Waste Oil Heater vs Propane Heater for Garage?

[AdmiralYoda]

I'll be building a 30'x30' workshop/garage in the not too distant future. Not as a business, just my home garage...hobby shop....and happy place. It will be in MA which gets pretty chilly winters and I'm wondering if anyone has experience with Waste Oil Heaters and Propane heaters in a small shop setting.

I plan to keep the garage at 45-50F when I'm not in there and probably 65F when I am in there. Figure 10-20 hours per week at the most. The garage will have R13 on the walls and R19 on the ceilings.

1. Waste Oil Heater. I generate about 20 gallons of used oil per year and can probably get another 10 gallons from friends and family. The initial startup cost is like $5-6k when you consider a small oil heater and the associated chimney vent, etc. I will be installing this myself and can supplement my used oil with Diesel and/or home heating oil, and yes the waste oil burner is rated to run cleanly off of those fuels.
2. Propane heater. Much lower initial cost. Probably $2k installed by the local heating company including the tank. It just hangs off the ceiling is vented via PVC and uses an external tank located outside. Obviously I'll have to rely on the local Propane company to fill me up occasionally. Less maintenance than the oil burner.

Anyone have experience with either or both? Which one would you prefer?

 

[LenZee]

30 gallons of used motor oil won't last a month by far so basically you are installing a home heating oil burner.
Home heating fuel is more expensive in small deliveries, Propane might be the way to go for being cleaner and less maintenance.

 

[IndyIan]

If you have power, you might look into a mini split? That's what my buddy wants in his insulated part of his shop. Then you have AC/humidity control as well. They are cheaper again, but might need some help warming up a cold shop on a very cold day.
Depends on your local prices, here propane is the most expensive fuel per btu, except for resistance electrical, which is what a mini split turns into at the bottom of its temperature range.

 

[AdmiralYoda]

@LenZee That is the hard part, figuring out how much fuel I will be using. A small burner like the Lanair XT75 uses about 0.5 gallons per hour and it won't be running continuously once it is up to temp. I can take 5 gallon jerry cans and fill them up with diesel or home heating oil locally.

@IndyIan Thanks...but I have no desire to use electricity to heat, and have no desire to cool. Electricity here is ridiculously expensive... it would be cheaper to heat the place by burning dollar bills!

I should also mention that solid fuel (pellet or wood) burning appliances are off the table. MA doesn't allow these to be installed in garages where combustible fuel vapors may be present, otherwise a pellet stove would be my first choice.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

I'll be building a 30'x30' workshop/garage in the not too distant future. Not as a business, just my home garage...hobby shop....and happy place. It will be in MA which gets pretty chilly winters and I'm wondering if anyone has experience with Waste Oil Heaters and Propane heaters in a small shop setting.

I plan to keep the garage at 45-50F when I'm not in there and probably 65F when I am in there. Figure 10-20 hours per week at the most. The garage will have R13 on the walls and R19 on the ceilings.

1. Waste Oil Heater. I generate about 20 gallons of used oil per year and can probably get another 10 gallons from friends and family. The initial startup cost is like $5-6k when you consider a small oil heater and the associated chimney vent, etc. I will be installing this myself and can supplement my used oil with Diesel and/or home heating oil, and yes the waste oil burner is rated to run cleanly off of those fuels.
2. Propane heater. Much lower initial cost. Probably $2k installed by the local heating company including the tank. It just hangs off the ceiling is vented via PVC and uses an external tank located outside. Obviously I'll have to rely on the local Propane company to fill me up occasionally. Less maintenance than the oil burner.

Anyone have experience with either or both? Which one would you prefer?

I would look at a wall mounted minisplit that way you have A/C - Dehumidification in the summer.

You can install it yourself for under $1.5k.

 

[LenZee]

As someone that a long time ago used to take 5 gallon cans for kerosene, it gets old fast.
You can buy a outside pellet stove. Or even outdoor wood furnace.

 

[UncleDave]

I would look at a wall mounted minisplit that way you have A/C - Dehumidification in the summer.

A mini split is going to have a filtration problm in a working garage.

 

[Cujet]

We had a shop waste oil burner in Stratford, CT in centuries past. It was a pain to maintain and while it did not stink horribly when fully cranked up, the fumes were, I'm quite sure, very unsafe. It was a tempting idea. The reality was that Natural Gas heat was sooooo much better. Instant, powerful and comfy. I think our race car shop units were 250,000 BTU each and we had 4 of them.

Being very experienced at wood burning heat I tend to avoid that for shops. My friend installed a wood burner in his large detached garage/shop and I remember it was acceptable to work in there by about 3PM, if 'ya started the process in the AM.

The idea of a heat pump is acceptable 'if' sized correctly. Shops tend to need to heat up fast. That requires a massive BTU output. Make sure the BTU output is what you need, at the outside temps you expect.

 

[AdmiralYoda]

The reason I brought up a waste oil burner is because I'm quite used to them... My father owned a 6-bay auto repair shop in MA and heated it 100% with his waste oil for at least 25 years. 68F during the day and he turned it down to 55F at night. His building was probably triple the size of the one I have planned and probably 33% taller than mine will be.

