I want to heat my garage this winter so I can be reasonbly comfortable working out there. It is 20 X 20. I'm wondering what you guys are using. I don't plan on doing any painting so I'm not really worried about fumes & flames. I was looking at a propane Mr. Heater type of deal but ther is also kerosene and the large electric type heater. Any thoughts? Thanks, Todd
I've got a hot dawg heater made by modine. It's small, fits up against the ceiling and runs on LP or Nat gas. I know Lowes is selling a similar unit for around $400. Mine is 35000 btu and it keeps my 26x26 shop nice and cozy with no problem. http://hot-dawg.modine.com/ Bill
In my area electricity is too expensive so I've been using a propane heater. There is far less odor to it than a kerosene one. Ideally you should look for a furnace that exhausts outside as even with propane you get tired of the smell in a few days. It works for me as I only hit the garage a day or two a week. {I spend way too much time on here} If I fire it up and then have supper it has usually taken the edge off to where the garage is comfortable.
I have the Modine Hot Dawg too. Works really well. I keep the Garage at 45 until I'm out there working. It was well worth the money. But its really cold here for a long time.
I got a 99.9% effeicent propane heater, it hangs on the wall. I think they make natural gas and propane versions. I like it, quiet, and really warms up my 24x24 garage with no insulation. I think its a 30,000 btu . I got it onsale at a big chain store.
I bought a 75,000 btu ceiling heater from Menards, I think it was $550 and converted it to propane. I have a 120 gallon tank outside my garage. It heats up my 38'x24' garage in no time.
A heater in the Garage? Never thought Id need one untill I moved to Melbourne, before that it was only a question of how to cool the place. Man I HATE the cold.
Guy next door replaced his mothers furnace, I set it up in my garage..........I pick up 5 gals of diesel at a time, it last quite a while. It keeps this old , leaky garage pretty warm.!!
Try talking to a furnace man, my cousin is in that business, and he gets some pretty nice furnaces. I got a nice super clean gas furnace from him for free. I built a stand to sit it on as high as possible, to get it away from gas fumes, and it works great. Best part, freebee. My garage is well insulated, and is as comfortable as most houses. A friend of mine has radiant heat built into his cement floors, I think that is the ultimate for a garage!
Usually put on an extra layer and put the little fan heater on and get a constant supply of tea brought in.A mate of mine has fitted a heat/cool ac unit, but the drawback with them is that when it gets real cold, the efficiency drops off.Gas and electric has risen about 40% in the last few months over here so I guess a thicker jacket this winter.
I called around all of the heating and cooling companies around town and asked if they had any nice units they had just removed. I got lucky and found one they had removed to replace with a heat pump. Its an all electric central heat/air unit, but I got it for 100 bucks. All I had to do was wire it in and install a thermostat. That was about 10 years ago and it still works great. It still had the a-coil in it so my father in-law found a used a/c unit and hooked it up for free.
If you don't have a problem with a 55gal fuel oil barrel behind your garage, I've used an old oil fired furnace I bought from a local heating guy for $50. It came out of a mobile home. Built a plenum on top to dirrect the heat. I personally didn't want to use gas because of the pilot light. Takes my 30x40 from freezing to 70 in 20 min.
One word for you, wood. it's free and since your not painting it's the way to go. later rob SOUTH OMAHA TURDS
Another vote for propane. I run mine off of 100# cylinders, and my local torch tank supplier has them, so...... I do suggest that you find a way to supply fresh air to the heater, though. Roger
If your just needing heat, then go with what the guys are suggesting. Otherwise if you need cooling in the summer, look into ductless split system. They are a bit pricey, but they are very efficient and arent difficult to install. Pm me for more info.
Got a Modine gas unit....Best money i've ever spent......Insulating the garage is the best thing to do also so you're aren't heating your neighborhood......
