Minisplit for barn
Hello. I am looking for safe, cost-effective heating solution for my barn. The main barn is traditional style hip roof, barn with hayloft, animal stalls, etc. It was built in 2014 and has 100 amp electrical service. Everything was done, professionally, not a DIY project Inside the barn is a 12 x 12 work room and connected 10 x 12 bunk room. These rooms are well insulated. I live in the upper peninsula of Michigan where winter temperatures can get down below zero. I keep these two rooms heated to about 60° And have been using oil filled radiator type heaters. I am deathly afraid of fire in the barn and keep the units in the middle of the room away from all combustible material. I still worry. Secondarily, electricity is expensive up here and I’d like a more cost-efficient Heating solution.
I like the idea of a mini split heat pump. The way things are set up, it would be very difficult if not impossible to mount the compressor unit completely outside of the barn since the rooms that I need to heat have barn space on all four sides. it would be possible, however to mount the compressor unit outside the heated rooms, but within the unheated main part of the barn. It does get a bit dusty like Barnes tend to do, but otherwise it could be in a well protected space. It would have the added benefit of the main barn always being about 10° warmer than outside in the winter because of animal heat. Does this sound reasonable again, the main problem I’m trying to solve is to reduce fire hazard by not having a resistive heating element and then the secondarily lowering my electricity costs. my heaters cost about $100 per month to run. As an added bonus, it would be nice to have the AC in the summer. What do you all think? By the way, I would think about maybe a 9000 BTU unit, 110 V. The total space that I’m heating is under 300 ft.² and probably has insulation at 30 R. Thanks for any help you can provide.
Posted Oct 7, 2025, 2:27 AM UTC · locked