Heating cost for a simulator during Minnesota Winters

[Hi Handicaper]

I realize this is an answer that can't be realistically answered 100% accurately, but I am looking for some opinions from people who need to heat their simulators during cold Winter Months. My simulator is in a non-insulated shed (36'x56' with 14' ceilings). Within this building, I built my simulator room (16' x 25' with 11' ceiling) My plan is to heat this with a 240 volt, 5 KW electric heater, but only bring it up to temp, (maybe 65 degrees Fahrenheit) when using the sim. When not in use, I hope to keep it around 50 degrees. I have super insulated it with a minimum of 12" fiberglass thick insulation in all the walls and 24" on the ceiling. A vapor barrier is installed covering all walls and the ceiling. The floor is 5 1/2" of concrete with 2" rigid foam beneath that. Pex tubing is installed for "future" radiant heating, but I will not be setting this up right now.

I would love to hear what people think it would cost to heat this to 65 degrees a few hours each weekend and back down to 50 degrees over the week. I think the key is to not let the concrete slab get too cold. My hope is to be able to leave all of my electronics in the simulator instead of having to tear down the projector, laptop, tablets, etc. each time I use the sim.

Just for comparison, I have a 10,000 BTU window air conditioner in the room that is set to keep the room at 72 degrees all Summer long. Yes, S.E. Minnesota gets hot and humid in the Summer, mostly 80's some 90's and occasionally into the 100's. I have this plugged into a "Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor" and starting from May of 2022 through the present, it has cost me an average of <$3.00/ Month. This is with turning the temp down to 68 degrees while using the simulator.

Any ideas are appreciated. I am planning on metering the heater so I will have my own answer after this Winter, but would love any educated guesses or experiences of heating during past winters.

Thank You!

[nfear24]

At my old house I had my golf sim in a well insulated garage that was 22x22 with 9 1/2 foot ceilings. I had a single 240v 25,000 BTU electric ceiling heater. I would keep it around 50 not in use and about 68-70 in use. We used the sim a lot. It cost me probably $150 month when it was pretty cold out. I live in Northwest Iowa. One day I was installing some stuff on the ceiling and noticed around 2 feet or so from the ceiling it was like almost 10 degrees warmer if not more. So I installed a fan that moved the air in the garage around so the heater ran a lot less to maintain temperature.

[Hi Handicaper]

I would be running a fan as well to circulate the heat.

[Scottygolf]

I am in MN but I have a natural gas heater in the garage which is 1000 sq ft. Keep it at 55 and turn it up to 63-65. It adds to the gas bill but exactly, I can't tell as I have never not had it on in the winter. Last year I did put a mini-split for AC. That is ran all the time but in dehumidifier mode which cost about $15-20 a month. Keeps the garage solid at 70 all summer long. I will turn that on in the winter to heat once the gas does it job to heat faster and just helps regulate while we are playing as it is quieter than the gas heater due to the fan. Consider it a cost of a round per month to heat or cool - easy justification then!

[GullLakeMi]

I realize this is an answer that can't be realistically answered 100% accurately, but I am looking for some opinions from people who need to heat their simulators during cold Winter Months. My simulator is in a non-insulated shed (36'x56' with 14' ceilings). Within this building, I built my simulator room (16' x 25' with 11' ceiling) My plan is to heat this with a 240 volt, 5 KW electric heater, but only bring it up to temp, (maybe 65 degrees Fahrenheit) when using the sim. When not in use, I hope to keep it around 50 degrees. I have super insulated it with a minimum of 12" fiberglass thick insulation in all the walls and 24" on the ceiling. A vapor barrier is installed covering all walls and the ceiling. The floor is 5 1/2" of concrete with 2" rigid foam beneath that. Pex tubing is installed for "future" radiant heating, but I will not be setting this up right now.

I would love to hear what people think it would cost to heat this to 65 degrees a few hours each weekend and back down to 50 degrees over the week. I think the key is to not let the concrete slab get too cold. My hope is to be able to leave all of my electronics in the simulator instead of having to tear down the projector, laptop, tablets, etc. each time I use the sim.

