Ok after a day of research and lots of thread reading I have come to a decision. I will be installing a 40ft 80k radiant natural gas tube heater in my shop. One side of my shop is for the boat and the other is basically open space and some shelving. I will install the heater on the opposite side approximately 15 feet from the tube. The tube is rated for 1800 sqft. I like the idea of these for 2 reasons 1) they don't stir up as much dust on the boat 2) it heats the concrete also. Luckily I have a spare shop heater that is rated for 1400 sqft and is all electric so if this thing doesn't cut it I will tie it in with it. I went and viewed a shop today with radiant tubes and couldn't believe the difference. The shop was smaller than mine but I live the overall design and energy savings. I also will be installing a metal gloss white ceiling with blow in cellulose insulation and r13 vinyl back on the walls covered by dry wall.

Do the walls in metal to. Much easier to install and keep clean.
We have done several of them and they work very well.

BTW...If the electric goes out (Ice storm} you will lose heat even with the tube heater...I always fill my engines with anti-freeze just to be safe

No, its in the floor.

They do both actually. It works better in the floor however.

Luckily we just put in a natural gas gen with a 600amp auto switch for my office I will be wiring in the heaters to this.

I have heard different stories here....the shop I was i the floors felt great. They were warm and so were the objects around it. I guess the in floor theory is that is heats the concrete and everything sits on the concrete so the warm air travels up into everything. If I could install in floor for $1500 or under then I might consider it but I can buy this radiant tube heater for $1500 and basically get the same effect I beleive. I am open to opinions.

Our radiant is the overhead tube style, works good, heats the floor and all objects inside.

The radiant tube will heat the floor.....I could have gone radiant in floor when I built my shop for cheap but you have to be absolutely sure where you are going to place all your heavy pieces of equip....example - with the lift for the car, the drill press, the compressor etc etc I have 16 holes drilled in the floor.....if I had laid out the tubes in a conventional grid pattern I would have drilled into a tube for sure.....not good!....if you commit yourself and keep the tubes away from certain areas to avoid problems then you have parts of your floor heated and parts that aren't....could that set you up for cracking down the road???....nobody could answer that question for me so I didnt go for it.....D