# How do you heat your garage?



## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

these old bones can't take the cold anymore like they used to. have to wait until the temp is in the 20's to go into garage.

thinking about getting some kind of heater but cost is a serious issue.

what do all of you use to heat your shop or work space ? about how much does it cost? the trouble with gas heaters is that you would have to keep the garage door open and an electrical heater would cost a small fortune. 

right now i look like the michelin man with all the layers of clothing! my hands and feet take the worse of it.


----------



## Lunta (Dec 14, 2017)

A lot of people here use air-source heat pumps. They work quite well unless your local temps get down around -15°C, where efficiency starts to drop off.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_source_heat_pumps


----------



## barney (Nov 21, 2017)

I bought a 22k btu kerosene heater but found out after buying it that you can't find kerosene at gas station pumps here in Newfoundland anymore. I think its much easier to find down in the States. You can buy kerosene at Home Depot but it costs a fortune. Some folks claim they can burn low sulpur diesel in their kerosene heaters but it actually ruins your wick.
You can buy kerosene torpedo heaters that can burn diesel and kerosene but they're too noisy for my liking.


----------



## KansasJack (Dec 7, 2011)

I have an older home with a detached garage and I always thought it would be nice to find an old pot belly stove on Craigslist and set it up in the corner. Throw in a log every now and then and even cook a meal on the top if I get hungry.


----------



## vmax29 (Oct 19, 2017)

I bought a Dynaglo bullet heater from Home Depot a few years back on a friends recommendation. Looks like they are about $200 now.This particular model runs on diesel or Kero. Mine has a thermostat control on side that works pretty good. There is very little odor when it is running right and it heats a two car garage very quickly.


----------



## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

KansasJack said:


> I have an older home with a detached garage and I always thought it would be nice to find an old pot belly stove on Craigslist and set it up in the corner. Throw in a log every now and then and even cook a meal on the top if I get hungry.


thought of that too. lots of old wood stoves available around here free. that's how we heat our home and cook on in power outages.


----------



## JLawrence08648 (Jan 15, 2017)

I have a 80-120 lb propane tank with a reflective heater on top. Works ok but really need a fan.


----------



## leonz (Dec 12, 2014)

Hello Orangeputeh,


It might be better for you to invest in a Mr. Heater propane heater for the garage, you can buy them with a single, double or four head heating elements to burn propane.


I have a Mr. Heater small camp heater and a kerosene fired salamander that I use to heat everything up and to work in the garage. I just make sure the doors are open as it creates a lot of heat in a very short time. 


It may be worth your while to invest in a propane fired wall vented forced air heater that runs on 110 volts and you can just plug it in when you want to heat up the garage and it runs on a thermostat.


The insurance companies frown on combustion type heaters of any kind in a garage if a vehicle is also parked in them
unless they are physically separated by a block wall fire resistant sheet rock and steel door.


Have you looked at the smaller electric resistance heaters that are ceiling hung units?
.


----------



## orangputeh (Nov 24, 2016)

JLawrence08648 said:


> I have a 80-120 lb propane tank with a reflective heater on top. Works ok but really need a fan.


maybe you could use one of those fans we put on our wood stove. all steel and works when it heats up. no batteries, nothing. we have to open window because it spreads out the heat so well.

amazing device. we got it as a lightening deal on amazon for 44 bucks. i don't know how to provide link. dinosaur when it comes to computers.


----------



## JLawrence08648 (Jan 15, 2017)

I was going to suggest the same, fan, to go behind your wood stove. If not slow enough Harbor Freight has a speed reducer box.

Put some steel sheets around the stove for reflectivity.

I'm also a believer in a duct damper to slow the burn besides closing the intake air vent.


----------



## FullThrottle (Apr 7, 2017)

I use the ceiling hung heater in the corner of garage it is 3500 watt and gets the garage warm very fast.


leonz said:


> Hello Orangeputeh,
> 
> 
> It might be better for you to invest in a Mr. Heater propane heater for the garage, you can buy them with a single, double or four head heating elements to burn propane.
> ...


----------



## vinnycom (Nov 6, 2017)

cheap if youre a diyer, get a used 0" clearance sealed gas fireplace


----------



## barney (Nov 21, 2017)

I used to heat my house with a wood stove. I recently found out how lousy wood stoves actually are in terms of efficiency. 90% of your heat is going up your chimney, and you're only burning a small portion of the available btus in the wood. 

