How large is the building (sq feet)?

What is the climate like in the winter?

How about a small wood stove?

my pump house is odd shaped, it is about 6 ft wide, the front part used for storage is probably 6x8x8 and the back where the pump and tank are is about 6wx9lx4h. i used a set of 500 watt halogen shop lights to keep it warmed up. they were on a timer to run over night, then off during the day when the temps and sun were enough to keep the building from freezing.

maybe you could do something similar. it cost me an extra 10 bucks a month on the electric bill for the pump.

another option would be heat strips on the pipes and a good insulation blanket on the tank with maybe a couple stirps under the insulation.

get a timer or a thermostat to control when the heat is on.

This would be one of the very few instances where I would recommend an unvented gas space heater. They're cheap to buy and are self contained meaning thet don't require electricity to run and heat the pump house. Even if you loose power the building will stay above freezing.

The building is about 12x12 maybe? Not large. We are in Eastern Ontario so our winters can get very cold (we had a lot of -20C this winter)

davidandkasie - I was mentioning running something on a timer to DH because the biggest concern over freezing would be overnight, or when we are away and no water is being used, correct? (10+ hours at work)

mr.havac - what kind of gas would that be? We only have an oil furnace for the house (300 feet away). I think I saw some ventless natural gas or propane ones online?

As of right now we are keeping something like this in mind....combined with a timer we should be able to cut the usage in half.
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Please keep the ideas coming, we have 6 months to debate about it!

I'm not sure that an infrared heater would be the best choice for what you need to do.

Infra red heaters heat objects, but not so much the air.

Infra red might not provide the heating capacity you need to keep everything from freezing.

lil geek, yes I was talking about LP gas heaters but more in the way of a space heater not an IR. If you check out Northern Tool they have a pretty good selection of heaters at pretty decent prices.

yeah if you have oilheat for your home you probably dont have natural gas available, so you'd need an LP heater. A 100# tank should last more than half a winter, depending how warm you keep it in there.

Left field: How about insulating the building to R-40+, wrapping pumps and tanks in electric heat tape and reflectix insulation, and controlling heat tape with a 120v t-stat? For back-up, you could install a parallel wrap of heat tape with its own tstat.

Airsome, you must be from an area with mild winters. Apparently you don't experience many cold weather related power outages that can last for a considerable length of time where you live. Electric heat of any kind is totally useless then.