Working in a cold garage

A popular solution here is to use one of those 300/500 watt floodlights. They put out a fierce radiant heat and decent working light.

Kills two birds with one stone and reasonably cheap.

If you're going to spend a long time and use the garage seriously, then it would be far better to insulate the garage. You could then use a couple of kW of heat of any form and be comfortable.

A small directed heater will only provide very local warming and you will feel cold as you move from place to place.

White plates, no red glow ? I've got 500W of that directly over the workbench. It's enough, but I wish it was 1kW.

I also find it helps to have one's feet off the cold floor. Duckboards or even pallets can help with this in the bench area.

Pete

Yes, a pair of 'ski boots' also helps.

The real problem I have with working in the garage is that everything that has to be touched or picked up is icy cold, with the inevitable effect on the fingertips. Gloves help of course, but can be too clumsy for some jobs.

that's exactly what I was about to post.

there's no substitute for insulation and I've often wondered how hard it would be to run some well insulated feed and return hep20 type tube down to the garage and install a radiator.

RT

Nope, I was thinking of the ones that glow.

(Is this a repackaged sun lamp? Will I end up looking like Kat Slater?)

Thanks for other comments. I'm eventually going to be putting in a room divider, some insulation and carpet when funds/time permits. It would enable me to put a server out there without the condensation problems - and *that* would probably double up a fan heater! The divider will hopefully cut down on the dust drawn in from the drive-in (a rubble track) by the car.

At the moment, though, I'm drawn to the direct heat approach.

Wuss!

none really. cheap and effective. obviously everybody would prefer a nicely insulated and heat garage though.

Steve

It's very cold today and Spouse keeps coming in to warm his hands. He says tht the very thin ply he's working with seems to be sucking the heat from his fingers. Gloves would be impossible for the job he's doing - or most of them because he's usually making very small items.

He stands on boards and mats, is wearing thick shoes and socks and I've told him to keep the door closed and put on the fan heater. He - anyone - needs to be comfortable in such circumstances. If you're not you don't do a good job.

We'd like to know if there's anything more efficient in fuel use and heating than the fan heater though. He won't use a gas heater because of wood dust and flammble materials. An electric convector heater takes a long time to warm the space.

He's not a wuss (and it's silly and offensive to accuse anyone of that).

Mary

"Mary Fisher" wrote | We'd like to know if there's anything more efficient in fuel use and | heating than the fan heater though. He won't use a gas heater because | of wood dust and flammble materials. An electric convector heater | takes a long time to warm the space.

You can get industrial electric fan heaters for wiring in, that have more oomph than the 3kW max from a 13A socket. No more/less efficient/expensive than any other electric heater.

Any electric fan heater except those designed for dusty environment would be susceptible to dust build up inside. Better would probably be a fan-assisted radiator (unit heater) eg "Myson" off a wet central heating system.

If the workshop is some way from the house and only has electricity then what about a small microwave and some of those microwaveable bean-bag handwarmers. At least he could then have a constant supply of warm handwarmers in his pockets.

Owain

Long infra-red - the white ceramic heating elements without the glow. This wavelength is absorbed by people, but not the air, so a wall-mounted heater can keep _you_ warm over a large area of workshop, even if the ambient isn't changing by much.

Machine Mart have 2kW heaters, and eBay has them cheaper (tools/industrial - plenty of them). My own is a little 500W jobbie made with surplus heater elements. I wish it were bigger - it's fine for working at the bench, but not the whole shed.

Or take up smithing. That's a good winter occupation 8-)

Thanks, I'll look further into that and tell him.

Of course, but you can't make the things he's making at the moment on an anvil. I suspect he's saving smithing jobs for when winter really sets in!

Mary

I use a diesel fuelled blow heater. Very slightly smelly but ir warms up the place very quickly and then only needs to be used in bursts to maintain a comfortable level of warmth.

The best investment that you could make, Mary, would be to insulate and draughtproof the place.

Before doing that, to reach a reasonable temperature of say 18 degrees to do work comfortably would need 3 x 3kW fan heaters and at this time of year wouldn't make that temperature. Pretty expensive too.

Afterwards it takes 3kW at the most. This would be OK with one fan heater, although I have done it using a separate circuit from the central heating boiler. Very comfortable and very cheap to run.

You must either be joking or have an unusual garage/workshop.

Our hasn't had a car in it for many years. The walls, when they're not concealed by large and heavy machinery or benches, are covered with shelves and cupboards. It would be nigh on impossible to get all that stuff out to insulate - although when we built it we used blocks with a good insulating integrity. When the door is shut there are no draughts. It's not an old, falling apart wooden garage, rotting in the corners. It's solid with double glazed windows (which have shelves across them) and the solid, thick wooden roof is clad internally and felted externally.

But when you're working with no heat from say 9 to 7, with a break for lunch (which is what he likes to do) in today's temperature it gets cold. Worse, the materials and tools he works with are cold.

That's far higher than he'd need.

I like the other Andy's suggestion and shall put it to Spouse over dinner tonight, when he's well fed, wined and warmed.

Mary

Not at all. It's a single leaf brick built large garage with pitched roof, felted and tiled.

I decided that if I was going to use the space properly then it needed to be dry, raised to a reasonable temperature for comfortable working. Costed out in terms of running costs, I reckoned that I could recover the cost of the materials in about three years. It looks on track to achieve that. Plus I don't have issues with extreme variations in temperature and humidity, so it makes dealing with materials easier as well.

I simply bit the bullet, threw out a load of stuff that was unneeded anyway and stacked the rest. It was worth the effort.

That's not too bad, probably. You could quite easily reduce the heat loss by a half to two thirds.

I think that that's the point. It's a miserable experience having to do that and demotivating into the bargain.

It depends on what you want and what you're doing. I don't really want to dress up in anoraks and thick woolies because they get in the way.

I guess that you have to look at what your needs are. Personally, I don't want to be restricted to just keeping warm in one place. I want to be able to easily use the whole space and have a low running cost to do so.

Oh come on guys, insulation is cheap and is the key to any situation like this. Ok it takes a little time to install it but the advantage is huge. I really don't have any of the problems of cold feet, cold hands, cold this an that and none of my tools suffer from condensation.

I've used 2 inch expanded polystyrene sheets which are cut to shape and have the added advantage of changing a dark surface into white one. I have a small convector heater and the workshop heats up quickly, controllably and inexpensively. You read any posting on heating now and every time insulation is stated as the first way forward.

Rob

I've been to my ex's brother's woodwork workshop out in the country in France. It's a moderate size for a small business - maybe 40ft sq, and house height. He has a small (and I mean small) wood-burning stove which keeps the place comfortably warm. It might not be a practical proposition for occasional use, but anyway........

MJ