Swinging for Divorce…

My shop is 30x40, but some goof put in an internal room all the way down the long side that's 10' wide. That leaves 20x40 for the shop proper. It was uninsulated for the first 15 years I had it. I managed it using a 30K propane heater right where I was working. About 10 years ago I insulated the place (R-19) and added two big 60" ceiling fans to push the heat down from the roof, using the same propane heater. What a difference that made! It was very workable with this arrangement.

Fast forward to two years ago, I added a mini-split. Holy Cow, now it's shirt sleeve temps easy, if I want! Summers are cool as you want it. Our temps up here average highs in the 40-50's and lows in the low 30's in the winter. Summers are not too bad, highs normally 85-90 but the nights get cool most of the time. I love that mini-split!

And you are correct, they are efficient. My old energy use was for a single forced-air electric furnace in the house that was $195 a month. After pulling out the old house furnace and adding the mini-split to both the house and shop (which formerly had nothing for heating/cooling) my energy use went DOWN about 30%. And that's with running the A/C in the summer in the house. There's nothing here not to like - run, don't walk down that mini-split path!