My work bench for diy stuff is under the north facing window (1800 x
950) my garage which is a single brick 2 car size with a flat felted roof.
Some of the window timbers needs repair which gives mea an opportunity to replace the galss with double glazed panels. Although I am hoping to retain the glass intact, I am wondering whether replacing the 2 panes with double glazed panels might add to comfort in the winter and thus be a better idea.
If I am working at the bench when it is cold I usually have a fan heater blowing hot air in my direction - to warm me not the garage you'll understand. It is better than nothing. No doubt quite a good dollop of the heat is going straight through the glass at the moment (not to mention the flat roof and walls).
Q: would double glazing improve comfort level?
TIA for any opinions or indeed, experience of anything similar.
But then if you are replacing the frame it's no great extra cost either.
You might do better replacing the fan heater with a halogen infra red heater that "shines" directly towards you, that way you get the benefit of the heat without having to heat an intervening medium (the air) and all the heat energy you are paying for goes into heating the interior of the garage anyway. They are very cheap now at places such as Makro and Maplins.
I have to agree with what the others are saying. My workshop is small with respect to a garage but I found that insulating it and getting rid of drafts made a huge difference to my comfort and how much heat was required to get to a working temperature.
I also find one of these halogen heaters excellent at keeping me warm (psychological I suspect !) until the heater has warmed up the space.
I did heatloss calculations for mine a few years ago and then looked at the results to see whether they were close in practical terms to what was required for heating. It was surprisingly close.
I was using 3x 3kW fan heaters in the winter to get anywhere close to an acceptably usable temperature, and this was becoming somewhat expensive.
In order, the significant factors were:
- draughts around the doors. I found some special weather strip and sealed those as well as possible. This made a difference when it was windy, but in the winter months not a lot otherwise
- insulated the inside of the doors with 50mm Celotex. This is very light in weight so doesn't influence the door operation. WIth timber and ply doors as I had, this made an enormous difference. On their own, these, or metal ones have by far the largest heat loss of the building - over 30% in my case.
- the next surfaces, in order, were the walls, followed by the roof. The roof itself had a higher loss per unit area than the walls, but the area of the walls was greater. The construction is a pitched, tiled roof with felt, while the walls ar single brick with piers. I insulated the roof and walls with Celotex as well - walls with studs and then clad with 18mm ply so that things can be fitted easily to the walls.
- the floor would have been next on the list, but at this stage the heat loss involved is a few hundred watts. It probably hadn't been insulated during the construction, but I didn't want to break it up and relay it and didn't want to lose height or having the need for a ramp. I have machinery weighing over a tonne so it would have necessary to have a substantial construction for that.
- there is a pedestrian door, like a typical back door with panel and single glass. For this, I created a frame that is attached to the inside of the door which is filled with Celotex in the lower part and has a glass panel in the upper part, forming secondary glazing. This is effective both for heat and sound insulation.
- Finally there is a window. It may be worth switching that to DG at some point, but it's at the bottom of the list, heat loss wise.
The efforts to that point reduced the heating requirement to about 3kW max to maintain the temperature at 18 degrees when it is -3 outside. I've verified that and it's in line with the calculations.
Even so, over a period of time, the cost of heating by virtue of using electricity would be quite high. I want to maintain a temperature of min. 8-10 degrees even when I am not there. To that end, I installed radiators that are run on a separate secondary circuit from the house CH using a heat exchanger.
Subsequently, the garage doors have been replaced by a single large one with insulation incorporated and draught seals built into the construction. That makes a further difference.
Needless to say, the whole exercise wasn't cheap. However, if one wanted to achieve some real benefits but less expensively, the draught proofing and insulating of the doors followed by walls and ceiling are the places to look first, perhaps using cheaper insulation for all but the door.
Indeed. According to my calculations on a typical type outside shed/garage the worst heatloss will be d raughts, then roof, then the walls then the doors, then the floor..
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