Guess I'm lucky. My house is a split level and the furnace for the upeer bedrooms is n the garage. I cut in two vents in the duct, when i need heat I rprogram the stat and open the vents. 100000 Btu's take no time in heating up the garage. If you are going to invest in a heat source, you might want to think about putting up some insulatio on the door, even if it is just some foam board glued up on the inside. you might want to look at some catalytic heaters also. They are available for the RV industry, no open flame, no vents no fumes, run on propane.
This one took me through the winter with snow and looks like it will have to do it again this winter (it is outside but does have a roof)
I heat my 40 x 80 x14 with natural gas/ forced air. I set the thermostat to 65-70 during the day and turn it down to 55 at night. My furnace man says if you have a large amount of machinery (which I do) in the shop the savings by turning it down more than 10 degrees from what you have it during the day is blown away the next morning when the furnace has to run twice as long to heat all of that metal up again. Frank
Thought I'd revive this thread as I'm curious about how many hobbyists are heating their garages and shops. I have a recently constructed wood framed 28'x28' detached garage with a 9' ceiling height. It is built on a 5" thick concrete flloor with 8" thick frost walls. It will be insulated well and I plan to have heat, but I'm not sure whether I'll heat it 100% of the time or just when I'm working out there. Or, maybe I'll try to maintain a reasonable temperature (45-50 F) and bump it up to 60-65 F when working. Anyway, what are you guys commonly using for heaters and for fuel? What seems to work well as far as effciency and convenience? Any advice is appreciated. I'm currently leaning towards a propane fired "direct vent" heater of about 50,000 BTU's. BTW, I'm in New York State...so it does get a bit cold here sometimes.
I had a new shop 26x36x10' ceilings with 3-1/2" wall ins & 9" ceiling ins & ins doors. I bought a new oil-hot air house furnace. I had to mount the thermostat at an angle to allow it to be run at night at 40 degrees (house thermostats don't go that low). If I let the temp go lower, it took too long for the floors to keep throwing off cold temps, making for cold feet. I would run it everyday at 65 and I used under half a 275 tank per year, working just about 7 days a week. You can put the furnace in a shed outside to save room. I now have the same furnace in a 24x24x 10'with just ceiling ins, but not in the walls or doors. It uses about 1-1/2 gal per day, but I can't run it at night without spending a lot on fuel due to poor ins.
I run an old house furnace on natural gas, it will take my 25x25 from -20 to room temp in about 5 min
It's called radiant floor heat. I did it in my 32x18x 10 foot ceiling garage. system consists of 500' of PEX tubing ($500) Insulation under the concrete ($100) Thermostat ($20) Relay ($25) and circulating pump ($80) for under $1 a day when I run it I can heat my garage. It heats the concrete so working on concrete is actually confortable. Since concrete heats slowly, once I fire it up, it stays on all winter. Opening the doors and letting it get down to 35* isn't much of a problem, since the concrete won't cool off. five minutes after you close the door, it's back up to 72*. Side note. I used to install these systems when I had my company if anyone is interested or needs help laying one out. Or has any other questions.
I run a 20ft Sch**** radiant tube heater. It runs on natural gas. I love it. It is a sealed unit drawing fresh air in from outside. This means you can paint without fear of blowing yourself up (well at least from the furnace). My garage is insulated with spray foam and is pretty much air tight. The heater comes on about once every hour on a really cold day and runs for about 4-5 minutes. Todd
Kerosene bullet heater. I grabbed it from Sears for like $250. When I want to work in the garage on a sub-freezing day, I'll go out there and fire it up then go back in the house. 20 minutes later go back out there and it's WARM. I remember rebuilding the steering in short sleeves and the snow outside the door. Best of all they're small and in the 8 months that I don't need it, I can put it away and it doesn't clutter up the garage. Mine will run on kerosene or diesel, but the kero burns much cleaner and makes the air much more breathable.
hmm I'm in australia there is no ****** cold- well there is some, but im six 4 and insulated to the bone, if it does get that cold I roll over an old truck (semi) super single rim load up some wood and light her up then after a few bourbons im warm as toast- note also Im in a OPEN FRONT SHED, as in i can see whats outside - if it rains my bench gets wet.
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