It's too cold!

[e_joyner]

I wasn't sure where to post this, so forgive my ignorance(on all accounts). My equipment is in my garage/workshop, and there is no heat/air. It's too cold to do anything in this weather without heat, so...can I use a space heater to keep warm, or will I blow myself off the face of the Earth??? I don't pay much attention to warning labels on the chemicals, and I am at work, so I can't check for flammability cautions.

I currently drag my equipment in and out of the house, but moving a 60lb enlarger kind of dampens the motivation factor, if you know what I mean. I am anxious to frame in a corner of the garage so I can have a permanent setup. I can take the summer heat, but not the cold! Thanks for your help.

~edye

 

[Loose Gravel]

I used to have the corner of the garage for my darkroom. I used black plastic walls that I rolled down and the rafters had black plastic and fiberglass insulation over top. I used a little $10 electric heater and it worked fine. No you won't blow yourself up.

 

[Sean]

Here in NZ electric fin oil heaters are popular, they work really well and can heat a large room. Oil inside metal fins is heated, then heat radiates from there. We have 4 of them for winters here. Here's one: Dead Link Removed

 

[Sean]

oh, and it actually heats the room, not just the air like some fan based heaters do..

 

[e_joyner]

Thanks, I'm glad to know I don't run the risk of self-barbecueing. Sean, I actually have one of these I used for my bulldog's doghouse. I forgot about it, thanks!

 

[brimc76]

I have a micro ceramic furnace I use in the darkroom when it gets too cold and I've never had a problem with it. I was out a few days ago trying to shoot some pictures of an old barn after a snowfall and had my shutter freeze up on me - it was -38° C. It took a couple of hours back in the house to get it working again.

 

[Ben Taylor]

I have a similar problem in my small darkroom - I use a fan heater which heats the room up in no time, you can keep the room nice and cosy with the occasional blast from the heater.

The only problem I've found is condensation when I heat the room up, unfortunately my less than ideal darkroom is not very damp proof

 

[Jorge Oliveira]

Hey, Sean

That's a coincidence!
I have 4 of these, too (not the same make, but...)

Jorge O

 

[glbeas]

I have to use a heater in my darkroom too. Worst problem I've had with them is the thermostat would seize up and run wide open. I'd check on the darkroom and find it running about 80F instead of the 68F it should have been. The mini ceramics gave up the quickest. I have a large electric from Home Depot now that seems to be holding up well.
I have to run the heat so low I'm tempted to find a high power dimmer to run it on so it will have a longer duty cycle so the fan will circulate the warm air and dissipate cold pools.
One thing I found about the oil filled type is the thermostat mainly regulates the oil temp and if the environmental temperature varies much you will have to turn the thermostat up or down to keep a constant level of heat.
The damaged ceramic heater got integrated into a film drying cabinet with a dimmer to control it, using only the low power leg of the core.

 

[Les McLean]

My darkroom is a wooden shed in my back garden and during the winter months I permamently run a trickle heater designed for use in garden greenhouses. It is fixed to the wall in brackets, is about 24" long and is 180 watts so the electricity usage is minimal. So long as the door closed it maintains a low heat and keeps the darkroom quite warm at the times that I am not working there. When I go in to print I have a 2KW convector heater that heats up the room to the 24c that is set on the thermostat. I never have any condensation problems no matter how cold it is outside. I know that we don;t get the low temperatures that some of you guys get but I do live in Northern England where it does regularly fall below freezing and is always damp and wet.