The drop lightwould be my choice also and I plan on giving it a try this season.Never had a heated area and never had a problem other than condensation.And that is not really a problem,spring time is always clean up time anyway.

 

I wouldn't worry about condensation. Where would the moisture come from? The colder the temperature, the drier the air is. Just hook up the battery to the tender, and let her hibernate! She'll be fine.

 

If the bike is a 2007 or up......start it up Dec 1st and get it to full operating temp, then drive it into shed, shut it off, jump out and slam the shed doors shut...should stay warm in there until April...[8D]

 

Tom, Why do you want to heat the shed? What's going to be in the shed that needs to be heated. Seems to me that heat cost money and your Harley won't mind being cold. Take the battery out and bring it inside your house and put it on a trickle charger if you want. My bikes never seemed to mind the cold.

I don't get it? If it's just to keep the motorcycle warm I wouldn't bother. Dry is important, warm isn't a big deal.

 

Line the slab with a thick mil plastic to keep moisture in concrete, cover bike and run a drop light under the bike and plug it into a timer so the sun keeps it warm during the day and the light kicks on..say about 6:00 pm and goes off at 9:00 am.......Keeping the shed on a thermal setting will only run constantly, is the inside sheetrock'd? mucho importante!!

 

It's not a dog it's a Harley they don't need heat in the winter. Just plug it the the battery and don't worry about it.

 

Ironlegend, you don't say to what temperature you want to heat it too. I notice from your registration that you are in Ontario, so you probably get some cold temps like we do in Minnesotathat some of the previous people who have replied don't have experience with.

11x15 shed is the size of a bedroom, and with three exposed walls plus one more with a door in it, 1500 watts isn't going to keep up if you want it warm enough to stay above freezing. If you are just storing it, and not working on it, the ideas of putting it on a piece of plywood, to get it off the cement, put a cover over it, and the trouble light with an incandescent light bulb under it, will work great. Plug in a battery tender and you're good to go. Make sure you lay the light on something fire proof.

As others have said, the problem will be moisture in the spring coming up through the floor if it does not have a vapor barrier under the cement. To deal with that, take the cover off and just run a household box fan on low, pointed at your bike, for the couple of weeks you'll have before the ground thaws and the moisturewill no longer a problem.

I have a 22x24 fully insulated shop, and have a 12' run of electric wall heater on one side, and an overhead radiant heater on the other side over my workbench.

Here's is a calculator you can use. To get a 40 F degree rise in temps, using "average insulation" and assuming an 8 foot ceiling, you will need at least 7000 watts!

http://www.heatershop.com/btu_calculator.htm

 

Manyuseful responses which got me re-thinking what I originallyintended to do. I'm assuming the existinginsulation would be insufficient as itwould bethe thickness required for a 2x4" framed wall with the shed exterior being 1/4" plywood and the interior is chipboard (aspenite). There is a small fuzebox in there containing 2 x 15amp. fuses for power distribution.

I didn't intend to do any work to the Harley over the winter, just storage and given the addedfact of electricity cost it would probably would have beencheaper to store itwith someone who provides heated storage for a couple hundred dollars or so till May/08.

What I think I will do now is park it in the shed on a 4'x8' sheet of plywood, take the battery inside the house for the winterand monitor the charge occasionally, cover the Harleywith a breathable cover I have and lay an incandescenttrouble light under it for a bit of warmth.

Thanksall.

Almost forgot, would a 60W bulb be sufficient for the purpose?

 

this might sound odd, but I like to drink beer while I tinker with my bike, so why not put a fridge in your shop. The fridge puts off some heat, that will keep your bike warm, and it will put off some cool, that will keep the beer cool. the heat coming off the bottom of the fridge is great to dry your boots and leathers after a wet ride. And it's a great place to store stuff that you want to keep dry and cool. ymmv

 

Did anyone mention or consider that when you heat a shed that has cold metal in it that all the condensation is attracted to the cold metal?! Therefore any moisture in the air will collect where you don't want it to..

I don't keep the heat on in my garage constantly but on occassons I do heat with one of thoes propane so-called ventless heaters... and when I do, I've noticed the "sweat" condensation collecting on all the metal and glass objects..

A fix for me is to run a de-humidifier during the heating times and after for a day to even things out. Bike covers etc keep dust off but won't stop the moisture..

DONT START THE BIKE in the winter unless you intend to ride it... and er do some maintenance... I know it's hard to keep from starting but you must remain calm...