Best way to heat a tack room

[Snowflake]

I bought a small horse property in Upstate NY and the small 30x30 barn near the house has four stalls and a wash stall. I’m thinking about converting the wash stall to a tack room and would like to put heat in it to store the hose and any horse meds during the winter. I don’t need the wash stall due to having an AniVac and the wash stall needs a lot of work due to the hot water tank freezing and the drain being clogged after they used the wash stall as a horse stall for a while.

I’ve been in several barns over the years and I’ve seen different methods of heating. One was a ventless gas wall mounted heater. Others were electric. One other had a wood pellet stove.

I’d prefer something other than electric for utility cost reasons but in all honesty, if it’s a small, well insulated space, how much more expensive is electric going to be than gas?

[Bluey]

Check with the mini-split heat pumps if you need both, heat and cooling.

They make them from little ones to whole house ones.

If that is too expensive, we use those cheap metal electric heaters in our well houses and odd tackroom and they have worked well for us, even when we have our several weeks with lows -0F and highs in the teens.

Those don’t use much electricity.

[Bluey]

Can’t edit, but here is what we use:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/17808701?wmlspartner=wlpa&adid=22222222227016992144&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=43324418792&wl4=pla-52987237766&wl5=9028447&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla_multichannel&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=17808701&wl13=&veh=sem

We never had any problems with those and they last a few winters, until some day they quit.
We just replaced a maybe ten year old in one well house.

[gumtree]

Electric baseboard is the easiest to install depending on how easy it is to run a dedicated 12-2 wire to the Breaker panel. And the the panel has a space in it for a 220 volt line. 120 volt baseboard heaters can be had but are not as efficient as 220 and cost more to operate.

I installed a 6’ baseboard in our well insulated 10X20 tack room.

Wall mounted ventless gas heaters work well also and should be cheaper to operate. But they require the purchase or lease of a large tank and a gas line run. The heater cost a couple of hundred dollars. You local gas supplier will tell you what size tank will be needed and the cost of buying or leasing. Depending on the length of the supply line some will install that for free with a contract.

Pellet stoves work great. But they can’t just be “turned on”. Pretty hard to regulate the temp output. Even a small one might “cook” a small room. I have never used one. Plenty of experience with a wood stove. Pellet stoves are not cheap even used ones.

Of the 3 baseboard is the least expensive to purchase, around $50 for a 6’. For another $40± you can get a programmable thermostat if needed. Installation cost varies depending on location and what electricians charge. They are simple to hook up. I did installed ours. Guessing $200-300 for heater and installation? The other 2 $500++

[Snowflake]

Heat pumps just don’t work well here in my area because we can, and do, get stretches of artic temperatures where wind chills and feel like temps dip into the -20s.

There are natural gas hookups already in the barn for the old water heater which froze after the old owners left town. Any risk of fire or CO poisoning with the ventless natural gas heaters?

[gumtree]

Bluey I have several of those that I use in case of a frozen pipe in a “craw” space, keep one in our barn well pump/pressure tank “pit” in case some thing freezes. They work fine for those applications or other small spaces.

Granted the OP didn’t say what size the room is but those heater wouldn’t do much in a room bigger than a walk in closet. It would be running depending on outside temps pretty much 24-7. Having spent some time in up-state NY winters they don’t get much of a break from constant cold temps, very cold.

If the OP wants a “plug and play” this would be better IMO

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lasko-1500-Watt-Low-Profile-Silent-Room-Heater-with-Digital-Display-White-5622/203450051

OP, give us the size of the space. include ceiling height and how many windows and their size and type.

[Snowflake]

It’s maybe an 8x8x8 room.

[fordtraktor]

I have an electric baseboard wired in like gumtree. I think mine is also 6 feet. This morning it was 5 degrees when I got up; I actually turned my heater down to 1.5 from 2.5 because the 10 by 24 tack and feed room was downright toasty and I felt I was wasting electricity. It is great. Like any heat source I keep it clean and don’t put stuff in front of it. I have it under my girth racks and a few bridles. I put the reins up high and it is all a few feet from the heater so the leather doesn’t dry out.

[ElementFarm]

the farm we rented for a while didn’t have HVAC, and we just used a small electric space heater I bought off Amazon. The tack room was a converted stall, and not well sealed. But we used glue and foam in all the cracks, and the space heater did keep the space above freezing even on the colder days, though it wasn’t exactly toasty.

The space heater didn’t cost that much to run, and on the milder days, we kept in on the lowest setting. I did make sure I bought one that had safety features for my peace of mind, but we had absolutely no problem with it.

(our current farm has HVAC in tackroom, so I use the space heater in our master bathroom, which runs cold for some reason. I hate getting out of the shower into a really cold room)

[NorthwoodsRider]

I’ve always heard that this kind of oil filled heater is safer than something with an exposed coil. Supposed to give a nice even heat as well. It would be my choice for an 8’x8’ room in a barn.

Oil Filled Radiant Heater

[NorthwoodsRider]

I’ve always heard that this kind of oil filled heater is safer than something with an exposed coil. Supposed to give a nice even heat as well. It would be my choice for an 8’x8’ room in a barn.

Oil Filled Radiant Heater

[Sweetums_Mom]

QUOTE [I’ve always heard that this kind of oil filled heater is safer than something with an exposed coil. Supposed to give a nice even heat as well. It would be my choice for an 8’x8’ room in a barn.

Oil Filled Radiant Heater]UNQUOTE

This…^^^ My DH (aka Mr. Worst Case Scenario) did some research several years ago and we now have 3 for my 25x25 well insulated tack room. I start with having one turned on then add as it gets and stays colder over the winter. I had 3 going during the polar vortex year. I usually try and keep the temperature to at least 60.

[Fairview_Horse_Cente]

The oil radiator electric heater is the safest. 1500 watts and 5000 btu is the same in all plug electric heaters. It has lots of heat area, so a better use of the power to make and keep heat. Also, we used it for drying gloves, as things laying on the fins will not catch fire.

[Bluey]

We have 6’ x 6’ well house that one of those on low keeps warm and also two rooms behind the garage, a tack room one, each 12’ x 16’, nothing there is heated, both have one of those and they keep them warm.

No, they are not toasty warm, but nothing in there freezes.

It was one more suggestion, OP could try that first, then get something else if that doesn’t work.

[IPEsq]

If you insulate it when you do the conversion to room vs wash stall, I think you’ll be fine with electric baseboard heaters. We use that here commonly in tack rooms, and it keeps things warm enough for what you need. The office in my old barn which was much narrower occasionally got too hot.

I did worry about tack being hung above them and the dirt and hay and hair and stuff that gets tracked in. Current barn has basically the same type of heaters but they are mounted at the ceiling in one of the tack rooms. The room is lined with lockers, so there’s not really a good floorboard space for a heater. The ceiling is pretty high so it doesn’t feel as warm in there compared to a lower ceiling tack room with baseboard heaters, but with the thermostat at 55, I haven’t had any issues with meds or anything.