How do you heat your reloading area?

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nhyrum

New member
For those who reload in buildings without any sort of central heating heat your reloading area in the colder months?

I had to move my reloading area from indoors to a detached garage with no heat. Before I reloaded, we'd just use propane heaters, either a forced air "torpedo" heater, or what my dad calls "Mr sun" (those round radiant tank top heaters)

I'm not a fan of using an open flame propane heater, but the forced air can be put 15-20 feet from me and still be effective. I don't like how close I have to have the radiant heater. I can't be the only one who heats my reloading area with propane heaters. I believe it's a 25x75 foot building, and I leave a door open with a fan (not by the door) for some fresh air.

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std7mag

New member
I just throw another log into the wood stove that's between the bench & the shelf where i keep my powder. ;)

Just kidding!!!

My "reloading room" is the basement. I added a vent to the duct work from the furnace.
 
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FITASC

New member
You can buy one of those electric radiators that full of oil; they give off a nice even heat. Use a small fan to blow it around if the space is large enough
 
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LeverGunFan

New member
25' x 75' is a lot of space to heat. Can you build some temporary walls of 2' x 4' s and clear plastic around your reloading area? Then heat it with a small electric heater? If you make the walls using screws, you can knock them down when the weather is warmer and use them again next winter.
 
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Pahoo

New member
A time and place for ceramic heaters

How do you heat your reloading area?
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When required to do so, I use a small ceramic electric heater and place it under my bench. The heat rises and gets dispersed from the underside of the bench top. Now then, you mentioned having to use ventilation, for what purpose? Also, I try to get all my always Run-Lead, in warmer weather. ..... :)

Be Safe !!!
 
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Metal god

New member
I live in southern CA , I don't understand the question :p:D

25' x 75' is a lot of space to heat.
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I agree that's huge . Without knowing what all the space is used for , it does seem big enough to put up some walls to make a small reloading room . I'm a contractor and it would be easy for me to accomplish in about a day however high ceiling could complicate things . You'll need a ceiling to keep the heat in and the cold out and building 10'+ walls or needing to install ceiling joists are a whole other thing :(.
 
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Hawg

New member
No central heat here. 14 foot ceiling and I've never measured the room but it's at least 25X25. It has the same heat as the rest of the house. A 35,000 BTU natural gas infrared heater. It keeps it toasty warm. My reloading table sits in the center of the room.
 
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nhyrum

New member
The space would be big enough to put up walls, but this is a temporary stop for me for maybe another year. I think any enclosure I built would need to be temporary and probably have a top to it, I believe the walls to the garage are 8 or 10 feet tall, and the roof adds another 4 or 5 feet to that. But I do like the idea of building an enclosed area that's smaller to heat.I did think about those kerosene heaters too, I've always liked those

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ballardw

New member
Maybe pitch a tent. There are models that allow wiring for electric heater to either go through a portal or inside/outside connections that are big enough to put a bench in. My current tent is 10x20 feet with 6 foot side walls and cost about $200 (I use for camping not reloading but big enough). Many of the external frame types will set up on concrete or similar flooring easily. So you could have a portable heated area to take with you and use for camping. The tricky part is actually finding tents with roofs instead of rain-fly over a mesh top.
 
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hounddawg

New member
Nowadays I am high class with a loading room in the house. Back when I was in a unheated garage I used electric, propane (mr sun style), and kerosene over the years. They all sucked in one way or the other
 
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Nick_C_S

New member
Moving

I'm curious myself. I'm in the process of moving to Idaho. I'll get there just in time for the cold weather to set in (I have never lived in a cold climate). I'm not going to concern myself with loading until next spring begins to approach, as I'll have much other stuff to unpack. But yes, my load area will be in a three car garage (with two cars in it).

I did request extra electrical circuits (home is under construction) in the garage (120 & 220) for heating, lighting, possible air compressor and/or electric car charger. But will heating it be a practical thing to do? In the dead of winter, I suspect not.

