garage heating question

autox19

autox19

True Classic
loving my new garage. but it is getting cold. I have a kerosene torpedo style heater that heats fine but a little bit stinky. I am leaning towards a pellet stove as my township is finicky and my insurance wont allow a barrel stove. I dont want to run gas from my house because it would be too easy to leave on and rack up a huge bill. also where the line comes in would not be an easy run to the garage. Propane cannot drop off a non portable tank (over 100 lbs) because of an agreement with the township if natural gas is available.

thoughts?

Odie
 
I went through the same thought process with my attached two car garage here in Virginia where it does get cold in the winter. Like you I had used the kerosene torpedo heater for decades. They heat up the garage real fast, stink up everything and would give me a pretty good headache if working under the car (lots of horror stories of brain damage from lack of oxygen). My brother, who lives in Maine, put me on to wall or ceiling mount electric heaters. They run on 240 v and having that line run cost more than the heater! Does an amazing job, is clean and makes only a little noise when the fan is on.

This is the one I use;
 
carl said:
I went through the same thought process with my attached two car garage here in Virginia where it does get cold in the winter. Like you I had used the kerosene torpedo heater for decades. They heat up the garage real fast, stink up everything and would give me a pretty good headache if working under the car (lots of horror stories of brain damage from lack of oxygen). My brother, who lives in Maine, put me on to wall or ceiling mount electric heaters. They run on 240 v and having that line run cost more than the heater! Does an amazing job, is clean and makes only a little noise when the fan is on. I can find the link if you want more info.
Click to expand...
I am always willing to look. I have 240 already there. one of the reasons I got the "ok" for the polebarn/garage was our attached sent so many of the fumes from working into the house. it was converted into an in-law suite for my disabled uncle anyway. so win win!!. do you think the heater would work for a 36x48x12? one of the other issues I know I have but trying to spend the money in a timeline. is no insulation. the original idea was to work with the torpedo this winter while loading up on insulation one paycheck at a time. Now I have worked with the stink, and my wife has smelled me afterwards, that has changed a little. still working on the insulation, but will start about a month later to allow me to get another source of heat in there. Torpedo will bring it up to temp quickly and the new heat source will maintain it.

Odie
 
autox19 said:
loving my new garage. but it is getting cold. I have a kerosene torpedo style heater that heats fine but a little bit stinky. I am leaning towards a pellet stove as my township is finicky and my insurance wont allow a barrel stove. I dont want to run gas from my house because it would be too easy to leave on and rack up a huge bill. also where the line comes in would not be an easy run to the garage. Propane cannot drop off a non portable tank (over 100 lbs) because of an agreement with the township if natural gas is available.

thoughts?

Odie
Click to expand...
If you put in a gas fireplace, you could install a timer with maximum limits. We had a vacation rental condo where vacationers would come in, turn on the fireplace and leave. Two days later, the cleaning team arrived and told us “did you want the fireplace on?”. NO! So I bought a two-hour max timer. When it runs out, fireplace off. Job done.
 
tvmaster said:
If you put in a gas fireplace, you could install a timer with maximum limits. We had a vacation rental condo where vacationers would come in, turn on the fireplace and leave. Two days later, the cleaning team arrived and told us “did you want the fireplace on?”. NO! So I bought a two-hour max timer. When it runs out, fireplace off. Job done.
Click to expand...
there still is the issue of running the line to the garage. about 100 ft, under the drive under a sidewalk through tree roots, etc... we did the same timer thing on my friends torpedo (ok its on an outlet that the heater uses) as he would constantly forget is was on. So I understand and that could be an option. Really leaning towards the pellet stove. regular maintenance is the biggest downside I see.

odie
 
It depends on how often you will be in the garage. If it's only a couple every weend-end (like myself), a basic baseboard unit, set at a low temperature will keep everything to get frozen and a construction/garage portable heater on the 240 will heat up your space work in a hour.

But if you are "living" in your garage, the pellet stove could make sense. But I have no experience with them and some laws may be in vigor in your state about the chimney and don't forget some insurance cost increase.
 
DanielForest said:
It depends on how often you will be in the garage. If it's only a couple every weend-end (like myself), a basic baseboard unit, set at a low temperature will keep everything to get frozen and a construction/garage portable heater on the 240 will heat up your space work in a hour.

But if you are "living" in your garage, the pellet stove could make sense. But I have no experience with them and some laws may be in vigor in your state about the chimney and don't forget some insurance cost increase.
Click to expand...
Good points. Insurance with the pellet won't change because apparently I told them when I added it when construction finished I was putting in pellet heater. (Don't remember that but I am getting old) it only added 7.34 a month as I was telling them I don't have it yet. But that little amount knowing I am doing something soon told them to just leave it. I will have to Google 240 heaters. In the summer I was out there every day. One of my "home offices" is in the garage making doing small things inbetween work things easy. I think it will end up more of a 1-2 days after work and maybe a total of a full day on the weekends.

Odie
Thanks for all the advice. I love this forum
 
My garage is about 20'X20' with an insulated ceiling, insulated garage door and two of the walls are also walls to the house so I assume insulated. My brother has two of the heaters in his garage but it's bigger, not insulated, two stories and in Maine.

