Workshop Heater - Request for information.

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Currently investigating heaters for my workshop too. Been quoted £950 for a 4.5 kilowatt heat pump (fitted and 5 year guarantee) and £1620 for a 7.5 kw (by a different supplier). My workshop is 14m x 7m and is insulated. The advantage of these heaters is that they use 1/4 to 1/3 the electricity for an equivalent output and also that they cool in the warmer months if required. They are available second hand but some of the older ones have refrigerants that are now illegal in the UK because of global warming. I'm still deliberating....

The new inverter systems that run at high pressure without hard to get refrigerant are so inexpensive and so efficient that I wouldn't consider anything older. Install for someone who can read a manual is about four hours as long as the line run to the head doesn't require additional charging. Here, all that's required is a whip disconnect. I'd install one nearest the end you work in most. The heat is constant and even, they seem to do better duty than their rating would suggest and they'll modulate humidity well.
 
Many thanks for all the advice above.

Using the formulae above supplied by Sandyn I calculate I need 11.7kW

Therefore the smaller heaters are not powerful enough.

So the heater described in my original post a the head of this thread seems to be ideal.

Unfortunately I have not seen any posts regard peoples thought on SIP quality.

Cheers Dave
 
I have just ordered one of the cheap Chinese diesel heaters after watching many Youtube videos and from what I have learned so far they are the way to go as Furnace above has confirmed.Looking forward to getting it fitted and it becoming a pleasure to go out to the workshop again through the winter months
I have virtually the same set up as Furnace and it's working great. Just finishing the Kingspan in the roof just like his. Last bits to put up in the top of the apex and it should be toastie.
Spend some time on the location you are going to put as you dont to be changing the location after have drilled holes.
 
The new inverter systems that run at high pressure without hard to get refrigerant are so inexpensive and so efficient that I wouldn't consider anything older. Install for someone who can read a manual is about four hours as long as the line run to the head doesn't require additional charging. Here, all that's required is a whip disconnect. I'd install one nearest the end you work in most. The heat is constant and even, they seem to do better duty than their rating would suggest and they'll modulate humidity well.
Thanks for that info. Running costs are expensive so this might be the way to go. Don't you need to be a qualified refrigeration engineer to fit them?
 
I don't know what the rules are there. They're precharged and there's no requirement in my municipality to be qualified to install them as they are just more or less plugged in to a dedicated whip disconnect outside and the lines connected here after routing them and mounting the head indoors.

I noticed in my install manual, there is to be no radius in the lines smaller than 4 inches, but that was apparently too much to ask of the installer that put mine in. I wanted to put mine in on my own, but my room was being done by a contractor and he'd have nothing to do with that, so he had his usual HVAC sub come out and put it in. They did a nice tidy job other than missing that detail (I figured i'd give it a rest and not bother them).

The requirement here for the manual is to have a dedicated 20 amp 220v breaker to a whip disconnect (Varies by machine, I called mitsubishi to confirm that it can't be smaller or larger than a range as it's designed to keep the machine from being able to get in a situation where it draws tons of current and damages itself), and then the precharged lines are good for runs up to 25 feet. If the run goes longer than that, then the setup may need to be charged (high pressure, not older HVAC style system that most DIYers are used to here) to bring pressure back up. Most installs here are head inside the wall and outdoor unit just outside (as is mine) and no need to get close to 25 feet of line.

I did get to do the buying of my setup, though - contractor gave me a commercial only plumbing supply contact so I could get the bits at cost and then pay the contractor's sub and electrician. Total cost was half of what the authorized HVAC dealer was here.

8 years running every day so far for my system, no maintenance other than cleaning the filter in the head unit from time to time (in a woodworking shop, that would be more often, but about once a year here - the whole house filter in the furnace makes it so that there's not much dust).

Temp inside the head in summer is below freezing - it's wonderfully efficient without needing to make much nose or move huge amounts of air.

The generics now cost less than half what my system did - when mine croaks, I will probably not spend the money for a brand name system again, but will install it myself since the contractor won't be involved and the dedicated line /disconnect is already in place.

All of the time that the HVAC techs spent was making drilling brick look difficult and talking up how big of a deal it is to drill anchors into brick. And then they hadn't seen a mitsu system before so they spent over an hour playing with it "testing it to make sure it's working".
 
Many thanks for all the advice above.



Unfortunately I have not seen any posts regard peoples thought on SIP quality.

Cheers Dave
I don't have any direct experience of SIP, but for just about everything I have bought, SIP was looked at. I think just about all their stuff is far east made, so generally 'OK', but never what I call high quality and the quality control of this type of far east product is often very poor, just risky for me. All the stuff I have bought recently has been old British made.