Just for comparison, I have a 10,000 BTU window air conditioner in the room that is set to keep the room at 72 degrees all Summer long. Yes, S.E. Minnesota gets hot and humid in the Summer, mostly 80's some 90's and occasionally into the 100's. I have this plugged into a "Kill A Watt EZ Electricity Usage Monitor" and starting from May of 2022 through the present, it has cost me an average of <$3.00/ Month. This is with turning the temp down to 68 degrees while using the simulator.

Any ideas are appreciated. I am planning on metering the heater so I will have my own answer after this Winter, but would love any educated guesses or experiences of heating during past winters.

Thank You!

36' X 56' is > shed. If AC is <$3.00 a month and you are still asking the question, this is a level of precisions where my input is useless.

[MongoOnlyPawn]

I live in SE Minnesota. SIM is 15x30 with 10' ceilings. 4" Sprayed foam insulation ceiling & walls, 4" concrete with 2" pink foam below. Running radiant floor heat with a package from Radiantec, heat source is Rinnai RUCS75i direct vent tankless. Cost on mechanical package & Rinnai was about $2600 in the fall of 2020. Installation of heat package was completed in August of 2021.

From Oct '20 to April '21 (no heat in SIM) we used 1053 therms, house only, roughly 105,000 ft³ of natural gas according to MN Energy, 6830 heating degree days so roughly 6 therms per day.. From Oct '21 to Apr '22, we used 1150 therms, 7032 heating degree days, roughly 6.5 therms per day. Assuming no major changes in home usage, that would mean we used 1/2 therm per day to heat the Sim.

Current Natural Gas charge is 91¢ per therm (was 38¢ over 20/21 winter, 72¢ over 21/22 winter.)

So at 91¢ per therm, it will cost me about $191 to heat my sim this winter, or $28/month.

[Hi Handicaper]

I live in SE Minnesota. SIM is 15x30 with 10' ceilings. 4" Sprayed foam insulation ceiling & walls, 4" concrete with 2" pink foam below. Running radiant floor heat with a package from Radiantec, heat source is Rinnai RUCS75i direct vent tankless. Cost on mechanical package & Rinnai was about $2600 in the fall of 2020. Installation of heat package was completed in August of 2021.

From Oct '20 to April '21 (no heat in SIM) we used 1053 therms (roughly 105,000 ft³) of natural gas according to MN Energy, 6830 heating degree days so roughly 6 therms per day.. From Oct '21 to Apr '22, we used 1150 therms, 7032 heating degree days, roughly 6.5 therms per day. Assuming no major changes in home usage, that would mean we used 1/2 therm per day to heat the Sim.

Current Natural Gas charge is 91¢ per therm (was 38¢ over 20/21 winter, 72¢ over 21/22 winter.)

So at 91¢ per therm, it will cost me about $191 to heat my sim this winter, or $28/month.

Good to know. I can’t wait to get a boiler set up for my in-floor heat in the sim, electric is quite a bit more expensive. I have radiant in-floor heat in my house and garage and love it. Unfortunately I just wasn’t happy with the 9 foots ceilings in the garage so I bit the bullet and built the sim room in my shed.

[Brettster]

Hi Handicaper - I have a shed that I finished and insulated (still some of the roof/gables to insulate) where I live - in Northern Indiana (very close to Michigan and Lake Michigan) where temps vary widely across seasons (we could see -5 in Winter, and 110 in Summer).

I installed this MiniSplit in May 2022 - 9000 BTU (3/4 ton), 21.5 SEER: https://tinyurl.com/MiniSplit-9000BTU-22SEER

I am seeing about $20/month in additional heating/cooling costs every month, from my rough estimates - I don't have actual numbers and have not been through a full Winter season yet. I want to let you know how happy I have been with this unit at keeping the temp of my Golf Sim at a reasonable playing temperature year-round, it's amazing. These Mini-Splits are available in much higher heating/cooling capacities.

You can read about my Mini-Split and see more information on my Sim Shed post thread at:

https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/golf-simulator-forum/simulator-builds/348365-golf-sim-shed-build-finally?p=369238#post369238

Let us know what you ended up with, and how it's doing for you.