keep in mind if it starts getting used more often.