Let's start thinking about solving this problem for the next winter sometime this summer!

 

Updates

 

Nov 8, 2007:

will says: Tonight I checked out the heaters in the shop and talked a bit about heaters, gas, etc with the CJ guys who were clearing things out for Handmade Arcade this weekend. So, here's what I came up with:

 

Our overhead heater from CJ:

- Type: Radiant Infrared

- Present location: resting diagonally across a corner between some of the overhead beams, just outside our shop in the warehouse

- Condition: this one ought to work (supposedly the other one would make a pretty good flame thrower)

- Specs:

   + Space Ray RSTP10, Infrared Radiant Heater, Gas Fired Products, Inc.  Charlotte NC

   + Direct Spark Ignition System 120V, 2.40 AMP, 60 Hz

   + Table off the label:

Gas Type	Max Supply Pressure	Min Supply Pressure	Manifold Pressure	Input BTU/hr	Orifice Size
natural	7" W.C.	6" W.C.	5" W.C.	100,000	#18
propane	14" W.C.	11" W. C.	10" W.C.	100,000	#32

   + Options for turning the thing on and off: It has three hookups, electric, gas, and a thermostat. Probably the best bet would be some combination of flipping a breaker and having a switch/thermostat in the shop.

 

The purple box heater hanging in the shop:

- Type: Hot air (fan blows air over the heat exchanger with louvers to aim the air down)

- Present location: hanging approximately over the pedal cabinet toward the back of the shop

- Condition: Not good. It's missing a blower fan on the back, and the gas line is disconnected and capped.

 

Red and black torpedo heater:

- Type: hot air

- Present location: on the parts filing cabinets

- Condition: looks ok

- Specs: 55,000 BTU/hr, runs on kerosene, uses 0.44 gal/hr, tank holds 5 gal

 

Big round white "corona" heater:

- Type: old school flame in a box. Very sketchy looking!

- Present location: on the parts filing cabinets

- Condition: looks ok for what it is...probably not very safe to use though

- Specs: couldn't find anything printed on it except some warning labels

 

General thoughts, rumors from the CJ guys, and other info:

- Proably Mike or Lou will know the story on gas & heaters in our section of the warehouse since they were around back in the day when CJ played around with all that stuff. Mostly CJ doesn't use the heaters in our part of the warehouse now.

- The vent pipe for our purple heater would probably work fine for the radiant heater

- We would probably not want to re-use the electric circuit for the purple box. Most likely that circuit is wired up to all the other purple box heaters in CJ's area of the warehouse.

- The gas line to the purple box ought to work, *but* hooking up to it would mean our gas use would show up on CJ's gas bill. In that case, it could be a huge contentious pain to figure out how much of their bill was ours. I think if we use the natural gas, we should either get our own meter from the gas company or install some sort of meter that we can check when it comes time to settle the gas bill with CJ.

 

 

Old stuff from Winter 2006?:

• Deb will get us a quote for the ceiling heater from Brian.

 

Comparison Chart

 

Heat Source	Fuel Source(s)	Mode	Cost Per Hour	BTUs/Hour	$/MBTU
Ceiling Heater	Natural Gas	Radiant	$1.26	~100k	$12.60
Torpedo Heater	Kerosene, Biodiesel, Diesel	Convection	>$1.00	55k	>$18.18

 

Data

 

• Calculating the cost of running the ceiling heater
  • Dominion's natural gas rate according to Stuart's last gas bill is ~$13 per MCF with all costs included.
  • http://www.eia.doe.gov/aer/ says that we get 1,027 BTU per cubic foot of gas.
  • This works out to a cost of $12.65 per million BTU, or $1.26 an hour to run the radiant heater.
• Calculating the cost of running the torpedo heater
  • Fuel consumption rate .44 gal/hr from product manual 
  • I don't remember what Johnny said he paid for Kerosene, but it was > $2.25 per gallon.
  • Thus the price of each torpedo heater is > $1.00/hr