shed heating

I'm no expert on this - something like a Philips Thermotube perhaps ?

You can get them in various lenghts, and give off 60W per foot lenth of tube.

I'd have thought a dehumidifier would do a better job of protecting tools and paper.

Or a smear of oil/grease/vaseline/wd40 on the tools and take the paper indoors.

On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 11:48:31 +0100 someone who may be gerry wrote this:-

Tubular heaters, connected to a thermostat.

A dehumidifier would achieve the same result or better. If the tools can be in a fairly enclosed space these are good:

Axminster used to do them but I can't find them now. I use them in my tool cupboards and drawers in a garage workshop and they do what it says on the tin.

Peter

A media server nicely keeps my shed heated...

I am curious about your concern over tools rusting as I have a similar size of shed (concrete floor, no dpc, 18ft by 7 by 8 high, attached to a stone cottage) which only in relatively recent years has been insulated and I've never had a problem with tools rusting - and I'm in Scotland. I don't take any preventative action either - my new chisels are in a box but all the old ones and anything else, and we're talking about 35 years old, are in various bench drawers, hanging systems, etc.

About 10 years ago I insulated with expanded polystryrene, which does mean that the heater didn't have to work so hard to get me warm, but if you are having a problem with items rusting, then I think you need to look as to where the moisture is coming from. I may well be that your ground moisture level is higher than mine for instance.

However having said that, I about to replace my ancient workshop convector with one of these from TLC.

I had problems with condensation in my workshop - I found that a small fan heater left running on low is far more effective than a static heater.

Regards,

and keeps your lounge muted?

Thanks for all the replies.

Rob I am also in Scotland (West) and to be honest with you I was pre-empting a solution to this potential problem as I am only just finished kitting the shed out. My fears are born from a friends experience with his brick built outhouse - tools in there rust and papers curl etc which I would really like to avoid. Maybe I am jumping the gun trying to find a solution to a non existent problem. I will leave it be for the time being and adjust the heating requirements if required.

Thanks all.

On reflection maybe my tools would rust in my pergola no matter how good a heater i put in there? :)

Nah.... Squeezebox plays at volume setting 11 over there...

In my similarly insulated workshop I have a 2kW wall mounted fan heater connected via an ordinary horstman room stat. The heater is left switched on to its 800W setting, under control of the stat which is set to about 5 degrees. That seems to work perfectly and stops any dew forming in the shed.

(in fact I don't find the need to turn the power up on the heater when I am in there in the winter - just tweak the stat up to 15 and it soon gets there)

WD 40 is only a water dispersing fluid (the WD is a code used by the armed forces.) It dries off after a short time.)

Vaseline is water soluble, so I wouldn't use that either.

Dave

I built a tool cupboard with a shadow board in it. Then I put a few sachets of silica gel in the bottom . I can now find my tools easy, see if any have been "borrowed" and they don't rust .

My workshop *is* my tool cupboard.... never seems to be enough room to actually work in there these days anyway!

Gerry I would suggest it's the 'brick built', and probably lacking any DPC, etc. I do have to be a little bit more proactive against rust for the items in our brick bike shed, but only in using WD40 and the likes.

By the way I ordered the heater from TLC yesterday and it has come in this morning - give them a plug in the passing.

Rob

Air. Make sure the shed is ventilated. Drill holes low down at one end and high up at the other (or whatever). Cover with a grille if you are bothered about looks. Tools should be fine then but any that have unweathered surfaces (saw blades, well used spade blades etc) spray with WD40 before storage for winter.