Over the past 10 years the 'back to the land' folks how discovered the so-called *"Batch Box Rocket Heater"*.

These wood stoves are so efficient the only thing that comes out of the chimney is a warm moist air. They can be built pretty cheaply using just fire bricks. They're really interesting. Lot of guys building and testing them. Lot of videos on youtube about them.


----------



## dr bob (Dec 12, 2015)

I hung a Reznor natural-gas-fired space heater from the ceiling and plumbed the combustion air and exhaust gas outside through a common coaxial chimney pipe. That way it doesn't waste heated air and push it out through the roof. It's sorta like a condensing furnace, but the stack is really too short (total about 4') to gain much benefit from the "condensing" function.

We also added a mini-split heat pump. It's primarily to heat and cool my (attached) office suite, and it was simple to add a second head in the garage in a common wall opposite the head in the office. The heat pump SEER rating is much better than the space heater, but the cost of NG is so low right now that it's much more economical to run the space heater.

I doubled the insulation spec on the garage/workbay/office as part of an expansion project, including the doors, so it's not like trying to heat a barn. The workbay generally stays at about 50º without adding heat in winter, thanks to a couple refrigerators and a freezer. The big fridge and the freezer are domesticated, plus there's an undercounter unit with stuff that can't be kept with food. It has adhesives and tape and stuff that lasts a lot longer if kept cold. Among them they contribute enough heat that freezing is not an issue even with outside temps at or slightly below zero. If I'm working out there I bump the thermostat to 65 or so and it's plenty comfortable with a sweatshirt. Otherwise the thermostats for the gas heater stay at 40º for freeze protection. The thermostats are wired through "safety" switches on the big doors, so the heater works only when the doors are closed.

The Big Expense of adding the gas space heater was getting gas to it. The penetration for the vent stack was pretty much painless, with minimum trimming of the roof shingles needed. The furnace controls and fan need 110V from a dedicated circuit per code, easy since the garage/workshop has a dedicated service distribution panel nearby. The workspace is usually not quite clean enough to serve dinner gusts, but is never more than a couple hours of work from that condition. Having heat available makes it almost civilized.

There's a great resource for garage and workshop enthusiasts at Garagejournal.com. There's a dedicated heating and cooling forum there that has tons of information on what folks are doing. There's lots of creativity for sure.

HTH!


----------



## [email protected] (Oct 13, 2017)

orangputeh said:


> what do all of you use to heat your shop or work space ? about how much does it cost? the trouble with gas heaters is that you would have to keep the garage door open


Amazing how that fearmongering continues to keep going around.
Do you open the doors in your house when cooking on the stove?

I grew up with paraffin heaters (British kero) It was never a problem .
Lots of people up here in maine use kero heaters exclusively. The biggest danger was always fire. No longer a danger with the Japanese models that self extinguish. 
They've been doing that since the 1970s
, old wives tales die hard.

You're talking about a garage, not an airtight closet.

My kero heater raises the garage temp approx 50 degs. I light it and leave it for an hr. Warm tools are nice.


----------



## jsup (Nov 19, 2017)

Do you have natural gas? The wall heaters work pretty good. I think they have propane versions too. 

Something like this

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/t...ers&utm_campaign=Mr. Heater&utm_content=52553


----------



## 69ariens (Jan 29, 2011)

A 7500watt heater. It's more than I need so I only run it on low. It has a thermostat so it turns on and off when the garage gets to certain temp


----------



## tuffnell (Dec 1, 2011)

Back in about 2001 I installed a natural gas 35,000 BTU radiant heater in a 576 sq ft, insulated stand alone garage. Did a large amount of wood working back then. No problem keeping the place warm, even if the outdoor temp was -30C. Never regretted making the investment.


----------



## KOBO (Jul 15, 2017)

A small 2nd hand cast iron wood stove i got for $100 years back. I burn pallets I collected and cut in the warmer months from local businesses who are happy to be rid of them.

Since wood stoves are not the most efficient things around I have a couple of fans blowing from behind both the stove and the long steel chimney to reclaim some of the heat and spread it out into the garage. Works pretty good and is cheap too.

K


----------



## Lunta (Dec 14, 2017)

barney said:


> I used to heat my house with a wood stove. I recently found out how lousy wood stoves actually are in terms of efficiency. 90% of your heat is going up your chimney, and you're only burning a small portion of the available btus in the wood.


Agree! Open fires are very inefficient.

