Garage Heat

kiphorn · Jan 25, 2004

I just moved into our new home back in August. It has a 24'x30' garage that is attached to the house by a mud room. I insulated the walls and ceilings but there is no heat in the garage. I didn't really think about the heat until yesterday.

We've had an unusual winter here in central PA. Its been below freezing for with the exception of 1 or 2 days for about 3 weeks or so. Its a balmy 7 degrees this morning.

Yesterday, I noticed that my utility sink spigot had ice hanging down from the opening. I turned on both faucets but didn't get a drip. I turned off the water in the basement before I had a real problem and will get out the hair dryer this afternoon (if I have time as they are predicting another 6-8" of the snow).

My question. Does anyone have any recommendations for heating the garage? I don't want to heat for the entire winter, just during the periods when the temps drop below 25 degrees for extended periods of time.

The Hot-Dawg modine looks nice but the unit appears to around $500 (plus another couple hundred for installation) and its probably more than I need. I also saw the Mr. Heater infra-red heaters and plain old vent-less wall mount heaters.

The modine and the Mr. heater have the advantage of being up out of the way. The wall mount ventless concerns me because I know the wife or kids will inevitably place something in front of the heater that will burn the house down. I want heat not fire and preferably not at the expense of the house?

So any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated. I currently heat off propane, so that would be the fuel of choice.

Thanks,

Kip

Deerlope · Jan 25, 2004

The small Monitnor heater is the best money you could ever spend for something like that. They are either propane or Kerosene. They do use a vent and the unit looks like a small clothes hamper sitting near the wall. Check them out.

thcri · Jan 25, 2004

Do not get a heater that does not have a vent. Especially if you insulated and sealed it up. I like the Modine and Reznors as you can get them up out of your way. Another thing I would watch out for is running a unit heater way down around 30 constantly may not be good for it. You may find condensation in the heat exchanger. We sell about 50 of them a year. The optional stat we get goes down to 40.

murph

BillyP · Jan 25, 2004

Rinnai ventless radiant propane heater. It'll heat a garage for next to nothing.

Rch · Jan 25, 2004

I just finished installing a 75K BTU Reznor for a 24' X 32" 2 story gambrel barn /workshop. It's propane powered, hangs from the ceiling downstairs with a powered vent out the side wall and a seperated outside air intake.

Reznor propane ceiling heater

I hung it, brought 110 V to the cabinet, installed the flue and intake. Propane was in the building nearby. The HVAC did the rest, including a Honeywell wall thermostat.

$800 for the heater, about $200 for the other parts, including thermostat and $270 in labor to the HVAC guys.

The building is up to temp in 12- 15 minutes. Downstairs is finished off with fiberglass batt/ plywood and 2d story Isocyinene spray foam under the roof

Junkman · Jan 25, 2004

If what you want is just something to take the chill off for the occasional time that you are out there, go for the least expensive heater that you can find, because fuel use won't be an issue.
If you are going to use it all the time, go for a better unit. If you garage has well insulated doors and they are sealing properly, the heat will stay in. If they are made of wood or a lesser quality metal door, then the heat will just go out the doors even when they are closed. Everything will depend on how you use the garage. If the doors are left open for a long period of time, then the walls will get cold and will stay cold. If you don't open them often, it should retain some heat.
I installed a better quality insulated metal garage doors a couple of years ago and the garage temperature stays above freezing no matter what the outside temperatures have been so far this winter. I know this because the soda hasn't frozen and it has been out there all winter. I have one bottle of seltzer laying on its side as my "thermometer". If I see that it is even getting slushy, I will remove all the items that can freeze, until then everything is fine. The garage has one wall that is attached to the house, but I doubt that any heat gets past the 6" fiberglass bats and the 2" Styrofoam insulation over that. Then it has 3/4" fire rated sheet rock and plaster on top of the Styrofoam. The other 3 walls are also well insulated in a similar fashion..... Even the floor has Styrofoam insulation under the concrete. I also don't have to open the doors too often.... but that is in another thread... /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif If I were going to heat it, I would go the route that Rch did in the above post... It appears to be a fine unit. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

thcri · Jan 25, 2004

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Rinnai ventless radiant propane heater. It'll heat a garage for next to nothing. )</font>

Even though a lot of retailers sell the ventless heaters they are illegal in most states. I would never install a ventless heater in a garage that is sealed up tight. Has nothing to do with how fast it heats, it is how fast you can get carbon monoxide poisoning from it. My insurance company at work does not allow us to install any non vented type heaters because of the problelms out there, I don't care what brand they are.

Just my opinion and experiences.

murph

BillyP · Jan 25, 2004

We've used two different brands of ventless heaters, over the past 10 years. Both were installed by my gas company. I've had no problems with either.

If a person was leery of ventless heat, I would certainly look elsewhere. I'm not...Just my opinion and from experiences.

Junkman · Jan 25, 2004

The vent-less heaters of today have more safety features installed on them than you would want to deal with if you had to trouble shoot a unit. They are safe and are approved by many states. The one downside is that propane heat causes condensation to form unless they are vented. For a garage where you are not going to be living in it and you can and will be opening the doors, they serve the purpose that they are intended to. If you are overly concerned, then install a second carbon monoxide detector. You should already have one in there anyway.... Also consider a gas detection device in the event of a propane leak. Propane falls to the floor and natural gas rises to the ceiling. There are separate detectors for each type of gas..

PineRidge · Jan 25, 2004

Kip If you want a good garage heater then Reznor is the way to go. Natural gas or propane fired its a super heater. The one shown is 75,000 BTU and will make my 24 X 36 pole barn comfy warm 15 minutes after I turn it on. It's the best block heater for any tractor that money can buy. Cold weather starts are no problem if you install one of these puppies.