Heating the Workshop (garage)

Probably a FAQ. Opinions solicited on heating a double car garage. Natural Gas isn't available. Propane / Reddy heaters are to noisy. Any good electric / radiant heaters? No room left for wood stove. TIA

Reply to
lucky4fingers
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lucky4fingers wrote: | Probably a FAQ. Opinions solicited on heating a double car garage. | Natural Gas isn't available. Propane / Reddy heaters are to noisy. | Any good electric / radiant heaters? No room left for wood stove. | TIA

Vertical passive solar heating panels on/in south wall (possibly with additional panels on east wall for extra morning heat and/or west wall for extra afternoon heat) can do the job with no fuel cost.

You can estimate the possibilities for your location at:

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and take a look at panel type choices at

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or follow the link below to see how I build 'em.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

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Reply to
Morris Dovey

What temperatures do you see? Is it insulated? Attached or detached garage?

There are many good electric heater. Figure 1500 watts equals 5200 Btu. I can't get enough heat from a 30,000 Btu propane heater on a really cold day so figure at least 6 space heaters or 9,000 Watts or a 50 amp 240 volt service to achieve that and 50¢ per hour operating cost where I live. Still interested in electric?

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

A bit more info would help, size of garage, insulated or not, what part of the country, dollar limit, local electric rates. Electricity is generally very expensive, some areas get a break though. If you are willing to spend some $$ you can buy a Modine Hot Dawg that runs on propane and vents the exhaust out side. Fairly quiet, just a blower fan is all you will hear. Cost to install varies with the size of heater, but if you are at all handy you may be able to install it yourself. Price for a self install, smaller unit, maybe $750-$1000.

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Reply to
Greg O

For $285.00 I just installed a 5-15,000KW electric central heating system including two vents, flex ducting, digital thermostat, return air grill/filter and cables. Picked up a used central a/c unit with three strip electric heating for $100.00 in the Free ads of our newspaper. Removed the a/c A coil leaving three heating strips but only using one for 5,000 KW of heat installed the unit in the shop attic and it works great

Reply to
Seeker

lucky4fingers wrote in news:Xns98C2CE6641C11wheresTheFifthcom@69.28.173.184:

Insulate, insulate, insulate. The first rule of warmth is to let not the warmth out!

We've an uninsulated two car garage that's attached to the house. It gets down to about 50 at times, with two heaters (1500W and 1000W) going and the door to the house open. Fine for a car storage location, but terrible for any real use.

When we move (probably sometime in the near future) I'm going to recommend that the owners of the house take advantage of it being empty and insulate the garage. The walls have what looks to be 1/8" plywood covering the studs, so it should be easily cost effective to insulate the garage.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

like someone said insulate. then try a propane infrared heater 15 to 25 thousand btu's. this worked in my insulated two car garage in the balitmore area when the temps were in the teens it was 72 inside (takes about 15 minute to get there with the 15,000 btu heater) cost is low

len

Reply to
Leonard Shapiro

A quick trip to the local hardware store will turn up any number of propane heaters that will do the job with minimal noise. Take a look at the vertical type that mount near or on a wall, and have some sort of venting.

Unless your electricity is really, really cheap- then, I like the quartz heaters. They put out a lot of heat for their size. Avoid the ones that have an element that looks like it came out of a toaster with a fan behind them- they're all but useless, and kind of a fire hazard to boot. The oil-filled ones that look like radiators are marginally okay, but you have to leave them on at all times if you want it to be very useful- they take a long time to heat an area.

For my buck, propane or natural gas forced air is the way to go- it does not need to be a jet-style heater to get you a lot of heat for a minimal operating cost, and they'll heat up a shop a lot more quickly than any electric.

Reply to
Prometheus

Hey Morris did you see the show on the History channel last night? They showed this giant mirror array similar to the 'engine' you posted recently.

They were running a pipe filled with oil through the focal point (?) to boil water I think. Pretty neat.

Overall the show was pretty good but they didn't mention any drawbacks for the stuff. Most notable to me was the Prius and how great it is with no mention of the environmental impact of all the batteries.

Ray future Sierra Club member?

Reply to
RayV

RayV wrote: | Hey Morris did you see the show on the History channel last night? | They showed this giant mirror array similar to the 'engine' you | posted recently.

Don't have cable, but am familiar with heliostats (what you described). BTW, the high temperatures weren't healthy for the PVC we were working with - so we're gravitating back toward flat panel collectors. For the same footprint (shadow?) a flat panel will deliver the same amount of heat energy - but at a more useful temperature.

| They were running a pipe filled with oil through the focal point | (?) to boil water I think. Pretty neat.

It is neat - but can produce dangerously high temperatures and pressures.

| Overall the show was pretty good but they didn't mention any | drawbacks for the stuff. Most notable to me was the Prius and how | great it is with no mention of the environmental impact of all the | batteries.

The drawbacks - and the advantages - depend on the application. Most of the people trying to solve the problems haven't yet managed to absorb the notion that we need to develop technologies that provide non-consumptive (no fuel) and non-poisonous (no toxic byproducts) solutions. They're finding the paradigm shift difficult...

