Propane Space Heater

[morg]

Hello, hope someone can help me out !

I have searched for forums about this and a few people are saying Propane should never be used indoors. But machine mart are selling them, in particular the "Little Devil Propane Heater" stating that it is suitable for 'small workshops' or the 'home garage user'.

The output on the devil heater is around 10kW.

Machine mart are also selling this:

But does not state which gas it uses, but similar heaters are indeed fueled by either propane or butane or mixed... They state this heater is suitable for the home, office or workshop.

The heat output on this heater is almost half of the little devil (5kw).

I'm really confused on which heater to get and with safety in mind plus all the conflicting info. It will be used in a small warehouse (roughly 60 ft x 60 ft x 30 ft height/metal cladding structure), at the moment we got 3 x 3000w heaters running but it's not working very well... takes a good few hours to even reach a acceptable level.

Do you think the space heater will be safe to use? Or is the Propane a no no !!!

My thinking is, if I kept the electric ones going and use the gas heater to give the place a blast it should stay nice and warm or at least acceptable... Also the building has a lot of open spaced inside, but is not ventilated.

Thanks for any help

 

[Burnerman]

Any butane or propane heater such as these discharge their exhaust fumes into the surrounding atmosphere and at the same time, they eventually cause oxygen depletion....the worst scenario being a high level of carbon dioxide followed by carbon monoxide gases being produced.
Don't use them in a confined space - they are ok in a workshop situation where there's loads of ground space and open doors maybe but thats about it....your staff may feel some comfort if they are standing directly in front of them.
Some heaters even have an oxygen depletion device fitted, so when the safe levels of air reduce, the flame shuts down.
John

 

[morg]

Thanks John for the post,

I'm still very dubious about using one. Perhaps it is not suitable

Basically they have to be used in ventilated area, which defeats the object of trying to keep the place warm

I guess an option would be to create something like a temporary ceiling to stop the heat escaping - steel cable spanned across the walls, layered with thermawrap on top or perhaps tarpaulin... This does sound a bit silly, but I imagine it would work quite well.

Thanks for the help

 

[Corgigrouch]

As said, the little devil is fine in say a garage where cars are driven in and out... Lots of ventilation and the fan in the heater blows the warm air about to keep people warm rather than heating a building,if you see what I mean.... I have one to heat my workshop and it works well the Clarke heater runs on Butane and is more suited to use in a room but they both produce lots of moisture

 

[JohnD]

each cylinder produces about a gallon of water in the form of steam.

 

[morg]

As said, the little devil is fine in say a garage where cars are driven in and out... Lots of ventilation and the fan in the heater blows the warm air about to keep people warm rather than heating a building,if you see what I mean.... I have one to heat my workshop and it works well the Clarke heater runs on Butane and is more suited to use in a room but they both produce lots of moisture

Hi mate, thanks for the reply!

Yes, It makes sense in that setting, I see what you mean

Not suitable for us then, I'll just stick to the electric heaters and focus on keeping the heat in, I thought about the humble butane heater (as pictured above) but I fiquired the heat will just expel out a foot or so and make its way to the roof, so not going to work....

 

[morg]

each cylinder produces about a gallon of water in the form of steam.

Yes, I heard that, 2 litres per hour on some of the burners

 

[OwainDIYer]

Heating air will not be effective in a 30' high building. You need radiant heat eg

http://www.spaceray.co.uk/product/industrial/3-1-2-sru-radiant-u-tube.xhtml

http://www.bnthermic.co.uk/catalog/radiant-heaters/esp/

 

[morg]

Heating air will not be effective in a 30' high building. You need radiant heat eg

http://www.spaceray.co.uk/product/industrial/3-1-2-sru-radiant-u-tube.xhtml

http://www.bnthermic.co.uk/catalog/radiant-heaters/esp/[/QUOTE]

Hi mate, they look good, thanks for the advice,

Seen something similar in CEF:
http://www.cef.co.uk/catalogue/products/644288-sunslim-radiant-infra-red-heater-3kw

Roughly how much do these units cost? Also as it is 3kW, I assume I can connect flex/plug - Would be convenient as we got high sockets (5 ft from ground) so heater would sit at about 7-8 ft.

Cheers