Help heating garage

Don:

Natural gas will be cheapest to run, but it requires venting and the units are not under $100.

Several years back I insulated my attached garage - about 30 feet by 40 feet in size - with R19 in the walls, R52 in the ceiling, and installed a steel, foam cored double garage door, having one good sized window with double pane and low-E glass, etc.

I heat this structure with two King Compact Room Heaters - PAW Series, Pic-A-Watt, specifically PAW24221. They are about 6 inches high by 12 inches wide by 4 inches deep. They fit inside a wall can that comes with the heater. These are both 240 Volt units that I run at 1500 watts each, for a total of 3000 watts when operating. I used an old electric water heater circuit rated for 30 amps? I don't remember - that we replaced with natural gas. I have a thermostat that I set for 50 degrees F - just to keep things from freezing. These are wall mounted units - mounted between the wall studs. They have blower motor fans and I have no trouble keeping my garage well above 50 degrees.

The nice thing about the Pic-A-Watt series is that you can select the current input from 500 Watts to 2250 watts just by changing the arrangement of the internal jumper wires. You can change these jumper wires after the fact so that you can increase or decrease the power of the unit at will. I have been running these units for four years now - with no issues.

These wall mounted units are much safer, more durable and more flexible that the Milk-House-Heaters. I went through several of the Milk-House-Heaters in the past. I found that they tended to rust, and the thermostats were not reliable.

Good luck with your install...

A shop I used to work in switched from a propane fired forced air system to a propane fired radiant tube/reflector type system. Rediculous how much warmer the shop actually felt. Was excellent for thawing out machinery too. Snow/ice melted off things much faster than before.

I loved natural gas when I was in the city, but now I am up in the mountains. it is electric, propane or wood.

The building I spend the majority of my time in is just shy of 1M sq ft so heating the whole thing all the time to a "comfortable" temperature isn't cost effective. It is heated with Corayvac above the main work areas. Its kinda weird because you can be cold in one place then walk 5 feet and you are instantly warm. Radiant heat is nice because it doesn't have a big ramp up period...but it does have downsides too.

And the downsides in your experience are...........

It's not a really even heat. If there's something between you and the heat source obstructing a clear line of sight you won't feel the heat. This can be overcome by mounting on the ceiling (if your ceilings are high enough). The further you get away from the heat source, the colder it feels...and too close can be too hot. A well placed radiant heater or two can work well...just don't expect to park one in the corner and have a nice even heat like a convection type heater.

9 foot cielings, but honestly as long as I get some heat in there I think it will be fine, as I said before at -1 outside it was 46 inside with no heater at all...

Just idle your truck in the shop for an hour or so.

If you have the overhead kind it will gradually warm the floor so as to warm the air above it. In this case it is nice to have the floor insulated as well so your not trying to warm the earth below, just your garage.

That's for much bigger problems than no heat.

I notice that when I park my hot truck in the garage in the evening it is about 5-10* (guessing) warmer in the garage the next morning than if I don't.

I hope everyone realizes that I was just joking. Sheesh, sometimes when you reread your posts you think twice.

You have room for cars in your garage???

The propane torpedos are quite noisy.(And also require electricity) I use one if i have to but opt for the radiant single or double tank top Mr heaters. If i were working in one place all the time i would opt for a ceiling mounted over the work bench kind,either electric or propane.

I've been shopping. The big double tank top mr heaters put out 30,000 btu. The torpedos are available up to at least 200,000 btu with most at 100,000 btu and they are not considered radiant. Due to the huge output differences these heaters are really in different leagues.

I am jumping into the game late....but if you could get some 240 wiring in there, the best option (which is more than $100 though..) is http://www.ouellet.com/residential-heating-specs-usa.aspx?i=56 They are called air forced difusers and you can get them in 10 000 watts on 240 if you want. They principle is great: they heat the alread warm air and push it downward. That makes for much less heating ( air temp at ceiling height is much warmer than ground level requiring less energy to take it up to temp). I just installed a 4K watt one in my little 16X24 garage with R14 in walls and R20 in ceiling and it heats it up great!

Andrew

Good thought...I will look into this option also with my electrician in the fall....for now I have decided I have to suffer a bit and go cheap....building garage and daughter getting married in Oct....no cash left

Money doesn't grow on trees and I totally understand! I wish someone would have paid for my wedding! lol

Those heaters are great. Seriously great

Andrew

I genuinely feel sorry for those duped by the "miracle heaters" like Edenpure...including my parents who are retired and on a fixed income.

Those that sell those things are no better than the fly-by-night "duct cleaning" and "seal your driveway" types that prey on the elderly.

I'm not sure what you mean by "100% myth" but I can report that a serous amount of condensation formed on our windows every time (and only when) I cranked up our ventless heater.

Ventless heaters will produce both moisture and carbon monoxide and other products of combustion all while using up all the oxygen in the room. They are illegal
in many areas for good reason.

Its not surprising that some will believe the hype, especially when some "other" heat source is providing 80-90-% of the heat and the electric is only making up the difference from say 60 to 75 degrees. Sure the light bill wont go up much,any $15 heater could do that.

One of my friends is a family doctor and he bought the pitch as well ,thought he was going to heat a commercial building with these things.After he spent about a grand on those miracle boxes and got his first electric bill,he wishes he would have listened to me when he asked my advice on them. Now his gas bill looks a whole lot better.

Just curious, what kind of gas? Propane is more expensive than oil around here, and both, considering efficiencies, are approaching resistance heat. I never thought I'd see the day.