I would definitely go electric over any open combustion type heater in an automotive environment.
 
The online calculators say I need a unit over 30,000 watts. I am thinking electric is a no go

Odie
 
dllubin said:
You can gain about 4x In efficiency going with a heat pump instead of electrical resistance heating.
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That is what we used for the inlaw suite. A dual head minisplit would work and I would have air in the summer. I will have to do more looking. I think we paid over 2x the cost of what the pellet stove is. But we shall see

Odie
 
Personally I would go with a 95% efficient propane furnace. A used furnace unit off Craigslist or FB Marketplace would be relatively inexpensive, work well and with sealed combustion would be safe in the garage from a fume perspective and easy to plumb.

A 100lb tank would last a reasonable period of time. You could use a programable thermostat which automatically is set to shut off at regular time periods. The programmable thermostat could also be of the type that works with wifi and allow you to use HomeKit or similar to manage and control the system remotely. I have much of my house on automated systems for lighting in particular and heating for the two furnaces.

Given the size of your space an electric heater could bankrupt you around here…
 
kmead said:
Personally I would go with a 95% efficient propane furnace. A used furnace unit off Craigslist or FB Marketplace would be relatively inexpensive, work well and with sealed combustion would be safe in the garage from a fume perspective and easy to plumb.

A 100lb tank would last a reasonable period of time. You could use a programable thermostat which automatically is set to shut off at regular time periods. The programmable thermostat could also be of the type that works with wifi and allow you to use HomeKit or similar to manage and control the system remotely. I have much of my house on automated systems for lighting in particular and heating for the two furnaces.

Given the size of your space an electric heater could bankrupt you around here…
Click to expand...
That was one of my plans as well but I was troubled getting rough estimates on how long 100 lbs would last. Even brand new lp heaters are cheaper than the pellet stove.

I was thinking the same about electric

Odie
 
autox19 said:
That was one of my plans as well but I was troubled getting rough estimates on how long 100 lbs would last. Even brand new lp heaters are cheaper than the pellet stove.

I was thinking the same about electric

Odie
Click to expand...

How long will 100 lb propane tank last?

A 100 pound propane cylinder holds approximately 23.6 gallons when completely full, and an 80,000 BTU appliance that ran 24 hours a day the propane would last about 1.12 days. If the appliance ran for 12 hours a day, the propane in the tank would last about 2.24 days.
findanyanswer.com findanyanswer.com
 
kmead said:

How long will 100 lb propane tank last?

A 100 pound propane cylinder holds approximately 23.6 gallons when completely full, and an 80,000 BTU appliance that ran 24 hours a day the propane would last about 1.12 days. If the appliance ran for 12 hours a day, the propane in the tank would last about 2.24 days.
findanyanswer.com findanyanswer.com
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Looks like my Google skills slipped. So I can guess that it would be good for under 8 "garage days". Not sure if that would work.

Odie
 
I use one of these:

King Electric - MODEL SKB (king-electric.com)

240V and 20A I think. I have a 240V/50A plug I swap between that and my 240V TIG.

IMG_6348.JPG


Works well but you definitely don't wanna leave it on by accident as you'll notice it on your power bill (yeah, that happened).

I used to have one of those propane burners that screws onto a 20 pound tank like this:
1638764490391.png


While this works, it gets super hot and wasn't cheap. I now also have a propane rocket unit (torpedo) but that think is SO LOUD that I can't stand it. Also, as others have said, it pumps all that CO2 in your garage and all that combustion moisture.

Prefer the electric heater.
 
darwoodious said:
I use one of these:

King Electric - MODEL SKB (king-electric.com)

240V and 20A I think. I have a 240V/50A plug I swap between that and my 240V TIG.

View attachment 55658

Works well but you definitely don't wanna leave it on by accident as you'll notice it on your power bill (yeah, that happened).

I used to have one of those propane burners that screws onto a 20 pound tank like this:
View attachment 55659

While this works, it gets super hot and wasn't cheap. I now also have a propane rocket unit (torpedo) but that think is SO LOUD that I can't stand it. Also, as others have said, it pumps all that CO2 in your garage and all that combustion moisture.

Prefer the electric heater.
Click to expand...
How large of a garage? I think that is where I can't use small stuff.. I am 1728 sqft with. 12 foot ceiling.

Odie
 
Last edited:
Janis said:
Do You need to heat all space?
Few years ago in workshop we put curtains between workspace and storage part.
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valid point. the garage/barn is kinda split between garage (basic daily parking and storage) and the "shop" (the fiats, tools etc...) I would have to move my "office" to the other side but that isnt too tricky as it is only a desk and a couple monitors. and I guess when I need to work on the daily drivers I could swap spaces with one of the fiats. I am liking that idea

Odie
 
Limiting the heated space and air ingress would make heating it easier. It does highlight not using a solution with indoor pollution.

It would make using one of these a reasonable proposition:

And if you time it right they might have an 11% off sale :)

A regular furnace would make it easier to create a simple plenum system but more money.

When I finally get a garage it will have infloor heat…
 
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