Workshop heater

[biggles]

I have been given a domestic oil boiler by a friend as he is going onto gas. The unit is in good order and I want to put it in the workshop just to warm it up a bit on odd days when its really cold. I plan to just have a gravity header tank for a few gallon of fuel and to plumb the water into a circulating pump and run the water through a radiator with a fan on it, bit like a vehicle radiator. Is there anywhere I can find a "proper" rad/fan rather than just graft a car one in? if that makes sense, any idea's appreciated, cheers

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

I may well be wrong on this,

however I think this would be a waste of time, reason being the Boiler will over powered for 1 rad,
and the second thing, and the biggest problem would be the air at a short distance from the rad pushed through with a fan, will bee cool to say the least,
this sounds like the most inefficient way of getting heat,

 

[biggles]

If the rad was big enough and fan big enough I think the boiler would be about on par with it. where I used to work they had a thermobile waste oil heater with a fan on and it used to take the edge of a cold day. Im working on the principle that if I circulate the air it will slowly heat the whole workshop. the workshop is reasonably well insulated and im only after just making it warm enough to work in without freezing. cheers

 

[Phil P]

You mean something like this.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UNIT-BLO...WORKSHOP-INDUSTRIAL-FREE-HOLDER-/291289974220

 

[A1an]

Try this lot. They might have something to suit .no affiliation, I came across them when building biomass unit.

https://www.uk-exchangers.com/water/

This lot do similar units.

https://www.magdek.co.uk/biomass/

 

[How much]

I guess it depends on a few things like how big the workshop is ?
its going to take fair while to heat up a big workshop with the heater /fan as you describe if it can be done I think Pennine ploughing is probably right you are going to have to have the heater running all the time at least a space heater would be much more simple and fast way of heating the whole area up pretty quick. but both are noisy and if running all day could be annoying

I bought an infra red heater from machine mart a month ago it works on the concept of heating you and what you are working on not the air around you its very effective and immediate heat and at only around £175 to buy its portable robust and and silent great for what i need but if you were wanting to do something like painting it wont raise the room temp up very much if at all.

 

[Kidds]

if you were wanting to do something like painting it wont raise the room temp up very much if at all.

No, but nor do they blow all the dust onto your wet paint.

 

[biggles]

cheers lads that's like what I had in mind @Phil P, bit more than I wanted to spend as it might not work out, have had a propane space heater and everything ends up damp and it gives me a head ache if on all day, infra red is good like you say but not if your walking about and in different places, cheers

 

[J428TGS]

I have been given a domestic oil boiler by a friend as he is going onto gas. The unit is in good order and I want to put it in the workshop just to warm it up a bit on odd days when its really cold. I plan to just have a gravity header tank for a few gallon of fuel and to plumb the water into a circulating pump and run the water through a radiator with a fan on it, bit like a vehicle radiator. Is there anywhere I can find a "proper" rad/fan rather than just graft a car one in? if that makes sense, any idea's appreciated, cheers

yes its a good system even 2 or 3 rads in a ply box with a 12v fan or even a household 240v fan to push air through the box and out lovers in the top or even a duct

 

[powerfarmer]

I put together a unit as the OP described, a very old Thorn ODY-3 boiler running on diesel with a circulation pump and a radiator from a small Mitsubishi truck ( I thought it's vertical tubes would work better than the usual horizontal ones)
I used the original 12v fan powered from a hefty old PSU and switched with a pipe stat.
Hot water out of top of boiler into rad, out the bottom through circulation pump into boiler.
It worked fine , the only thing I had to buy was the rad , 30 quid.

You might come across a Powrmatic blown air heater unit oil fired direct to air heat exchanger, they're fairly compact and would be a good job.

 

[biggles]

@powerfarmer thanks for that nice to know its been a previous success before I commit to far. Did it give out much heat? what were you heating? any photos?, cheers

 

[powerfarmer]

I was heating a workshop 20 feet X 35 feet. Concrete walls galv roof with felt underneath, no insulation.
I found it worked quite well and once the space was warmed up it was very comfortable to work in.
I don't have any photos I m afraid I don't have access to the building anymore.

If I was doing it again I d use more than one radiator/fan unit spaced apart at opposite ends of the workshop to give more uniform heat distribution and plumb it in properly with steel or copper pipe.
Units like this would be ideal but might require a fairly large boiler.

https://www.markeire.com/air-heating/water-fed/tanner-mda/