I did move here to escape, er, get away from that cold wetness, and for the most part, My heating costs are a lot lower. (lets not go into the cooling costs eh?) But I do prefer this climate over the one you have. I spent many a year there working outside in it. I’ve had my fill. Still, I have used the heck out of this Big Buddy heater for three years. It warms my shop daily as I work in there daily, all winter. On High setting, (18,000 BTU) I find it will make a 10 degree difference in my 2 car garage with an uninsulated metal door in one hour, or slightly less.

I have also used it in the house in conjunction with carbon monoxide detectors and have had zero detection issues. It heats the house more slowly than my garage due to many more square feet to heat, (typically 2.5 hours for 10 degrees of change) but once warm it will maintain the temp in the house on low setting with occasional bump-ups to medium. That is 4000 BTU on Low, 9000 BTU on Medium I’d buy it again, but heck, I have two of them.

I agree, if your going to finish, particularly with really flammable finishes, heat up the shop and shut this off then finish. Fwiw, adequate ventilation is pretty important when finishing anyway. Just sayin.

Pocket warmers are never a bad thing. I used to buy them by the box full!

Bests,

Rob

I have the little brother of your heater, and use it as a “spot” heater in the bathroom during power outages (frequent here, as you know). Haven’t tried it in the shop, that’s a good idea. I also have one of the other kind that screws on top and it flares up sometimes, though I usually keep my forearms out of the way. Sure can cause a moment of excitement when it lights off the varnish fumes.

The bad weather here doesn’t keep me indoors much, in fact I just finished cutting up the blowdown from the big windstorm that caused our last power outage. Firewood warms you twice… (but I still use a lot of those pocket handwarmers).

Parker

I think the most important thing you is *insulate*. Walls. Ceilings. Insulate.

I too had one of those 1 topper propane heaters in my uninsulated bay of a three car garage. I have the burn marks on my forearms to show it…

A few years ago, I wall off the bay and insulated everything. I can now keep the “sharage” at 70* with a $39 oil filled radiator heater and a simple box fan. When the temps dip to 7* outside.

Like Rob said – you need the fan to circulate the warm air. But, in my opinion, the most significant contributing factor was the insulation!

Jason – Boston Area

This is just what I need! It will work well in my shop.
Thanks,
KJ