Garage Heaters

What type of heaters are you using for the garage, if any? Is there a good temporary heater out there for the really cold nights?

 

A torpedo heater is about 200$, can run on diesel/kerosene (cheap, slightly sooty) or propane (more $$). Works great. Its mobile, too .

My next garage will have a ceiling gas heater, 200$ from home depot, and clean...

 

For my current garage, I have in-slab radient heat, which is really the ideal set up. Of course, you have to plan that before building.
The important thing is to make sure that the heat source is safe for what you do in the garage. I use my garage as a workshop to build guitars and furniture, spray paint and stain, and work on the cars. With all the sawdust, volatile chemicals, and gasoline around, I can't have anything that produces an open flame.
In my last house, I ran a separate small furnace with forced air heat. Furnace was in the utility room, and did not recirculate air from the garage. That worked really well and kept the garage ventilated, but was a little more expensive to run.
Anyway, good luck. A heated garage is a wonderful thing! -m

 

The Hot Dawg works real well mine is more of a shop building but they make different sizes depending on need: Not so temporary though:

http://hot-dawg.modine.com/

 

Thanks for the ideas. I'm not looking for anything major. My only concern is to make sure the TR doesn't get too cold.

 

Good luck. I just set mine to a thermostat so if the temp. in the garage goes below about 65 it turns on.

 

You heat your garage at 65 degrees?

 

Ok, first of all, yes I am probably nuts but I want the car to be in great shape. I have read that household items such as furniture, electronics, beds/linins, etc etc should be above 55 - 60 degrees F - mildew/mold/moisture can accumulate if the below 50-55 degrees and can ruin household items. I also think this applies to the Ferrari.

I now keep the car approx 65 degrees ALL THE TIME in the garage. I am fortunate to have insulated garage doors (2 car garage for your infomation).
Heaters: 1. Usually keep the door OPEN to the garage (yes, for heat but I must admit, I just love to "check" on it every 30-60 mins - just like a child) 2. I also (against code - can reverse when we move) cut a vent sized hole in the bottom of the furnace with an adjustable heat vent - this heats the garage and then travels onto the house. This is actually against code secondary to garage fumes that can go into the house but I don't run the cars in the garage with the doors down - I am not trying to kill myself. This usually does the trick for the temp but I needed more. Anyway, I do not have separate thermostat in the garage.

3. I have also used about 15 (yes 15) tubes of white acrylic caulk to seal ALL cracks and openings inot walls etc etc. (This also helps keep out 3 visiting scorpions that I had before I did this - now very very very few bugs and NO scorpions) Also did additional weather stripping around garage doors and one outside "side door" with new thick screen doors.

4. Also bought 2 oil heaters set to 65 degrees. These so far have been on for 24 7 since early November. NOT GOOD at heating a room quickly, but rather designed for keeping a constant temp. These are about 3 feet away from the Ferrari with nothing around them. They also have an AUTO-OFF feature if they fall. Have them plugged into a heavy duty power strip. These heaters were about 50 dollars each from.


I believe this temp if good for the leather and of course the car components itself. I am sure lots of people would say that the temp doesn't matter but for me, the car is literally a member of the family. Just to prove I am not really nuts, I don't check for humidity. We are in Klamath Falls, Oregon and it was 2-3 F last night and dipped down to 61 inside the garage. May end up turning up the oil heaters

sorry for the long post. If you need more info, let me know.
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I've got a 4.5 car garage and I've been thinking of how I'm gonna heat/cool it. This Hot Dawg seems like a good idea and looks like the biggest one can be had on eBay for about $850 shipped. I hope to find something cheaper though and either 220v or gas is an option.

I was curious if they make a solar powered cooler... that would be cool (pun intended).

 

could just use a dehumidifier. it will maintain low humidity and generate heat from running.

 

Has anyone modified your garage to put in a car lift? I am thinking of increasing the height of the inside ceiling and putting in a lift to work under the car and probably provide storage during winters.

Any advice would be welcome. i.e., what cost, are you happy with it, or what would be a better option.

Thanks

 

I actually had the garage built w/taller ceilings to accommodate a lift. I just need to make some money to get one now. From what I've seen you can get one for around $2k or so.

 

It's 1 degree outside right now which means my garage is probably about 50 degrees or less. How is a dehumidifier going to help more than a couple degrees especially in a 1,000+ sq ft garage w/tall ceilings?

