wood at the crib not at the shop , now that you mention it a fireplace to go with the BIG screen & beer fridge sounds pretty good :ernaehrung004:

How much waste oil do you go through?

fwiw.. I have a heated garage 28x40x10 and I'm so paranoid about things, I still winterize the boats incase of a long term power outage.

If I go radiant it will be natural gas so no worries there

We hVe a waste oil heater in our warehouse also... About 2 years old... 500 gallon tank plumbed into it and we can empty that 1.5-2 times a winter depending on how bad of a winter it is

roughly 500 to 700 gallons and shop is set at 70 degrees , have 2- 1000 gallon tanks and plenty of oil :coolcowboy:

The radiant heat that people are talking about is in the floor. You can make it for as large of an area as you want you may just need to add more manifolds. If you got this way you NEED to make sure you thermal breat your floor from the walls or you will be paying to heat your walls and outside.

Just Radiant heat. You won't be sorry going that route. The actual heat bill for the garage is only $240 last month as the elect bill is about $60. If it is 0 outside and you are laying on the floor you will be working with just a short sleeve shirt on. One thing to remember if you put radiant heat in the ceiling is that you will need fans to lower the heat off the ceiling and that is costing you more money. I made it all thur winter until January averaging about $75 a month. January as you know was really cold and snowy.

you put radiant heat in the ceiling ?????? :eek:
thats a new one , care to elaborate

Is the concrete already in your shop? If not a geothermal heat pump may help you reduce your costs a lot.

I agree with others though - you have to use metal or drywall on the walls. Plywood is flammable (and expensive). You can drywall and not mud and tape it if you want to go cheap and you'd be better protected.

+ 1 on the ceiling fan and lowering the ceiling as much as possible, and insulating the dropped ceiling.