Got a garage? Want heat in it?

[SEBSPEED]

I have a 24' x 24' oversize 2-car garage, and when I bought the place, it had a small woodstove and chimney in it. The chimney was rotted and had a few bird nests in it, and the stove wasn't much better, so I took them out. I got lucky and scored an oil-fired hot air furnace out of an old mobile home, so I hooked that up and have been using that, running off a 275 gal tank, for about 7 years now. I recently discovered that the sticky sweet burnt kerosene smell I've been getting lately is due to a crack in the firebox and also a small leak at the base of the pump.

Rather than start repairing a 40+ year old unit, I just ordered one of these:

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200307961_200307961&issearch=173637

This thing has so many pro's going for it, that there really was no question about making the switch.

Here's my old setup, to the right of the pic:

As you can see, it takes up a lot of floor and wall space. Being that it blows air out the bottom(right onto the cold concrete floor), it's also not as efficient as it could be.

The new 45,000btu propane unit hangs from the ceiling with a 1" gap (to the ceiling), and provided I set it up in a corner, should circulate the warm air a lot better. It won't stink like oil, and it has electronic ignition too(no pilot light!). I'm going to set it up on a thermostat like the old one.

With the new-found floor space, I might be able to jam another project in the garage! :laugh: Well, not really! I'm actually planning a 12' addition out the back, and the door to get to the new area will probably go where that old furnace is now. :laugh:

So, it's not exactly a tool, or VFR-related, but, it will keep my tools & VFRs warm for many years to come and I just wanted to share! :laugh:

Anyone else using one?

[backonabike]

That is a nice heating unit Seb! How much did it run you? I use a portable electric unit in my garage but I have to start it and let the garage come up to temp....My space is only one bay though so it is adequate just a pain in the butt.

[superfunkomatic]

I have a similar one about the same number of BTUs and it's a high efficiency model. It runs on natural gas so it only costs about 20-40 bucks a month even in our cold winters.

Fire that baby up in my 14x18 garage and it's cozy in about 10 minutes.

I can work comfortably in a t-shirt even when it's -30 celcius.

I think it cost about $600 dollars - worth every penny!

I have a 220 Volt line for a heater and a small electric box heater - doesn't compare to the gas fired one.

[SEBSPEED]

That is a nice heating unit Seb! How much did it run you? I use a portable electric unit in my garage but I have to start it and let the garage come up to temp....My space is only one bay though so it is adequate just a pain in the butt.

Thanks! It's on sale right now, $50 off, total w/ shipping was $438.

I need/want heat that runs autonomously, I have too much stuff in the garage that will get ruined if it freezes. Right now, I keep the furnace set at 55, because that's as low as the t-stat goes. I'm going to pick up a new t-stat this week which will register down to 45. I might be able to get it even lower - I hear t-stats with mercury switches can be mounted "off" a few degrees to trick them into registering lower.

My garage is currently 576sqft, the unit is rated for 600 with 10' ceilings, so temps should come up pretty quickly once I turn the heat up. :fing02:

[Luvmyvfr]

So what size propane tank are you using? Is it one of the big ones that sit in your yard and cost $400 to fill? Just curious :fing02:

I use my patio heater in the garage now and it puts off about 45,000 btu's and runs on your average 17lbs grill sized tank. At full blast, it will burn through a $20 tank in about 12 hours. I have looked in to buying larger tanks, but have found that the savings per pound of propane isn't enough to offset the cost of a larger tank.

Plus my wifey would shoot me dead if she pulled into the driveway and saw a large propane tank sitting in the side yard :goofy:

[SEBSPEED]

I have a similar one about the same number of BTUs and it's a high efficiency model. It runs on natural gas so it only costs about 20-40 bucks a month even in our cold winters.

Fire that baby up in my 14x18 garage and it's cozy in about 10 minutes.

I can work comfortably in a t-shirt even when it's -30 celcius.

I think it cost about $600 dollars - worth every penny!

I have a 220 Volt line for a heater and a small electric box heater - doesn't compare to the gas fired one.

Cool!

I don't get natural gas where I am, but as of last October, I am ready for it. Everything in the new house runs on propane(boiler/dryer/cooktop), and now the garage too, so if they ever run pipes to my area, all I have to do is change the orifices in all the units and I'm ready to save money!