 

Not efficiently, if at all. Colorado is too dry in winter to use a dehumidifier - the heat comes from a chemical reaction that takes place when moisture in the air comes in contact with a chemical dessicant. No moisture in winter!
Yeah, you're going to have a hard time heating your garage, but I'm not going to feel sorry for you! 1,000 sq ft sounds mighty nice!
I would probably go with a portable heater and put it wherever you're working. -m

 

Yeah, I know it's gonna be rough trying to heat that size but I wouldn't give it up for a two car for ease of heating that's for sure. I don't think a portable will work because I'm going to need something that keeps it moderately warm at all times because I plan to add a PC, LCD monitor, sound system and lots of other goodies. I also need to figure out cooling as I'm a pansy in the summer and more affected by heat than cold. I wish I had put in a more efficient furnace in our basement now so that I could run duct work to our garage and put it on it's own zone w/a separate thermostat or maybe even radiant heat in the floors too.. The good thing is they drywalled the entire garage for me but the bad news is that they didn't insulate (I don't think) first so I will have to do blown-in from above before I get to the rest. I'm looking forward to when I can get the garage complete and am stoked to finally have a 'big enough' garage.

 

I heat my 20x21 well insulated Garage with a 5kw 220v heater from the local electric supply house. Have also seen them at Home Depot. Think cost was somere around 200.00. Two settings---2500w and 5000w. Set at 55 deg all the time and run heat up to 62 if I'm going to be working on the TR. Figure it costs 40.00 to 60.00/mo to heat. Winter here like Colorado. 6deg low and 30 hi today. The best way to go is radiant heat in the slab.
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I'm really wishing I had done this. Radiant heat would be so nice for the garage as well as the bathroom and kitchen floors as well.

 

Try a Rinnai RHFE 1004 FA heater. All you need is a gas line and it vents directly to the outside. They are 84% efficient and work great. I use one to heat a larger space and I am happy with the results.

 

We have Rinnai water heaters and they make a pretty good product. is this the same type of heater (water heater that is) you would use for radiant heat or is there a specific type of heater used for radiant heat??

 

You use a boiler for radient heat. They make small ones that would be good for just the garage.
If you don't want to rip out the floor, you might consider baseboard hot water heat. Good clean quiet heat without flame, locate the boiler in your utility room. Problem is that there will be 6" high x 4" deep baseboard radiators lining a good portion of the walls. They're easy to retrofit, though.
As far as cooling, my buddy got one of the portable evaporative coolers that you see at Lowes or Home Depot and his works great in his 3-car garage. Then he just rolls it out to the shed in the winter. -m

 

I like comfort when I work on them and it does help in protecting the cars, with the insulation the heater doesn’t run all the time so it is not bad....and yes I drive all the cars all the time...no garage queens here.

My next garage will have a heated floor. My uncle did his about 8 years ago and there is nothing like it. It really makes a difference. He did the "work area" in floor heat but divided it and the rest of the garage is heated with a dawg or the like.

 

Why did he decide to do that? From what I was told the expensive part is the pump(s) heater(s) and all the related components but once you have that it's not all that expensive to run radiant heat where ever you want it. Maybe 8yrs ago this wasn't the case?

 

I had a small warehouse before my current garage that had natural gas fired heaters that I believe were infrared/radiant. Worked great and your tools were always warm. You see them up on the ceiling in a lot of the entry areas at car dealerships. That's the good news. The bad news is that if they get closer than about 5' to your car they cook the paint off. If you put your car on a lift for example. There were a bunch of claims against a garage in downtown Denver that was using them.

My garage is about 2500' and is well insulated in the walls and doors. I heat it to 60 with two big forced air furnaces that barely run. I can raise the temp 5 degrees in about 10 minutes. I had seperate metering on it last year and it costs about $60 in the cold months which I don't think is that bad.

Having tried a bunch of stuff, if you have access to a gas line and the ability to vent, a small hanging furnace is pretty cheap ($350) and works very fast.

 

I think the main reason was the cost to upgrade to a larger set up. His garage is about 3k ft2 and wanted one section for working on a couple of cars thus the heated floor. The rest is mainly for storage and parts so he didn’t feel the need to have that side done.

I’m like you I probably would have done the whole thing and maybe divide it into two zones. Either way it is so nice to work on a warm floor.

 

I too have been thinking about a garage heater. My garage is 3 car with high ceilings, there is no insulation in the ceiling and walls..(the drywallers got carried away and finished the garage before my contractor realized.) Good news is that the ceiling can be accessed without all the insulation mess..allowing easy install of better lighting..bad news is that my gas supply is a distance away and would require boring through concrete walls (don't want to do that). This has led me to consider those radiant electric heaters, like the kind you see outside at movies. They would also eliminate the open flame issue. Anyone tried these in their garage?

I also did some checking on radiant floor heating and it can be retro-fitted. They cut grooves in the surface and lay electric cord in the groove and then cover/seal them...haven't priced this out though...