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

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Reply to
Morris Dovey

Global warming ... (un)Like Hell!! ... I'm in Texas, and colder this winter than I've been in years!

If I'm going to get any work done in the shop this winter I guess I'm gonna have to do something related, even it's only temporary.

H2O being a by-product of combustion, do you have a problem with an increase in humidity causing rust using the propane heaters?

What specific brand/type of propane heater do you recommend?

(guaranteed ... soon as I buy one, it'll turn 90 outside and stay that way!)

Reply to
Swingman

FWIW, I bought one of those double-headed propane heaters what you clamp to your portable propane tank. You do have to maintain "space" around it but it do get way hot. In fact, I'm here to tell you that it (the rear surface in this instance) will instantly melt human skin! Surprisingly painlessly.

Reply to
NuWaveDave

I use one of those single propane radiant heaters that clamp to a bottle. I believe it is a 16,000 BTU unit. It provides enough heat for my well insulated 16' X 24' shop. Two swinging four foot doors in the back close off with enough cracks to provide make up combustion air.

In north Mississippi, I rarely have it on for over about an hour first thing in the morning, then turn it off and the shop will stay comfortable for the rest of the day, at least until the sun goes down. On very cold, cloudy days may have to relight it a couple of times during the day.

Feel the humidity when it has been on for a while, but no worse (corrosion) than mid summer when the RH is about 95% . I've never had it sweat the windows.

Down side is there is very little turn down, i. e. it is mostly wide open or off. And better have two tanks, seems like on the coldest day when the propane fill company closed, I would run out. And you have to keep a little space around it to avoid burning you or catching combustibles on fire.

Where you are you probably wouldn't go through a 20lb. tank a year if you are insulated.

investment: Heater about $50 I think and another $50 for a couple of tanks if you don't have them.

Frank

Reply to
Frank Boettcher

And Southern Illinois has been warmer than normal, proportional control swings, looks just like a ring wave.

Mark (sixoneeight) = 618

Reply to
Markem

On Jan 25, 8:18 am, "Swingman" wrote: Global warming ... (un)Like Hell!! ... I'm in Texas, and colder this winter

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bring up an article on NOAA website about 2006 being the warmest year ever since they began keeping records in 1895.

Most relevant is this fact: "The past nine years have all been among the 25 warmest years on record for the contiguous U.S., a streak which is unprecedented in the historical record."

And despite your perception about Texas being the coldest winter in years, the article also has this fact: "Five states had their warmest December on record (Minnesota, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire) and no state was colder than average in December." A cold spell hit my state in January. But it feels colder than it really is because of the very warm December. January is still a bit warmer than average even though we are in the 20s and teens. Hard to believe when its 20 degrees and the NW wind is blowing 20mph but its still warmer than average January weather. I have a relative in Dallas and they received ice and snow recently. But he was also talking about going for a bike ride on the weekend when it was going to be in the 50s. I have a hard time reconciling temps in the 50s with winter.

Reply to
russellseaton1

I'm going to be looking at the same thing. NH seacoast, 20x20 garage that will be insulated. I saw one of those gray box things heating a clothing store I was in the other day, thought I could use that, but I don't know what to look for, I should have grabbed the name. Anyway, it was a square about 3x3 with hot water pipes circulating through it and a fan behind it that (quietly) blew air out over the coils. I have seen these in commercial garages before. It was mounted up hight in a corner where the walls met the ceiling. Anybody know what I'm talking about?

-Jim

Reply to
jtpr

Try looking up "hydronic unit heater". They need a boiler of some kind to provide the heat source.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Friesen

I have a shop outside that's ostensibly "unheated". I live in a climate that is very cold in the winter, and I mean very cold.

I use a kerosene heater when I'm out there. I go out, start it up, come back for a cup of coffee and go back out to a warmish shed.

If the temperature is above -15 C (5 F) I can get the shed comfortably warm. It's not insulated, or I could likely tolerate a colder outside temperature.

Kerosene is relatively clean, and also pretty easy to use. Some people claim it's smelly but I've had no problems with that once it's up to heat. The issue that i have with it is that it's a bit pricey and I'll likely change to some other form of heat next year. However, it's a good stopgap and it would do a 2 car garage nicely.

Tanus

Reply to
Tanus

Even in that case, the heater has done it's job.

Reply to
CW

In "my" half of the unheated 2-car garage, the ceiling is insulated and sheetrocked, and the workbench area has a quartz element radiant heater pointed at it. Got it from Woodcraft. It is absolutely silent. If you're standing in the general line of fire of the heater then the environment is bearable. An occasional visit to the kitchen for an insulated mug of hot chocolate also helps but there are days when even the heater and the chocolate do no good. Repeat: you will not warm the room with this thing, you will only warm you if and only if you're standing before the heating elements. I am pleased with it for what it does. It suits my limited purposes.

J.

lucky4f> Probably a FAQ. Opinions solicited on heating a double car garage. Natural

Reply to
J.

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