Coooold in Here

From what I've seen of factory heating it is done with no regard for efficiency, functionality, comfort, or, in fact, any other discernable consideration.

If it's any consolation my lab has walls of wafer thin steel sheet, single glazing and a radiator designed to heat the countryside ...

Del

Yeah I understand that there is no reason or form for factory heating. But when your about 1 million BTUs under what the square footage says you need, every little bit helps. The building recently purchase was built by Underarmor they had massive clothes driers in the building that supplemented the heat.

this is a second-hand story, but if they are tubes are they painted black? One fitment wasn't, the suggestion was made, scoffed at, implemented and appreciated.

just in case

The ones I have seen were staggered slightly sideways from eachother. I did not know at the time why but your post makes me wonder if this was exactly for that reason.

When you say that factory heating is not done with much regard for effectiveness or comfort I would like to argue that that way of looking at it should change very soon if not now!

hot air blowers need vertical column movers (ceiling fans down) to get good mixing or there will be lot of high heat and cold floors.

I am in the same opinion, You need ceiling fans to push this hot air down .

Most overhead gas heaters that I have seen have louvered directional vanes on the air discharge side of the heater. Check that the vanes are pointed downwards, and I also suggest the use of ceiling fans to circulate the air, as 20 ft. ceilings will definitely give you a cool floor area.

best of luck :-) Gary

How much of that space up there is needed? Wouldn't false ceilings and more modest heaters be a more efficient solution.

The ceilings are at 27 feet. There is a good bit of the building that is storage of materials and finished goods. In those areas we utilize that over head space. I did say it was manufacturing not office space. I can see some one taking out the false ceiling with a lift truck.

You have to consider they are up there from a safety point of view. Also in factory's where floor plans and process are changed around they do not want to have the extra problems of large space heater relocation.

Low mounted heaters might be cozy for the area closest to them but not much use the other side of a partition or some such obstruction. The blowers of aerial heaters should be designed to disperse the hot air over the floor plan as efficiently as possible but as pointed out in previous posts some designs leave a lot to be desired.

This may not be applicable, but I have had very good results heating only the area around the operator station with infrared units. This was in very large buildings with 50 ft ceilings. We heated the space to above freezing and we used the infrared heaters to bring the operator areas to a more comfortable temp.

You might concider adding a shield or some metal duct to deflect the air downwards at an angle that wouldn't interfer with work being done on the floor. Myself I would make up something temporarly to make sure it would work the way i wanted and not blow something like paper around (if you use something lite like that) or that it didn't make a worker to warm by causing a warm (Hot) air draft on them. After a trial period I would make up something permenant at was tilted and angled the right way that works best for the building and workers.............Rescue

I have mounted large units at the corners and in the middle with downward throws. But for something of this size I put in IR. You have to look at the stacking height of the products and may need to make adjustments to use some heaters as well.

Yes, heaters mounted side-by-side, facing opposite directions will interfere with airflow slightly. A piece of sheetmetal can we used to divide the 2 heaters.

The main problem you have is the fact that hot air rises. If you were to maintain 68 F at 5' above the floor, the temperature at the ceiling will probably be 85 F. - a huge waste of heat.

If you were to call Modine with the model numbers, they can tell you the throw of the air at any given mounting height. They can also determine the maximum angle of deflection for the louvers before over-amping the motors. If you were to install any ductwork, they can also tell you the minimum size for optimal airflow.

The best heater for your application is probably a low-intensity, tube-type heater. If you are interested, I can put you in touch with a few heater reps. who will design a system that will work.

rich@rgreenwald.com

(For 30 years, when I was a heating contractor, I installed several of these systems)