Electric heat is really a thing of the past - it's just too damn expensive! Propane and oil aren't cheap by any means either, but the btu/unit ratings are at the top of the list. Propane was about $3/gal here a month ago.

[Luvmyvfr]

So when you add on to your garage, have you considered putting in radiant heat in the concrete? It seems to be the ultimate in garage heat! Everyone that I know that has it, loves it. It's my plan for my future garage expansion :fing02:

[SEBSPEED]

So what size propane tank are you using? Is it one of the big ones that sit in your yard and cost $400 to fill? Just curious :goofy:

I use my patio heater in the garage now and it puts off about 45,000 btu's and runs on your average 17lbs grill sized tank. At full blast, it will burn through a $20 tank in about 12 hours. I have looked in to buying larger tanks, but have found that the savings per pound of propane isn't enough to offset the cost of a larger tank.

Plus my wifey would shoot me dead if she pulled into the driveway and saw a large propane tank sitting in the side yard :goofy:

I'm going to have the gas company bring a decent size tank to sit next to the garage. I already have 2 large tanks on the opposite side of the property feeding the house. They are somewhat hidden from the road. During the winter months, our average usage in the house is ~2.8gal/day. I expect that the heat-only cost for the garage will be much less.

Also, I find the propane tanks less unsightly than the large fuel oil tanks, but YMMV... :fing02:

So when you add on to your garage, have you considered putting in radiant heat in the concrete? It seems to be the ultimate in garage heat! Everyone that I know that has it, loves it. It's my plan for my future garage expansion :fing02:

Would love to, but not likely. Maybe if I build from scratch somewhere else in the future. We have HWBB heat in the house now with a boiler, and I used to heat the old house with firewood only! At the top of my list of future improvements is an outdoor wood furnace.

[elizilla]

My garage is 18 x 20, so 360 sq ft. You can park two cars in it if it's cleared. Put a fullsize truck on one side and you better be agile if you want to get out. Fortunately I haven't had to worry about putting cars in there in a long time. When we moved here it was a dark cave with a rotted door. My first upgrade was in insulated garage door. Then I installed a suspended ceiling, lots of electrical outlets, wall insulation and drywall. But the electric space heaters still weren't cutting it and the kerosene torpedo heater was loud and smelly. So I installed a ventless natural gas heater that cost about $250 up at Home Depot. It's bolted to the wall and runs off the same natural gas as the house. It costs about 5 cents an hour to run, and I don't run it full time - just a weekend here and there. For the 15 or so days a year that I run it, the cost disappears against the backdrop of my normal gas bill.

One thing about it, though, is the reason it is safe to be ventless, is because the fumes are water vapor. If I turn it up high it will heat up the garage in an hour, but it pumps out a lot of moisture, and the water vapor condenses on all the cold metal tools and bikes. I don't like that, so I instead turn it on low and let it heat the garage up more slowly. I turn it on low on Friday morning and by the time I get off work it's comfy out there.

[Rice]

So when you add on to your garage, have you considered putting in radiant heat in the concrete? It seems to be the ultimate in garage heat! Everyone that I know that has it, loves it. It's my plan for my future garage expansion :fing02:

This doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

You do in-floor heat in areas where you want to walk barefoot. Garage isn' t one of them.

You'd have to heat through the concrete slab before you get any measurable heat in the room above. And concrete is sitting on top of cold ground that constantly drains it of heat, so you'll have to heat a portion of the dirt below too.

If/when I ever build a garage, I'll prolly do the same thing as Seb did. Turn it on and 10 minutes later you got a warm garage. No need to keep it running all the time. In my case.

[redmarque]

Really could do with some heat in my pokey garage.. it's big enough for 1 european car (small)it's really put me off going out there this winter! :fing02: Any recommendations??

[phaedrusman]

So when you add on to your garage, have you considered putting in radiant heat in the concrete? It seems to be the ultimate in garage heat! Everyone that I know that has it, loves it. It's my plan for my future garage expansion :fing02:

This doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

You do in-floor heat in areas where you want to walk barefoot. Garage isn' t one of them.

You'd have to heat through the concrete slab before you get any measurable heat in the room above. And concrete is sitting on top of cold ground that constantly drains it of heat, so you'll have to heat a portion of the dirt below too.

