I have a 18x32 foot garage with 9' high sidewalls. There is a 9'x7' wood door and 2 service doors (one at each end). There is no insulation and the studs are exposed. What is the best way to heat this space? All I am looking for is about 50 degrees or so, just so I can do my woodworking in it. What is safest way to heat? I plan to insulate and put wood sheathing on in 1-2 years, so the heating won't be a problem then. I am goin to replace my furnace with a larger model and run ductwork out to the garage with shutoff registers. I just need something safe until then. Any ideas?
Back during the 1970s, this guy my mom was going out with did a lot of work in the garage during the freezing cold winter. He dealt with the porblem by setting up a big-ass tank of propane (about 5 or so feet tall) outside, boring a 1" or so hole thru the garage wall to run the gas line thru, and plopped down a propane heater about 2 or 3 feet long on the garage floor alongside the wall. Man, that sucker was pretty loud with the constant *whoosh* sound of burning propane, but dang, it kept the place really toasty. The main drawback was the hernia involved in dragging and lifting that big-ass steel tank into the back of a pickup to have it refilled.
I thought of this because something like this was a pretty temporary setup that you could engineer likewise. All you'd have to do later on would be seal the small gas line hole in the garage wall.
Will 50º be enough? I would want my shop a bit warmer. I don't like working with numb hands around power tools and gloves area bad idea.
How often and how long are you going to use this space? If you are not going to keep it warm all the time, I see some problems. For fine work your wood is going to be changing with the temperature (humidity). Your expensive tools may be subject to condensation. If you want to heat it full time, I suggest insulating now and doing it right.
Unless you are going to heat that space full time, I might rethink that idea. If you are only going to heat it like over the weekends, then I suggest a separate heat source. If you use your homes furnance it will have to be oversize to heat the additional space and when that space is not being heated, you may run into problems heating your home as well as reduced efficency.
In any case make sure your contractror knows about this. You will need some serious filters on the return air and equipment sutable for zoning. I might add that you may also run into some code problems if that "garage" still has the big doors.
I use a salamander 35K btu in my garage, just to take the chill off to do some car work or what ever. I do keep a window open a bit for fresh air. These will run on kerosene,and propane. Works great with a thermostat.
Insulate first. Makes a huge difference even if you don't close the wall in yet.
You will not be allowed to run ductwork out to the garage. It can be a fire hazzard, allow fumes into the house, etc. I use a 30K Btu propane heater and cag easily get a 30 to 40 degree temperature rise from it. I won't be using it today in single didit temps, as it is just too cold to handle it bit if I had a lrger model I could. .
A forced-air oil-burning portable heater. They look like a little jet engine mounted on a low profile fuel tank. I'd guess a 55000 BTU heater would be big enough. You can also get them for propane instead of kerosene. The propane won't stink as much as the kerosene, but kerosene is hotter and the smell is really not that bad. You will have to provide a source of fresh air for any non-vented heater, but your soffit vents are probably more than enough (I know mine are. I'm thinking about blocking half of them as long as the walls and ceiling are unfinished.)
A small coal heater, like a potbelly "parlor stove", would be good. You could burn wood scraps in it. But you'd have to put in a 6" flue, and the thing would be in the way all the time in the summer.
I have a 22x22 garage I heat in Minnesota, it is insulated w/R11 for the walls, R40 blown into the attic and a insulated 16x7 garage door. I use a Lennox HotShot low profile natural gas heater. It works well, I can work in the garage in below 0 weather with strong winds (the g door faces the south, thank goodness) if I have to. The heater will run much of the time in that sort of cold, but after heating the interior and the garages contents (thermal mass) it isn't too hard to do and will run less. By the way, the heater is a 45k btu unit, 81% efficient. I could have vented it through the wall, but chose to go up, I thought it would just look better and I didn't have to worry about the vinyl siding. I don't run the heater all the time, but it stays above freezing in the garage at all times. I have not experienced any problems with rusting tools from condensation. The garage is also fully sheetrocked, taped, painted and overlit with flourescent fixtures, just wish it was much larger.
I have to agree, the garage will need a separate heating system to prevent fumes (paint or car) from entering the house. Also of primary concern are fire hazards, you don't want open flames/sparks in the garage. Perhaps some sort of radiator system, hot water or electric. A portable electric heater might be safer but not araound flamables, like paint thinners or fuel.
A true story, a friend of mine was working on his car's gas tank, spilled a quantity of fuel on himself. The kerosene heater in his garage ignited the fuel on his clothing resulting in severe burns to most of his body. He's lucky to be alive.
Myself, I have an uninsulated garage with a large wood forced hot air furnace but I don't intend to work on any cars in it.
I live up here too, but the gas line may be a problem. Did you have the city or utility dig in the line? Was that very pricy? I've been looking at one of those ceiling mounted gas heaters. But with the price of gas lately, I've been looking at a 5000w elec also.
Do the heat comparison. 5,000 wats = 17,000 Btu. Is that enought heat? Not in my climate, but maybe in yours. I use a 30,000 Btu propane and it is not enough on days like today. It gives me a 35 to 40 degree temperature rise.
The safest cost effective solution is a through the wall vented heater. These take their combustion air from the outside and dump the products of combustion outside. All that they leave inside for you to breath is warmer air. Vented cabinet heaters are available in kerosene, natural gas, and LPG fueled models. If you buy one of those you can forgo the cost of running duct work and a larger furnace.
I ran my own gas line from the service in the utility room located downstairs. I do maintenance/HVAC work so it was right up my alley. My lower level wasn't finished yet, making it easy to run half inch copper to the garage. If you do it, have one continous run from the service branch all the way to the garage, use a good flaring tool, like a Ridgid brand, and you must tap in after the .5 psi regulator, If you go off of the gas meter you will have to add a regulator. (the meter brings the pressure down to 2 psi, you will need to drop that to .5 psi, or 14 inches water column) Maybe you better have it hired out..?..a Pressure test and a final bubble test are mandatory.
Natural gas is always cheaper than electric, even off-peak electric will cost as much as gas when gas is inflated. Call a electric co-op like Dakota Electric in Farmington, Minn. and ask for a off-peak comparison. They do them for free. One therm of gas= about 100,000 btu's. At the going rate, it will cost about 70-80 cents for a therm of gas. So a 45k garage heater can run for 2.22 hours for 70-80 cents. Easy enough. Electricity will produce about 3400 btu's for every Kwh. Electric is going for about 8 cents per Kwh, full rate. If my math is right, it would cost $2.35 for a therm (100,000 btu's) of electric heat. 3 times the cost of gas. Stay warm!! Mark:)
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