Thread: Heat in garage - finally!

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Originally Posted by hobo

Sorry to take up the bandwidth,

. if no one used bandwidth this site would`nt be here.. now double posting is a real no-no

younger days- go to the local car wash at night and "snowball" the thermostat

at home- heat up the car, shut the garage door on the trunk and open the hood- radiator fan and engine did the rest. later pull the car forward and close the door, engine block finished it off for hours. only works for a running vehicle though.

I just walk over to the thermostat and turn it to the temp I want !


Pat

I used a little heater about the size of a trash can, that ran on propane, for a couple years. I was able to get up to 80 degrees if I left it on high for several hours. This year I installed a little wood burning, pot-bellied stove. It's quieter, cheaper [propane went up this year], and gets up in the high 60's.

I can live with that.

Re: Denny's heat exchanger

Denny's 55 gallon drum heat exchanger OVER a drum type kerosene heater, like the attached picture, (with allowances to draw enough O2 to burn) will eliminate fumes and still exchange heat effectively. Cut slots in the bottom of the drum and vent the fumes outside.

We used a similar setup in a hunting camp and it worked well.

Mine sez Reznor on it, same configuration but a size or two larger. Does an excellent job warming my 3 car garage to T-shirt working temp when it's zero outside!!!!! Put mine in about 10 years ago or so, bought it right from the gas company, think it was like $1,000.00 installed.....

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Mine sez Reznor on it, same configuration but a size or two larger. Does an excellent job warming my 3 car garage to T-shirt working temp when it's zero outside!!!!! Put mine in about 10 years ago or so, bought it right from the gas company, think it was like $1,000.00 installed.....

Yeah Dave, the Reznor is the commercial/industrial/whatever terminology one likes, standard. Had a couple big ones in the business back when. I wanted this one for the lower profile so it would clear the cabinet and not intrude too much on overhead space in the work area. Could have gone into a corner I suppose, but I feel I get better distribution of the heated air this way.

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

Yeah Dave, the Reznor is the commercial/industrial/whatever terminology one likes, standard. Had a couple big ones in the business back when. I wanted this one for the lower profile so it would clear the cabinet and not intrude too much on overhead space in the work area. Could have gone into a corner I suppose, but I feel I get better distribution of the heated air this way.

Yup, mine hangs right up in the corner. I use one small oscillating fan in the other corner of the same wall. Temp remains very constant throughout the whole garage... Only banged my head on it a couple times, then built a bench and some storage underneath it!!!!!!

Hmmm...
It's 63 degrees here and I'm planning on adding a window airconditioner in there.

Damn, with all of these huge heaters I feel like I have an inferior system. I try to stay out of the garage between January and March 1, but when I need to be in there, I use a portable propane heater. Uses one of two small tanks or can be hooked to a 20 lb or 100 lb tank. Provides a comfortable temperature of about 50 degrees. Even though I am getting older and like to be warm, too warm ain't good. I had thought of putting in one of the 30k wall units, but figure in a couple of years I want to start using natural heat that's free in Florida.

i want to build a 40'W x 60'L x (20'H at peak) garage with a heated slab and 2 hot dawg heaters in the corners across from each other. have the heat around 66-70 i like to work in a t-shirt and be warm have it at 66 if your working hard or at 70 if your hardly working LOL I would want my garage an actual shop with plumbing and a upstairs loft to pretty much live in LOL

Originally Posted by speedy55779

i want to build a 40'W x 60'L x (20'H at peak) garage with a heated slab and 2 hot dawg heaters in the corners across from each other. have the heat around 66-70 i like to work in a t-shirt and be warm have it at 66 if your working hard or at 70 if your hardly working LOL I would want my garage an actual shop with plumbing and a upstairs loft to pretty much live in LOL

If you are going to build from the ground up, and got some extra $$$, The only way to go is radiant floor heat in the concrete. Add some glycol (anti freeze) to it and set the temp of the return water to about 105 degrees F. and run the pump on the hot water boiler doing heating continuously and knock the burner off when the return water reaches its set point. Most heatings vendors will spec out your plans, for material needed. If not contact me.

I'd love to have heat out in the garage, but at almost $4 a gallon, I'm having all the fun I can stand trying to keep my house warm. Hank

I have some fiberglass supplies and acetone for cleanup along with other flammables in my 24'x12' frame garage and having been a chemist I have seen a fair number of lab fires over the years so I avoid any open-flame heaters. I tried using two of the enclosed oil electric heaters on wheels moving them close to the place where I was working. Last year I got a very nasty head cold working down low under the car on a cold dusty floor but so far this year I am doing pretty good working inside my heated attic (computer project). Even with two of these small standup units it takes at least two hours for them to warm up and then it is not much help. The first hint to hang up the wrenches is when my favorite trick of touch up with black rattle can paint fails and produces a wrinkled mess. Rattle can paint just makes a mess below about 55 degrees F so I just gave up for a few months and moved one of the heaters to my attic electronics lab for my computer project. With insulation one of these small heaters is fine and can go up to 80 degrees easily in a 9'x12' room so I guess this means that if I put some R19 in the walls of the garage two of those small heaters might work for next winter but the hard part would be to insulate the interior of the peaked roof. Thanks for the suggestion of running the engine for heat! If I can just get the roadster running by next Fall I will use that for heat next Winter rather than mess around with insulating the garage. Bob, you seem to do everything well, thanks for the pictures!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder