Lighting & Heating For A Garage (Residence)

[Tim]

Hello All,

I am trying to determine lighting and heating for a 24' x 32' garage. It will have 10' ceilings with an open floor plan. The only walls will be around the 9' x 8' bathroom, the rest of the garage is all open.

We plan to build this in the back of our property in a few months. We will then LIVE in it for 2 years or so while we prepare to have a custom home put on the front part of our property.

So I have to determine what kind of heat and lighting I want. Something that will be comfortable to live in, yet still be usable for a garage when our house is done later. I am avoiding baseboard heat since this will end up as a wood shop working area in the future and I don't want to have baseboards all around the walls covering areas where wood and/or equipment may end up. I also will be having a 2' stem wall around the garage, so if I had baseboard heat, and low to the ground, it would have to go through the concrete. I don't necessarily want to have my heaters 2' off the ground either. :-)

I first thought of getting 2 of those big wall mounted heaters and place one on each side of the garage facing down at an angle to heat the whole living area, but I wasn't sure those could have an external thermostat that I can adjust without climbing a ladder to change the temperature setting. I want to have an electronic thermostat so that the heater can run 24/7 but be adjustable on timed settings for when we are in, or out, or a weekend temperature.

Then I found these ceiling heaters by Qmark (Model #QCH1202) that mount in the ceiling and are fan forced air downward. So my thinking now is maybe buying 2 of those and space them appropriately in the garage. I have just written the company who makes those heaters to get suggestions from them if this heater is the correct heater for my application.

That leaves the bathroom. I could buy another ceiling mounted heater, or I can try and find an alternative heating source for the bathroom. With a concrete floor, taking a shower at 05:00 AM in the winter, that bathroom is going to need heat and a Heat Lamp is not going to cut it.:-)

I don't have room to put a cadet type heater in the bathroom, but if I had to, I could make the bathroom a bit larger so that I could accommodate one if that really is the best scenario for bathroom heat and not utilizing the ceiling heater type.

Any suggestions for heat in this kind of situation? Garage that will be utilized as a living quarters for a couple of years, thus requiring constant heat.

On the subject of finishing some of the details of this garage, I am tossed on ideas for lighting. My first thought was 4' fluorescent fixtures, probably about 4 of them spaced evenly in the living area. Then have regular bulb in the bathroom and a regular light fixture in the middle of the living area as to have a backup light and so that in the future I could come in from the house to the garage and just hit the one light to get something out real quick. As opposed to lighting 4 fluorescent fixtures to light the garage just to get a tool out from the tool box, a single light switch with a regular fixture would be more efficient.

Then after discussing this with my wife tonight, we thought maybe we should just go with regular incandescent fixtures throughout; no fluorescent. Have

1 fixture above the bed area, 1 for the bathroom, and then maybe 2 other fixtures for the rest of the space. Basically that would end up with;

1) 60W fixture for the bathroom (Actually a fan/heat lamp/lamp fixture on the ceiling)

1) 60W fixture over the bed area 1) 60W fixture covering an area of about 12' x 20' 1) 60W fixture covering the other half of about 12' x 20'

240W of lights for 768 Sq Ft? I know there can't really be a square foot per watt convergence, but if I break it down by area (as in rooms), each room/area would have a light fixture and a 60w bulb. If I purchase fixtures that can take up to 150 watt bulbs, or even a fixture that can accept 2) 60w bulbs, I could always have more light if I needed it yet still run 1 bulb if I ended up having enough light.

Not having done this before, I don't know how much light (or heat for that matter) would be needed.

As with the heat suggestions, does anyone have suggestions on lighting?

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Tim

[Bob Morrison]

You might think about hot water radiant heat in the slab. Just think of how nice it would be to work in a heated shop that doesn't have one more piece of equipment to collect dust (ceiling hung heaters).

[Tim]

I will check the radiant heat option out.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Tim

[Don]

"Tim"> wrote

I just built a 24 x 36 garage/office.

24x24 is my garage/workshop and 12x24 is my office. I installed (4) 4' double tube 40watt flourescent fixtures in the ceiling and they are switched 2+2. 1 switch controls 2 lamps and 1 switch controls the other 2. I also installed a 56" ceiling fan with 1 bulb light kit in the very center for the reason you described. I'm not real happy with the amount of light the 4 flourescents puts out, especially at night time. I have 2 3'x3' windows and 2 8'x7' garage doors but the light is still lacking in my opinion. I did all the building and electrical so when I get the time I'm going to install 4 more 4' flourescents.

The garage is not heated yet but in the office part I installed 2 Cadet 4'

1000watt baseboard heaters with a wall mounted thermostat. I'm very happy with those. First, they work real well, were easy to install, and were very inexpensive. In the area of $70 each, delivered.

As far as the garage heat goes, this summers heat has convinced me that before next summer I am going to install a split system HVAC. The air handler will go in the attic and the compressor will go on a raised platform behing the shop. The split system will heat and cool the entire building and it will have a damper or be zoned so I don't have to cool/heat the shop if its not in use. All the vents, supply and return, will be in the ceilings. The entire building has R13 in the walls and R30 in the ceiling and the garage doors are insulated as well. Electricity is pretty inexpensive here in south central hoosierville but propane is on the moon and wood is too inconvenient.

[Steve Barker LT]

I've become a firm believer that no slab should be poured without radiant tubing in it. It's a lot eaiser to ignore the tubing and never use it, than it is to put it in later. And you will wish you put it in if you don't. The tubing is cheap, and if you never hook it up and use it, you're not out that much.

Here's a link to get you started:

[Steve Barker LT]

forgot to say: click on the "slab on grade" link on that page i sent you.

s

[Dave]

Heating reply depends on where you live, and what's available to create heat. Am assuming you will insulate it well.

Lighting, I would put all the fixtures needed for the final anticipated use of the garage. Any additional lighting, mobile light fixtures such as a table lamp and such.

As far as how much to do to make it "house-like", depends how spartan you want to go for 2 years. Dave

[Tim Neumann]

If you do, I suggest putting it in in several loops so you can "zone" the heat. One loop for the bathroom, one loop for the woodshop area since you might enclose that someday, and another for the car parking area. That way down the road the bathroom can be always somewhat warm, the shop area can be warm enough to be comfortable, and you can keep the car area above freezing, all without wasting any extra energy.

[John Grabowski]

For heat, as others have suggested, radiant floor heating with multiple zones is probably your best bet for now and for later. Put lots of insulation and a moisture barrier in the slab.

60 watt light bulbs don't do much for lighting even in a bathroom. Have your combo heater/fan/light in the ceiling and another light fixture over the sink and mirror. For a workshop/garage some 4' four lamp T8 surface mount fluorescent fixtures like the Lithonia LB series would be nice. However they won't be too cozy for a living space. I suggest that you lay out two or more rows of ceiling electrical boxes. Mount some cheap surface incandescent fixtures on them. You can put blank canopy covers on any electrical boxes that you don't use while living there. When you move out change the incandescents out to surface mount fluorescents. You can install multiple switches now that can be used later.

You could install a ceiling fan with a light kit in the middle and that wiring could be for your one light use when coming into the future garage.

What do you plan to do for air conditioning?

When wiring this building don't forget about ceiling outlets for future garage door openers.

You should also plan your garage outdoor lighting now also.