SIP are a company expanding rapidly They have an incredible range of products now. No idea what their after sales is like.
For your diesel heater, it's not a precision tool, so requirements are different and I don't really know much about these diesel heaters.

Using diesel, you need to be careful not to spill it. Diesel doesn't evaporate the same as pertol, the smell gets everywhere.

How does the heater start? is there a heating element to start combustion like the small truck heaters. Part burnt diesel absolutely stinks. I guess that's what the timed cooling of the combustion chamber does. It might get smelly in a few months time?

Sorry I can't give more info on SIP products.
 
Only SIP product I have owned was £79 or so air compressor.
It lasted for around 14 years plugged in 24/7/365. I expect it would have lasted a lot longer had I bothered to put oil in it.
 
.
For your diesel heater, it's not a precision tool, so requirements are different and I don't really know much about these diesel heaters.

Using diesel, you need to be careful not to spill it. Diesel doesn't evaporate the same as pertol, the smell gets everywhere.

How does the heater start? is there a heating element to start combustion like the small truck heaters. Part burnt diesel absolutely stinks. I guess that's what the timed cooling of the combustion chamber does. It might get smelly in a few months time?

The "combustion" part (outside) of these heaters is separate and sealed from the "warm air" part (inside) so there are never any nasty niffs. There is a glow plug that is used to initiate combustion when it starts up, but since the amount of fuel the heater uses is miniscule (30 seconds equates to about 0.5ml) even the exhaust doesn't smell during startup. The fan runs during shutdown to cool the heat exchanger, not to "flush" diesel from the system.

Hope that helps.
 
I have virtually the same set up as Furnace and it's working great. Just finishing the Kingspan in the roof just like his. Last bits to put up in the top of the apex and it should be toastie.
Spend some time on the location you are going to put as you dont to be changing the location after have drilled holes.
Thanks for your reply pops92,my workshop is a 45sq mtr two storey garage,double skin 9" blockwork with a 4" cavity and then 18mm MFC battened to the wall so insulation wise I'd say its pretty good so hopefully it wont take to much running time to warm the place up,only time will tell but based on the formula given to us by Sandyn I recon I need about 2Kw of power so should do the job
 
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I don't know what the rules are there. They're precharged and there's no requirement in my municipality to be qualified to install them as they are just more or less plugged in to a dedicated whip disconnect outside and the lines connected here after routing them and mounting the head indoors.

I noticed in my install manual, there is to be no radius in the lines smaller than 4 inches, but that was apparently too much to ask of the installer that put mine in. I wanted to put mine in on my own, but my room was being done by a contractor and he'd have nothing to do with that, so he had his usual HVAC sub come out and put it in. They did a nice tidy job other than missing that detail (I figured i'd give it a rest and not bother them).

The requirement here for the manual is to have a dedicated 20 amp 220v breaker to a whip disconnect (Varies by machine, I called mitsubishi to confirm that it can't be smaller or larger than a range as it's designed to keep the machine from being able to get in a situation where it draws tons of current and damages itself), and then the precharged lines are good for runs up to 25 feet. If the run goes longer than that, then the setup may need to be charged (high pressure, not older HVAC style system that most DIYers are used to here) to bring pressure back up. Most installs here are head inside the wall and outdoor unit just outside (as is mine) and no need to get close to 25 feet of line.

I did get to do the buying of my setup, though - contractor gave me a commercial only plumbing supply contact so I could get the bits at cost and then pay the contractor's sub and electrician. Total cost was half of what the authorized HVAC dealer was here.

8 years running every day so far for my system, no maintenance other than cleaning the filter in the head unit from time to time (in a woodworking shop, that would be more often, but about once a year here - the whole house filter in the furnace makes it so that there's not much dust).

Temp inside the head in summer is below freezing - it's wonderfully efficient without needing to make much nose or move huge amounts of air.

The generics now cost less than half what my system did - when mine croaks, I will probably not spend the money for a brand name system again, but will install it myself since the contractor won't be involved and the dedicated line /disconnect is already in place.

All of the time that the HVAC techs spent was making drilling brick look difficult and talking up how big of a deal it is to drill anchors into brick. And then they hadn't seen a mitsu system before so they spent over an hour playing with it "testing it to make sure it's working".
Thanks again DW for responding in such detail. I've been looking online to see what a 'whip disconnect' is. 'Don't recognise the name but imagine it's a safety cut out device. Perhaps it has a different name in the UK or maybe it's just something that's bypassed me until now. I'll investigate further.
 
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