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Mike and I are on the "Space Committee" for the Providence Circus School. We're researching renting a spot for the School to use for classes and such. Specifically, we're looking at Mill building spaces, there are dozens of them being renovated in the area.
One of the spots looks good, except the realtor says that the heat is only turned on during business hours. I was wondering if you guys had good ideas on the best (quick, cheap, thorough) ways to heat it.
Our space will likely be in the 1500 square feet range (give or take 300 square feet) and between 15-20 foot ceilings. The dimensions will likely be 1:2 for the floor.
I called a few Heating Companies, and one suggested a hot air furnace, but another suggested propane heaters. I don't know a lot about either solution. Hot air furnaces are more expensive and installed, while propane heaters are portable but require propane tanks (which would need to be filled periodically). The expectation is that we'd be using the space on the weekend and some weekday nights, perhaps about 10 hours on the weekend (so warming up from ambient temperature), and 10 hours during the week (warming up after business hours).
One guy mentioned that even though the realtor said we wouldn't be getting heat, we'd have to be getting some baseline heat so the pipes wouldn't freeze. We'll be visiting at night to check out how it feels.
Edit: PS. I apologize for my perhaps-annoying habit of making a new paragraph every two sentences or so. It looks so much longer in this little window!
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Kerosene torpedo heaters. 110,000 BTU version. A bit noisy but would heat it up quick and are economical.
Posts: 986 | Registered: Jul 2001
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I was also thinking kerosene or propane space heaters would be WAY too noisy.
School - is this a space for kids? (I'm not clear on what you are doing with this space). If there will be young ones, you want to make sure you have something that will be safe around them -- not something they could burn themselves on. (I'm being obvious, I guess).
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Farmgirl: Yeah, it's usually young kids, 10-16. We could put a cage around the heating system. I'm not sure how big of a problem noise would be. If it's not so loud that we have to shout to be heard, then that's not bad.
Isn't there a problem with toxic fumes or smelly fumes?
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fugu, we'll do that if it comes down to actually installing a true system. But the more likely solution will be separate units like the torpedo suggested. Unfortunately, none of us have any experience in the field, so we're really trying to see what our options are. Having a whirring noise in the background is probably okay, but having to shout is not. Questionable by-products are a no-no.
I've been looking around. It seems that Radiant heat isn't appropriate. Some people say that the torpedo heaters can smell and be fairly noisy (though I don't know how noisy). I'm concerned that filling the tanks will be a burden. Space heaters don't seem to be quite good at heating such a large room.
this looks interesting, and you can vent it through the window if you'd like.
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It may seem a dumb question, but how cold does the room get?
If I read right, you're running a circus school? It sounds like the kids may be pretty active and generate their own heat. I've always thought it was tougher keeping an exercise class cool enough, rather than warm enough.
Assuming these classes are active, you may just want to have them wear sweatshirts until they get warmed-up.
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Well, I'm in Providence so if it's actually not heated on the weekends, the outside temperature can get down to about 10 below F. The kids (and adults!) might do some damage to their muscles to do strenuous stuff when it's so cold.
Torpedo Heaters seem to be about $200-$300, but not really meant for indoor work. The Vented heater is about $1500 and is quiet and clean.
Any other things I should be looking at?
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The beautiful part about the Torpedo heaters is they warm a place up quick. Use little kerosene, and don't have the kerosene heater smell.. They can be used to heat a room quickly and then turned off and an alternat sourse used to keep the ambient temp at a comfortable level. I've used them for years and never had a problem with them at all.
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You can't work out a rental deal where they turn on the heat for you? I assume there is actually heat in the building if it is turned on during business hours. It seems very odd to me that they wouldn't make this kind of arrangement.
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Just do the fire breathing and jumping-through-firey-hoops lessons first each morning and the place will be warmed up for the rest of the day.
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Did you get this resolved? Because I was just at a party on Saturday night that had THESE types of heaters warming up a very large area (empty five-car garage). There were SO cool! Everyone was drawn to them as soon as they came in, checking them out.
You can't tell by the photo on the link, but they are about 7 to 8 feet tall, and all the heat radiates out from the top, under the umbrella. So there is nothing at the bottom that kids can reach that is hot (It is cool all the way up to the top).
They run on propane. They are made by Coleman, and the guy who had them works for them, so I'm not suprised he had their latest & greatest thing.
Maybe one of your local rental companies can get a couple for you to rent.
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