If/when I ever build a garage, I'll prolly do the same thing as Seb did. Turn it on and 10 minutes later you got a warm garage. No need to keep it running all the time. In my case.

Actually if you're a dedicated garage gimp like Seb appears to be, a heated floor would be spectacular to have. Rolling around on cold ass concrete doing suspension or exhaust work on your car loses its appeal after a while.

As for heating the ground underneath...eh, not really. They lay that pink styrofoam insulation stuff before they run the copper water lines, then dump the concrete on top of that.

My parents ran infloor heating in their basement when they built their new house in Wisconsin. About 2000+ sqft worth. I haven't heard them complaining about heating costs. Of course then again they also didn't screw around with half assing the insulation or anything, so YMMV.

Anyways, my point being, if I were starting from scratch in a cold climate, and had the available cash, I wouldn't rule it out because I know I spend alot of time in the garage.

[Terminex]

I just put one of these in a month ago:

Radiant Heater

I have an oversized 4 car garage, and it has no problems keeping it 70 degrees, when it is 0 outside. (I was REALLY concerned that it would not be big enough)

I considered forced air, but I did not want hotspots. this thing is great because it heats the whole garage without hotspots, and it uses the natural gas supply (never have to change a tank:-)

I have a digital thermostat hooked up to it so I never have to do anything. It goes on & off all on it's own.

I am like everyone else in that I spend a lot of time in the garage working on bike, motorcycles, cars & trucks.

[Guest]

I helped my neighbor put a similar unit is his huge garage (6 bay). Warms up in a hurry. Be aware that ventless heaters produce water vapor and deplete the oxygen. Most garages leak enough air that there is enough make up air to compenste for the depleted oxygen. But, if you are a caulking nut, you could have a problem. Also, moisture will condense on cold exterior walls.

The upside is that you will be warm. I find it a lot eaiser to work when I'm comfortable.

[Terminex]

I helped my neighbor put a similar unit is his huge garage (6 bay). Warms up in a hurry. Be aware that ventless heaters produce water vapor and deplete the oxygen. Most garages leak enough air that there is enough make up air to compenste for the depleted oxygen. But, if you are a caulking nut, you could have a problem. Also, moisture will condense on cold exterior walls.

The upside is that you will be warm. I find it a lot eaiser to work when I'm comfortable.

we put in a vent to ensure I don't get loopy from low Oxygen :fing02:

[SEBSPEED]

I helped my neighbor put a similar unit is his huge garage (6 bay). Warms up in a hurry. Be aware that ventless heaters produce water vapor and deplete the oxygen. Most garages leak enough air that there is enough make up air to compenste for the depleted oxygen. But, if you are a caulking nut, you could have a problem. Also, moisture will condense on cold exterior walls.

The upside is that you will be warm. I find it a lot eaiser to work when I'm comfortable.

we put in a vent to ensure I don't get loopy from low Oxygen :goofy:

The unit I bought vents to the outside. I actually need to go pick up the horizontal vent tubing and wall thimble this week, before the big box shows up! :fing02:

[SEBSPEED]

The infrared heaters are spectacular! We have a couple of the big tube-style units at work, in the machine shop. They will cook your head if you stand directly under it for too long! :goofy: I looked at them while I was shopping, but they were more than I wanted to spend. Radiant heat is also very nice, as I said, if my whole shop were new construction, I would try my hardest to do radiant heat. At this point, I don't think it's worth the effort to put radiant in only 1/3rd of the shop.

I spend a LOT of time in the garage, usually at least one hour per day during the week, usually more like 2-4 hours. On a good weekend, I'll do 12 hour days out there. Heat is a must-have!

My garage is insulated pretty well, I have a "drop ceiling" in that there is plywood on the cross beams, which also creates an attic with the drop-down ladder. I'm going to re-insulate the roof when I do the exterior roof this summer, and the addition will be insulated too.

I don't have any windows or other holes in the wall, just 1 man door, and 1 16' x 8' double insulated garage door. I replaced the garage door about 5 years ago, because the old wooden one was rotting away in one corner.

