In the winter months, a barn can be a painfully cold place to spend your time. As most barns are not built to the same standards as homes in terms of insulation, the chilly outdoor temperatures will easily make their way inside. Depending on how you use your barn, you may want to add a source of supplemental heat to make it more suitable for whatever is inside. 

This article will cover some of the basics of proper barn heating. Of course, before you can heat a barn, you will need own one – and for that, American Steel Carports, Inc. is the right partner. Try out our Build & Price tool today to see what is possible when you work with us, and take a moment to get in touch if you have any questions. Our team will be happy to serve you!

The Importance of Barn Heating

Heating a barn can be useful for a variety of reasons. Where your uses for an unheated barn will be limited by the wide temperature swings that take place in that environment, you’ll have far more options open up to you by adding a source of heating. Consider the following points:

• Care for animals. If you live in an environment that gets particularly cold in the winter, a heated barn will be a huge improvement for your animals. Even if the animals could make it through the winter on their own, adding heating will help them avoid illness and stay in peak physical condition for as long as possible. 
• Better performance. Speaking of keeping your animals in good condition, making sure they are cared for and comfortable will allow them to produce optimally. For example, you may find that your cows can produce milk at a higher rate when they don’t have to live in a freezing cold barn all winter. 
• Safer work environment. If you or some of your employees work in the barn during the winter, having it heated will help you, and others stay safe while getting the job done. It’s hard to work properly when your fingers are very cold, and the risk of slipping on a frozen surface will always be present. 

Is it possible to get by without heating your barn? Sure, but it’s not necessarily the best way to go. The best heating options are both safe and affordable, so it’s worth your time and attention to consider taking this step. 

Selecting the Right Heating Method

Without a doubt, the best option for barn heating is a radiant heater. The key to radiant heating is that it aims to warm up specific objects rather than all the air in the building. To warm all of the air in a barn would be incredibly inefficient since there is likely a lot of space to heat – including high ceilings – and the building probably isn’t properly insulated to retain the heat that you do produce. 

Going with radiant heating gets around these problems. You’ll be directing your heat source at precisely the area that you want to warm up, such as where the animals are standing or where you are working. Many different types of radiant heaters are available on the market, including models powered by both electricity and gas. 

Consider Insulation

While radiant heaters will be a great start, you can still do better if you opt to insulate your building properly. Assuming it is a metal barn, the metal that makes up the structure conducts heat very efficiently from outside to inside. That means when it is cold outside, it is going to be cold inside. Adding insulation will dramatically slow down this transfer and help you maintain a more neutral temperature in the building. In the end, this means you need to do less work to heat up the space, and when you do warm it up, it will stay warm for longer. There will be a moderate cost associated with adding insulation to an existing barn, but you should find that the investment is more than worth it in the end. 

Build Your Custom Heated Barn Today

Barn heating can be quite useful, but it needs to be done safely if it is going to be done at all. We hope the tips included in this article are a good starting point as you put together a plan for your barn building. To start a new metal barn project, take a moment today to reach out to American Steel Carports, Inc., and we will walk you through the process. Thanks for visiting!