It wasn't a home-made unit but a Lan-Air (I think) and it had plenty of btu's. He probably went through about 1,500 gallons of oil per year and never had any troubles. He just had it serviced once per year and they would vacuum it out, adjust the burners and change the filter. It rarely needed maintenance and never smoked or stunk. I spent much of my childhood (and adult life) in that shop so it was my first thought.

Sounds like Propane is the way to go for me....

 

[Ursatdx]

I ran a CleanBurn CB 1800 waste oil heater at my shop for 25 years.
It used 1 gal/hr. We generated +/- 350 gals per week.
If you will, ultimately, be buying fuel I'd look at a different option.

 

[thastinger]

You don't make enough waste oil to heat anything. It isn't difficult to figure the BTUs you need and then figure the BTUs in a gallon of oil. You'll have a non functional heater if you don't find a way to source more oil for it.

Propane is expensive as a stand-alone heat source, then you have the added cost of infrastructure (a tank or two) because you're not going to heat that with 20Lb bottles, 100Lb bottles would work but the kinda suck to carry to get filled, so you're at a permanently installed tank of whatever size you choose.

I would be looking at a mini-split.

 

[Ausfahrt]

My situation is similar to yours but I don't expect to heat it when not in use. I have decided to go with old fashioned wood heat in my non-insulated 18x24 shop.

My goal isn't to get my shop toasty but just warm enough for me to get stuff done which would be 50+ degrees Fahrenheit when it looks like this outside:

Good luck.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

A mini split is going to have a filtration problm in a working garage.

Well ya of course coils must be cleaned like every other minisplit. Everything has trade offs.

 

[AdmiralYoda]

This is why I'm here. Just about everyone has mentioned mini-splits so I'm going to have to look deeper into that.

Natural Gas is available at the street but the gas company is going to charge me 100% for the excavation, site prep, police detail, etc. Probably a non-starter. If I go propane I'd getting a 100-200lb bottle installed and the Propane/Oil company would top off occasionally.

Electricity is super expensive here and I really don't have any desire to air condition it in the summer months. Local/Regional code won't allow a solid fuel burning appliance (wood/pellets).

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

This is why I'm here. Just about everyone has mentioned mini-splits so I'm going to have to look deeper into that.

Natural Gas is available at the street but the gas company is going to charge me 100% for the excavation, site prep, police detail, etc. Probably a non-starter. If I go propane I'd getting a 100-200lb bottle installed and the Propane/Oil company would top off occasionally.

Electricity is super expensive here and I really don't have any desire to air condition it in the summer months. Local/Regional code won't allow a solid fuel burning appliance (wood/pellets).

Minisplits are very efficient. You may need a cold weather version but these ASHP (Air Sourced Heat Pumps) can operate at a COP (Coefficient Of Performance) of around 2.5 down to 5F. They don't employ electric strip heat which has a COP of 1.

 

[tbm5690]

This is why I'm here. Just about everyone has mentioned mini-splits so I'm going to have to look deeper into that.

Natural Gas is available at the street but the gas company is going to charge me 100% for the excavation, site prep, police detail, etc. Probably a non-starter. If I go propane I'd getting a 100-200lb bottle installed and the Propane/Oil company would top off occasionally.

Electricity is super expensive here and I really don't have any desire to air condition it in the summer months. Local/Regional code won't allow a solid fuel burning appliance (wood/pellets).

Do you have NG at the house, and if so how far is it from the shop?

 

[AdmiralYoda]

@tbm5690 I do have NG in the house, though at the wrong end of the basement which would probably not be a problem for a pipe fitter. The problem will be going out of the house and underground to the garage and back up. The house and garage will probably be about 20ft from each other with a driveway in between.

 

[Thermo1223]

$4k buys a lot of propane and it's cleaner & less maintenance.

 

[IndyIan]

@tbm5690 I do have NG in the house, though at the wrong end of the basement which would probably not be a problem for a pipe fitter. The problem will be going out of the house and underground to the garage and back up. The house and garage will probably be about 20ft from each other with a driveway in between.

Natural gas is nice to have!
I rented a trencher and did the flex line myself for propane, IIRC it only needed to be 30" down? They told me to sort out the rocks and put a few inches of clean dirt above and below the line, but its not under the driveway. There maybe different rules for natural gas, but probably you can just put it in some sched 80 plastic pipe under the high traffic areas? My furnace guy with the gas ticket had no problems avoiding messing around with trenching, so it doesn't hurt to ask what needs to be done and see if they let you do it?

 

[tbm5690]

@tbm5690 I do have NG in the house, though at the wrong end of the basement which would probably not be a problem for a pipe fitter. The problem will be going out of the house and underground to the garage and back up. The house and garage will probably be about 20ft from each other with a driveway in between.

Yeah I'd be curious in your shoes to get a price on what running a line would cost. If comparable, IMO, by far the best solution since you already have service. No refills, reliable, affordable.