Masonry stoves (I've heard there are some in the US), are very efficient. Ours takes 4 hours to heat, we then slide the chimney flap closed and it stays warm for 2-3 days. Keep the house a toasty 22-23°C. From the firebox, the hot smoke/gases pass down ducts towards the bottom of the structure, before going up another duct and out of the traditional chimney.

https://www.google.fi/search?q=leiv...kJvYAhWPfFAKHZPuABYQ_AUICigB&biw=1216&bih=658

https://mainewoodheat.com/masonry-heaters/


----------



## uberT (Dec 29, 2013)

Kero-burning bullet style heater like Vmax shows above, 70,000 BTU. Heats the garage quickly when needed. I buy kero at the local hardware store, probably $8/gallon. Only using a couple gallons/year at this point in my life.


Good: heats hi-bay garages quickly, can maintain 70F with thermostat controller (if desired), minimal odor with clean kero, gets stored in off season
Bad: Noise/loud when running, CO


----------



## 10953 (Sep 4, 2017)

i use a few different types' my first garage i found a used for free oil fired hot air heater that ran, stuck it in a corner with some home made ducts to aim it toward the middle.used a 35 gal barrel to hold the oil to feed it. second house and garage has a ceiling mount shop heater converted to propane, it's closed combustion so it inhales and vents to the outside 
http://www.reznorhvac.com/en/na/products/udas, plus a 60k bullet heater from tractor supply https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/master-propane-forced-air-torpedo-heater-60-000-btu that runs a full day on 25 pound tank .it was $99.99 when i got it, now its about 85 on sale, heats a uninsulated 2 car garage in about a half hour. it fan forced so it melts the snow blower clean real fast


----------



## HCBPH (Mar 8, 2011)

If I attempt to heat the garage I have a kerosene heater that I can dig out. Other than that, nothing.


----------



## rosco61 (Dec 8, 2014)

I use a 60.000 BTU Hot Dawg heater to warm my garage. It is fantastic and heats my space in about 10 minutes. It's a bit of overkill for my garage but my brother in law sell HVAC equipment so I get a break on his products.


----------



## 10953 (Sep 4, 2017)

looks like my reznor, these ceiling mounts are out of the way beasts


----------



## jrom (Jan 10, 2014)

Not sure why you took back your photos, but that looked very cool. Maybe overkill like you said, but great.



rosco61 said:


> I use a 60.000 BTU Hot Dawg heater to warm my garage. It is fantastic and heats my space in about 10 minutes. It's a bit of overkill for my garage but my brother in law sell HVAC equipment so I get a break on his products.


----------



## detdrbuzzard (Jan 20, 2012)

a friend has an auto repair shop, he is about a mile north of me so if I need heat I take what I'm working on up there. working in my garage would require moving out 40% minimum of what's in there


----------



## Sblg43 (Jan 18, 2014)

I use a wall mounted, ventless, propane heater. I did have to buy a 100lb propane tank. Insurance company says that as long as the propane tank is outside the building, I was good to go. 

It also has a low oxygen sensor on it to shut it down if necessary - low oxygen has never been an issue.

I could have gotten a natural gas unit but I didn't want to plumb all the way to my garage from the opposite end of the house where the gas comes in.


----------



## Miles (Sep 16, 2016)

My garage is heated with a Rinnai Direct vent wall furnace, fan type, Model No. RHFE-431 FA III-N, Maximum 16,700 BTU/hr. It was going out of stock and the plumber installed it with 35 ft. of gas line for $600 in 2011. It needed a small hole drilled outside for venting. I have a CO alarm plugged in right next to the heater. It looks like the Rinnai wall furnaces have gone up in price quite a bit since that time and I think it was a very good deal.


----------



## aldfam4 (Dec 25, 2016)

I use a Dyna Pro Propane gas heater in my 1 1/2 garage. It is a 30,000 - 60,000 btu heater and does a great job. I also installed CO detector for Carbon Monoxide. I have been running it for 20 minute periods and no CO on the detector so far. Be careful and safe everyone.


----------



## rosco61 (Dec 8, 2014)

jrom said:


> Not sure why you took back your photos, but that looked very cool. Maybe overkill like you said, but great.


It had license plates visible. retook picture. I am probably worrying about nothing there but better safe than sorry. And my garage is under 24 hour video watch. 
Thanks


----------



## maxy1 (Nov 15, 2016)

I have an old 10KW electric furnace. It takes only a few minutes to warm up.


