In this paper we consider the problem: $partial_{t} u- Delta u=f(u),; u(0)=u_0in exp L^p(R^N),$ where $p>1$ and $f : RtoR$ having an exponential growth at infinity with $f(0)=0.$ We prove local well-posedness in $exp L^p_0(R^N)$ for $f(u)sim mbox{e}^{|u|^q},;0<qleq p,; |u|to infty.$ However, if for some $lambda>0,$ $displaystyleliminf_{sto infty}left(f(s),{rm{e}}^{-lambda s^p}right)>0,$ then non-existence occurs in $exp L^p(R^N).$ Under smallness condition on the initial data and for exponential nonlinearity $f$ such that $|f(u)|sim |u|^{m}$ as $uto 0,$ ${N(m-1)over 2}geq p$, we show that the solution is global. In particular, $p-1>0$ sufficiently small is allowed. Moreover, we obtain decay estimates in Lebesgue spaces for large time which depend on $m$.