Air Conditioner/Heater BTU ratings for Drafty Barn

[Charlie S]

Well, I have FINALLY run electric cable out to the Forearm Farm.  It's not connected yet, but soon I'll have 240V/50A available.


In reality, with a 130' run, it'll be more like 230V.


Anyway, does anyone have experience with associating BTUs with a space which is not well insulated?  I have insulation on the climbing walls, some in the rafters, and have the climbing walls tarped off on open sides, but when it's windy, the barn won't hold on to the heat.


Here is some reference information:

Barn size: 2000 sq ft
Climbing space used: 385 sq ft (for now, as you can see, I have a lot of room to expand)
Ceiling height: 14'

I can comfortably heat the barn in the winter when it's 20-30 degrees up to around 50 degrees with a 2-burner propane heater.

Related, it can reach 100 degrees in the summer.  I have zero cooling currently.

Here's what I am thinking about as a first go, but I wonder if it's overpowered (is that such a thing?):
www.lowes.com/pd/GE-1600-sq-ft-Window-Air-Conditioner-with-Heater-230-Volt-24000-BTU/1000236399
Similarly:
www.homedepot.com/p/LG-Electronics-18-000-BTU-230-208-Volt-Window-Air-Conditioner-with-Cool-Heat-and-Remote-LW1816HR/206520610

With a price tag like that, I will certainly be on the road to gym membership cancellation...

[Chris W]

I can't answer your question directly. I've looked into it for my barn but always come to the conclusion that it isn't worth it until/unless I put up some insulation. I've slowly started putting up some foam board insulation, but it will be years before I could afford to do the whole thing.

I use a small Mr. Buddy heater to warm up my fingers and toes in the winter and a simple air conditioner window unit to cool off a hangboard bubble in the summer. I get temps around 100+ in the summer and down as low as 0 in the winter. The advantage of having no climate control is it makes you tough for when you're climbing outdoors.

Regarding heat, the locals will heat their garages and shops (like my mechanic) with large propane heaters around that size. They make them quite comfortable, even with the bay doors open. I can't speak for cooling a barn, but I cool my entire house in the summer with window air conditioner units that don't even come close to that size.

[bill]

I have a small wall compared to some of you guys, the wall space is about 300 sq. feet in a 1 stall garage, and with light fiberglass insulation and a 5000w electric heater and some fans, but it gets toasty even on some of the more brutal South Dakota winter days (below zero). Summers get a little warm, usually peaking in the 90s midsummer, and I've managed to keep training using a series of box fans to circulate the air and climbing earlier in the mornings when it is expected to get hot. I wonder if you enclosed your climbing area into a smaller unit and heated / cooled just that, you could probably get by with a 10kw heater and a smaller window unit. I seem to remember using a calculator online somewhere to figure out how much I needed BTU wise, for a rough measure it was 20 x the square footage to be heated.

In the end, it seems that insulation is always cheaper than the cost of heating an uninsulated space, so, if it were me, I'd probably start there.

[Charlie S]

Thanks for the input, guys. As I'm sitting in here between campus ladders, I see where there is significant room for insulation. Air doesn't need much to escape. Also discovered my little 2-burner propane heater spits out 3x as much heat as those combo units.

[MarkAnderson]

Nov 14, 2018 9:36:39 GMT -7 bill said:

In the end, it seems that insulation is always cheaper than the cost of heating an uninsulated space, so, if it were me, I'd probably start there.

Agreed, and its also way more effective.

[greatsending]

I have my bouldering wall/campus board in an uninsulated two-car garage in the Chicago suburbs. For long sessions there is a small wood stove that does an okay job heating the garage making it liveable down to 20 degrees. However, it takes quite a bit of time to heat up.

Most of my sessions are about 30 minutes long taking place first thing in the morning, so I don't have time for the whole garage to heat up, nor do I need the whole thing to be warm. Has anyone come up with a way to provide quick heat that would allow me to climb/campus for short periods? I'm thinking a forced air electric heater may be the best way to go. The garage does have a 220 service that the previous owner used to run his welder. I'm open to the idea of a propane heater, but don't love the idea of regularly swapping out 20lb tanks.

Insulating the garage would be costly and very time consuming, and since most of my sessions are pretty short I don't think I'd reap the full benefits of it.

[Charlie S]

Honestly, propane heating will be your easiest and cheapest heating option. Be aware of the potential for CO2 poisoning and mitigate that via ventilation!

[climber511]

Find a heating and cooling forum or visit a Retail shop that specializes in things like this. Not saying we don't have the proper experts here but..............