----------



## CarlB (Jan 2, 2011)

I use a 30,000 btu natural gas unvented wall mounted heater. Works well in our 2.5 car garage new about 200 dollars bought it used on craigslist for 20 dollars.


----------



## guilateen02 (Nov 23, 2014)

Hybrid wood/ oil furnace. Heats unfinished lower level with attached garage, and upper living quarters. About 2500 square feet. Is is hooked up to thermostat and you can run manual with switches. I use about 30 gallons of diesel/oil per year as the igniter. It is forced duct air. I keep the vents closed for lower level and it stays at 60. It takes wood up to about 5 feet long. It will cook you out the house if overloaded. Neighbor has a wood mill so I get slabs from him and and I cut the 12 foot slabs into 4 foot sections. any downed property trees get fed into the Beast. I get pretty spoiled, we keep the house at about 70 degrees. Downside is it is some work involved, cutting, splitting, stacking, loading, storage etc. I try to keep 6 pallets of slabs ready to go.


----------



## sublue99 (Jan 10, 2014)

I have a Protemp 70K kerosene heater that I got from Amazon it’s called a Radiant Sun Stream heater.
It is much quieter than the torpedo heaters and much more efficient. 
There are some Youtube videos on this heater, people that do use a carbon monoxide detector say it never goes off.
The only problem I have is you can not use a thermostat with this heater because of the cooling fan in it. It said in the description that you can use diesel fuel , kerosene, or gas. I only use good clean kerosene.


----------



## cr4west (Jan 10, 2017)

Found a used Hot Dawg 75,000BTU by Modine complete with all the pipe & fittings on Craig's for $300. It took two of us to lift it up to mount to the ceiling using two 36"pieces of 2" perforated steel angle stock and four 12"x1/4-20 threaded rods. The angle stock spans the truss beams from above since I never seem to to hit solid wood. It's not a heavy thing to lift just a little awkward and unbalanced similar to a window mount air conditioner. Was not sure if it would handle an un-insulated 800 sqft 3 car garage. When finished it was a pleasant surprise, from ambient 32F heats up a 10F increase in 10 minutes. We mounted it at the end of the long wall where all the utilities were located so it blows toward the work bench and creates a circular air flow pattern around the garage. Throws heat a good 35+ feet so it feels warm at the work bench. The fan noise is not bad.
Wood heat is not much of an option here due to inconvenient burn bans during winter weather inversion. Next I need to look at replacing the electrical connection to meet electrical code and install some insulation in the ceiling.


----------



## Spectrum (Jan 6, 2013)

I've had a 75,000 BTU Hot Dawg in the shop for about 4 years now and love it. For a 12 X24 shop it's overkill but I can open the big doors to two more bays and it gets that done too. If it's just the shop the warm-up is fast which helps cram evening projects into the day. I sprung for the outdoor fed combustion chamber so woodworking dust won't get into it. 

Being all overhead I was able to reclaim the foot print of the old oil fired hot air furnace I got 25 years of service from after somebody threw it away.
Being on propane I don't have to deal with fuel additives or blends to prevent gelling.

Remote control from the house lets me walk into a cozy shop.

I do still have a 5KW "basement" heater hung in the shop that I'd use when I needed to keep the shop warm overnight. It's a simple back-up that cost $12 at a yard sale.


----------



## 94EG8 (Feb 13, 2014)

9kw unit heater we were throwing away at work. 30,000 BTU. It works really well and is surprisingly cheap to run. I figure no more than about 50 cents an hour to heat my 20 x 24 garage. It is insulated which goes a long way to keeping the cost down. It's on a thermostat so when it gets up to temp it shuts off, after that it only runs for 10 minutes every half hour or so.


----------



## sr71 (Mar 25, 2013)

Another + for the Hot Dawg = have a 75k BTU vented unit heating a 1000 sq. ft. space. Installed 10 years ago - only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. Have it on a thermostat set for 45 ... raise it to 60 when I'm working. 

In some parts of the country (like Michigan) - if you're going to heat the garage be aware of the risk of rust (over time) if you heat the garage, let the temp drop below the dew point AND... don't keep the air moving. When the heated air cools below the dew point and stops moving, water vapor tends to condense where you don't want it to: cold metal surfaces and underneath covers that do not breath. For me keeping garage at 45 is the easy button. 

Note that the problem is much worse if you burn fossil fuels like propane and do not vent. The burning process creates water vapor that you want to go up the chimney and out but with ventless, it stays in the air. The opportunity for rust is much greater when using ventless heaters in the garage.


----------

