Source for heat in darkroom/dryroom?

[noseoil]

Insulation is the least expensive product you can install in a new (or old) building. In the last year, we've started putting more roof systems on the "new" ICF construction buildings (insulated concrete foam) for custom homes. While it costs a bit more for the walls, an R40 rating is hard to beat for heating and cooling, in terms of energy costs. Having 6" solid contrete walls is sort of nice as well. Anyone building a small shop or darkroom might want to do a web search for "ICF construction" to see how things are done. Just make sure to build the roof deep enough to take lots of insulation.

Just checked the temperature here this morning and it is 24f (pretty cold for Tucson). Turned on the heat in the darkroom just now for today's film and it is 57f inside. Since I don't use the darkroom every day, the small ceramic heater (small cube type with an internal fan) is inexpensive to run. In an hour it will be about 68f, but the building is only a 12' x 18' one car garage built with cinder block. There is a small solar panel on the roof, which helps during the winter. It pulls cold air off of the floor through the cabinet kick diffuser panels, and dumps it back in through the ceiling with a 6" duct fan. Crude but effective, and cheap to run. Passive solar would be better, but not for a darkroom. tim

 

[MurrayMinchin]

The garage I'm going into was built from rough cut 2x6 (actually measures 2x6) and is insulated with fiberglass insulation. The garage door is already fixed in place and has a 2x4 insulated wall on the inside. It was set up for my wife's dream of breading cats. We moved them out there, with a massive outdoor fully caged area as well (about 16x20x8' high) because we were foster parenting babies at the time and the active breed of cat we had wouldn't have though twice about using a babies face as a launching pad. Even at -20C a small electric fan heater set at minimum keeps it well above freezing. I'll be able to cover the outdoor run with a temporary roof for a wood storage and cutting area.

I've been searching ways of insulating the concrete floor, and think I've found a frugal option; rigid 1" foam insulation panels (the kind that overlap) which are glued (with foam safe glue) along the overlap, then "Tuck" taped along all the seams. Over this would go tounge and groove plywood. People describing this method say there's no need for a vapour barrier between the concrete and the foam panels as the foam itself is the vapour barrier.

In a world in which I had disposable income raining from my wallet, I would build both a house and a darkroom with the insulated concrete foam blocks, but...

Murray

Added later - Thanks for the links Jerold!

 

[Wayne]

My darkroom (and part of the rest of my house) is heated by my wood boiler. For those who dont know, a wood boiler is an outside furnace that heats and circulates water, in my case through iron radiators but other options are possible. It wouldnt be practical to use one for just a 12x24 building though, unless you want to heat it all day. One bonus is that my domestic hot water is also heated by a heat exchanger hooked up to the boiler, so thats nice. I have 2 50 gal tanks in line and I never run out of hot water. In fact the more I use the hotter it gets. Anyway, this probably doesnt help you but you asked.

Wayne