Needing advice, firsthand only please.
Looking for experience for heaters in the barn-wash stall radiant heaters, infrared heaters,…what do you use? And where? Stalls, wash stalls, etc.? Would love to get some experiences from those of you that have used or use heaters in your barn.
Not in a wash stall, but we have electric infrared heaters over each stall. The horses migrate to them and stand under them as needed. They work well to warm the horse without heating the barn.
In an area well away from hay, bedding, and any flamables, I have a LP gas infrared heater hanging above a work area. It puts out substantially more heat, but it does have exposed flame in the heater. It is electrically spark ignited so you can flip a switch to turn it on/off. I would think it would do a much better job keeping horses warm when wet, as well as assisting with drying them. It would not dry them by itself, but using a squeegee and a brush would fluff the hair enough that body heat would get a real good assist from this heater. You cannot stand within about 3’ of it, so I have it at about 45degree angle at about 9-10’.
The electric IR heaters would have a problem drying with totally wet horses.
Both types can be seen on Grainger.com under Infrared Heaters.
I would never, ever have any sort of heaters in my barn.
Much too risky.
Not asking for opinions on whether or not to use heaters, Mallard, just firsthand advice on what others use for them, if they have them in their barns. 
Thanks though.
Control the barn and you won’t have problems with them.
40+ years experienced with horses.
Thanks for the in depth reply earlier, Pdgx-I appreciate it.
We had three propane unit heaters mounted in the ceiling of our 200 ft X 36 ft barn. Worked well for 20 years. Easily kept the barn at 40 degrees for the automatic waterers - they ran an average of 60 hours a winter (I actually kept track of the seasonal operation). We put them on a clock drive and I had them cycle on and off a few hours at a time on the bitterly cold evenings.
This year we installed 175 solar panels on the roof and will be switching to electric unit heaters.
Dotneko, would be interested in specifics on your solar panel configuration and how much power you expect to get from it. Will be building a new location shortly (in a warmer climate) and intend to install solar. Thx.
We used Astrum Solar. 175 panels producing 35 kW - already have a several thousand dollar credit with Unitil for the three months its been in operation.
email me at dotneko@aol.com and I will put you in touch with them.
(I get a $250 check for a referral and the person who gets it installed gets $250 also)
We have totally eliminated our propane and oil (and electrical, obviously) bills.
Wish I had done it years ago.
First 6 weeks production report:
Week
Peak Power
Energy Produced
07/01/2014 - 07/07/2014 33.8 kW 1.48 MWh
07/08/2014 - 07/14/2014 33.4 kW 1.57 MWh
07/15/2014 - 07/21/2014 33.2 kW 1.39 MWh
07/22/2014 - 07/28/2014 32.2 kW 1.45 MWh
07/29/2014 - 07/31/2014 33.3 kW 634 kWh
July 2014 Total: 6.52 MWh
Previous Month Total: 3.63 MWh
Year to Date: 10.2 MWh
For more details on these production results, please visit your Enphase® system.
[QUOTE=Mallard;7780222]
I would never, ever have any sort of heaters in my barn.
Much too risky.[/QUOTE]
Heat sources properly sized, properly installed, properly maintain in a barn are not more “risky” then having a heat source in your house.
[QUOTE=dotneko;7781520]
We used Astrum Solar. 175 panels producing 35 kW - already have a several thousand dollar credit with Unitil for the three months its been in operation.
email me at dotneko@aol.com and I will put you in touch with them.
(I get a $250 check for a referral and the person who gets it installed gets $250 also)
We have totally eliminated our propane and oil (and electrical, obviously) bills.
Wish I had done it years ago.[/QUOTE]
Pretty impressive system. What was the cost installed? Unless you have an equally impressive battery pack you will be “buying” electricity for around 12 hrs a day during the winter months. The months that will require the highest demand at night for heating. MA is not exactly known for lots of sun in the winter then say a place like Colorado also. It is my understanding that power companies are required to buy consumer generated but pay a fraction of what they charge for “their” power. I suppose in the warmer months you will “recapture” what you had to buy/spend during the winter?
Exactly correct - hence the credits accumulating in Unitil (our electric company). Our highest bill was around 2000 for the month of February, so at our current credit production we will have a good cushion come winter. Other winter months run about $1200.
Installation ran around $180,000. We are leasing it for 20 years. They get the SRECs and tax incentives.
Additional credits with Unitil (above and beyond our yearly consumption) can be ‘sold’ to others on our grid. I can ‘sell’ my neighbor my excess electricity for whatever we agree upon. Or donate it.
Forgot to add that the production is guaranteed at 34 kW.
Had we been able to afford it outright and been able to get the SREcs ourselves, the payback was about 5 years in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, our mortgage company was not as progressive as they said they were.