I need to address the way the door closes in the spring - it shuts nicely and the weather seal contacts all around, but, I get a lot of wind from the field across the street, and it's usually strong enough to push the door away from its seal. To combat this temporarily, I shove wedges between the door and the track, pushing the door against the seal. The problem is, the door is so big, and the wind so strong, that I still get air coming in when the wind blasts. Not sure yet how I'm going to correct this, or if I can! :fing02:

[Veefer800Canuck]

I keep the furnace set at 55, because that's as low as the t-stat goes. I'm going to pick up a new t-stat this week which will register down to 45. I might be able to get it even lower - I hear t-stats with mercury switches can be mounted "off" a few degrees to trick them into registering lower.

I've got a digital one that goes down to 5'C which is 41'F. Works for me.

And yes, you can take a standard mercury and bimetallic spring thermostat and tilt it to fool it into controlling lower.

Just make sure you have a separate thermometer mounted nearby that you can reference, because as soon as you tilt the unit, the scale on the front is useless.

Also, if you can mount it somewhere that's not directly on an exterior wall, that is helpful too.

I could not help it, so I mounted mine spaced away from the wall with wooden spacers so there was an air gap behind it.

[marid2apterbilt]

You know they have inground Propane tanks now. The only thing that sticks up are a few small pipes for filling...

Although my worry would bbe hittinng it with the riding mower..

[kaldek]

Wow.

I knew you guys have REAL winter over there in the USA, but *damn!* Garage heaters?? How much does it cost each year to heat your house and garage, on average?

The coldest my garage has ever been here in Melbourne was about ten degrees celcius in the dead of winter. And it gets HOT in there in summer - most of my energy bills in the house go to cooling!

[wera803]

Wow.

I knew you guys have REAL winter over there in the USA, but *damn!* Garage heaters?? How much does it cost each year to heat your house and garage, on average?

The coldest my garage has ever been here in Melbourne was about ten degrees celcius in the dead of winter. And it gets HOT in there in summer - most of my energy bills in the house go to cooling!

I need air conditioning for my garage, not heat!!!!

[SEBSPEED]

I've got a digital one that goes down to 5'C which is 41'F. Works for me.

And yes, you can take a standard mercury and bimetallic spring thermostat and tilt it to fool it into controlling lower.

Just make sure you have a separate thermometer mounted nearby that you can reference, because as soon as you tilt the unit, the scale on the front is useless.

Also, if you can mount it somewhere that's not directly on an exterior wall, that is helpful too.

I could not help it, so I mounted mine spaced away from the wall with wooden spacers so there was an air gap behind it.

I'll keep that in mind. I think the Honeywell that I had my eye on goes down to 40ºF. :blush:

You know they have inground Propane tanks now. The only thing that sticks up are a few small pipes for filling...

Although my worry would bbe hittinng it with the riding mower..

I'd worry about that, and the higher home insurance rate for having a buried tank...

Wow.

I knew you guys have REAL winter over there in the USA, but *damn!* Garage heaters?? How much does it cost each year to heat your house and garage, on average?

The coldest my garage has ever been here in Melbourne was about ten degrees celcius in the dead of winter. And it gets HOT in there in summer - most of my energy bills in the house go to cooling!

Yep, it's 19ºF(-7ºC) outside right now, and the wind is blowing! :fing02: We usually see temps as low as -17C this time of year, vs highs of 90-100ºF(32-37ºC) in the peak of summer. An in-wall air conditioner has bee non my wish list, but for now the high power fan I have does the job. I like having the big door open to let the sunshine in. :unsure:

[VFR4Lee]

Winter sucks. You guys can keep it.

Air conditioning gets more use than heating around here. :fing02:

[elizilla]

Yep, it's 19ºF(-7ºC) outside right now, and the wind is blowing! :fing02: We usually see temps as low as -17C this time of year, vs highs of 90-100ºF(32-37ºC) in the peak of summer. An in-wall air conditioner has bee non my wish list, but for now the high power fan I have does the job. I like having the big door open to let the sunshine in. :blush:

Similar temps here. My garage faces southwest, though, so the sun shines in there in the afternoon and evening. And there's no door to the outside on the back wall, so the fan is of limited use. An in-wall air conditioner is on my list as well as a man-door to the backyard, but mainly in summer I just try hard to do my work in the morning, and if things drag on into the afternoon I set the EZ-Up outside the door to shade the interior.

[tinyminds]

+1 for A/C in garage. In the winter my garage is a comfy mid 60's. :fing02: