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Advice for Warehouse Heat / Air Exchange

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I run a currently unheated art and event space in Michigan. It is a 60x60 uninsulated garage average 14-19 arch ceiling height. Steel truss and wood ceiling. There is no outside ventilation but a somewhat leaky 12x12 door. I do not plan to install an air conditioner.

I am debating between 2 ceiling hung 5 ton high eff furnaces, a 10 ton rtu, and two 40' overhead radiant tube heaters. I see advantages to the tube heaters in that they will heat the concrete floor and walls and cost less to install.

My main concern question/concern involves air quality / air exchange - say on a winter night with 200 people in the room and the heaters roaring. Can anyone give me a sense of to what degree should I be concerned about air exchange in this large room, and if so recommended solutions/ advice? From what I understand even the furnaces' 6" air intake pipe won't make a significant difference in this equation. Correct? Or?

Thanks much!!

Comments

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,324
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    You may have a concern about air quality... and correctly. But you should also be having a number of other concerns. Please get in touch with your local building code people, and make sure that everything is up to code. You almost certainly need fire protection in there, you probably need exit lighting and routing provisions, you may need additional sanitary facilities...
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,540
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    If you use gas fired radiant you will have to leave it on all the time to maintain the slab temp. You can't use them as an on-off system.

    Building code will decide the ventilation issue. You may want to use a direct fired gas make up air unit to bring MU air in with an exhaust fan but IMHO and energy recovery system would be better choice.

    I think radiant tube is the best choice with a 14-19 foot ceiling they should work well. Placement and layout is critical
  • Zman
    Zman Member Posts: 7,569
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    With no insulation, sizing is going to be tricky. What area of the country? What would your anticipated coldest day be.
    If you go with RTU and exposed ducts, the OA air side would be easy.
    "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"
    Albert Einstein