I'll likely get one (or two) of those portable oil filled radiators to "extend" the loading season a bit on each end of the warm months - if that makes sense. But when outside high temps are in the 20f range, I doubt getting the garage warm enough for loading is something I'm going to be able to do.

I'm moving from the Sacramento valley, where I had the opposite problem: The summer was too hot to load - no matter what time of the day. However, the winters were so mild that two warmed up car engines (not running inside the garage, of course) was sufficient to warm it.
 
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nhyrum

New member
I moved from Wyoming, where my reloading space was indoors, but heated with baseboard electric heat. It was pretty easy to leave the heat off in the room and just kick on the heat 20 or so minutes before going in to reload. The room would get pretty darn cold with -40F, and whole days in a row that never got over -20. After living in that house, I grew to absolutely despise electric heat. 300 bucks a month to heat a 1000 square foot rambler. I could buy a pallet of just over a ton of heating pellets and that could heat most the house for most of the winter.

I know a lot of homes are heated with propane, so I'm not looking to go completely "fire free" but something that can be either more contained or placed further away.

I was able to find a kerosene heater for 40 bucks, and I plan on running it on either diesel or jet a preferably, as I've got a relationship with some of the people on the line at local airports that have jet a, and will burn cleaner than diesel. All with the added benefit of not getting everything wet from all the moisture propane has.

I don't think a tent would work very well, the garage isn't a garage that cars get parked in, it's more of a shed. So my space is shared.

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of creating a smaller room. I utilize maybe the back 10 feet of the garage, a single wall with a door would partition off the back end, there's a short second level above half of it, extent that to the other side, and it would be is own contained room and a single heater should be able to easily heat it

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Aguila Blanca

Staff
25' x 75' is 1875 square feet. That's a very large space to heat with any sort of portable equipment -- especially if the building isn't insulated. Opening the door to get some fresh air in is understandable if using any sort of combustion equipment for heat, because you don't want to burn up all the oxygen in the space -- but it also admits cold air from outside, which just makes for more cold air to heat.

A friend from the halcyon days of my youth was a car hobbyist and race car driver. He had a 4-bay concrete block garage that he worked in. He installed an oil-fired hot air furnace in one corner and ran a single duct up to the underside of the roof, where it just blew warm air out into the space. With four overhead doors and a man door, there was plenty of infiltration without having to leave any doors open.

He only ran the furnace when he was working in the garage.
 
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nhyrum

New member
It is a large space. About the only thing that will make the whole space comfortable is a 120,000 btu propane convection heater and the 60,000 btu torpedo heater.

I really don't feel like any of the heaters I have and use are bad, but I do feel like I could be safer about it. I 100% don't leave anything running while I'm not there, and I do take precautions to make sure nothing is directed at my tub I keep the powders in and that it stays cool. I still just really don't want to have a fire.

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tangolima

New member
I don't heat up the room. I warm up myself. Heat dish. Aimed right at me 6 - 8 feet away.

-TL

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nhyrum

New member
tangolima said:
I don't heat up the room. I warm up myself. Heat dish. Aimed right at me 6 - 8 feet away.

-TL

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That's pretty much what I do now, I use the tank top sun heater to keep at least one half of me toasty warm. I'll use the torpedo heater to help if it's really cold. I don't expect 40,000 btu to be able to actually heat that much uninsulated space

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Metal god

New member
How does cold effect reloading if at all . Cold often means dry ( I think ) does that effect powder weight or density . When it warms up does the fact you loaded them in near freezing temps effect anything ? Like I said I’m in so cal and weather is pretty much a none issue . It was almost 90* last week and this week it’s in the low 60’s . That pretty avg for here in my area as far as most extreme speads of the year . There are other areas of the county that will reach 100* and get as low as the low 30’s but I’m not in those areas .

I guess my point and or question is if you test in the 90’s but load those test loads in the 30’s does that effect anything ?
 
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