TOPIC: I Need Heat!!!

Hey there.
It is time to start wet sanding my Gel Coat, and it is COOOOOLD out there. Not outside in the snow, but in the garage. I have a two car garage, somewhat partially insulated, and I want to take the chill out before working up a sweat wet sanding, ..... and I was looking for recommendations for heating the area without the smell and having my family finding me laying out stiff on the garage floor.

Ideas?

Big Thanks!
StevieB

Use electric heat. Get yourself one of those newer ones that they show on the info commerials now.Do not use any propane or kerosene type in the garage if it is attached to your house.

This is the one I picked up for 80.00 new and it works great and came with a remote control. Skip.

I was going to say Kerosene heater but you HAVE TO VENT IT! I had planned on doing this in my shed when it comes time, I have a window fan that will vent with a thermostat, the heater I have will more than compensate for any heat going out the window. Just my suggestion, maybe I'm crazy.

Bob

I agree if you are only on a temp basis with electric. I don't know how large your area is and how much area is open. Leave space around it. We don't like fires in our garages. I had a wood stove in mine. I loved it. I had an unlimited supply of free wood. Now I do own a wood pellet stove and I always thought it would be great for a garage. It burns air from the outside and is contained like a furnace. Load it up, light it and leave it alone. Your garage would be all snugly warm when you went back out. You can get pellets for $209.00 a ton. I can heat my house on three tons a year. They can also be bought used. Mine is aver 10 years old and I only ever had one problem with it. A new feed motor cost me around $100.00. This one is not mine but a pic off the net. This is just like mine. And a pic of the pellet fuel. On the sides and back you only need to leave around six inches. You can put your hand anywhere on the sides and top and not get burned. It has a fan built in for circulation and is vented outside. No gas or fumes come inside. These are not like a wood burner, but more like a furnace in your house. In fact you can buy them to tie into your duct work and as fireplace inserts. This is also the cheapest way to heat my home aside from free.

First, if you can, finish insulating the garage. It will be worth it.

Any heat source is a potential for fire. You need to keep material away from it and watch out if you are using solvents.

You will need to get something the proper size. There are resources on line for calculating heat loss in a building that will tell you how many BTUs are required. Then make sure you buy something that matches. Realize that manufacturers will exaggerate that as much as they can so get something with your requirements near the middle of their range.

My personal preference would be to use a propane salamander style heater, similar to what they use on construction sites. Remember to keep the tank OUTSIDE and run the hose into the unit. Keeping the door open enough to run the hose in will probably give you enough make up air. I have propane hot air heat in my house and have no problem.

If you do run a fuel fired heater, install a CO detector.

i use a torpedo,propane heater but it makes moisture,im hoping i can find a used oil furnace and build a small room onto my garage just to help to keep things from freezing and to make it easier to start my mini back hoe for plowing snow,john

i have air tight woodburners in both jersey and pennsy as secondary heat sources. plenty of dead wood in the area that i have permission to take. just have to pull it out to the road with the tractor and cut it to size. no heat in my new garage though. i would of had to tear up some serious landscaping to run something out there. don't know if dry heat would be detrimental to paint and gelcoat work. ron

Have you tried looking for a used mobile home furnace ?
I just looked at Craigslist, someone had one for 50 bucks here.

I, too use a wood pellet stove in my workshop shed. Going on the second winter with it. My only issue is the lack of thermostatic control. It has three speeds or burn rates. When it gets too warm, I just crack a window or turn off the heater for an hour or two. (I did insulate the crap out of the work space.)

Being somewhat in the HVA/C field this is the most bang for the bucks that I know of right now. I am getting one for the RV

www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200485119_200485119?isSearch=%0919852

My pellet stove has 9 heat settings and it can be controlled with a thermostat. But only from one heat setting to another. Mine does not self start. Many now do , but mine is getting old.

If you use Natural gas or propane as your primary heating fuel a direct vent U tube heater is about the best thing you can get. I have 2 of these Robert Gordon Caribe heaters in my garage, each is 30,000 BTU. I have 2 bays seperated by a wall and only need to keep the north bay at 12c to get 7c in the south side as long as the dividing wall door is open. I can get the temp up to 16c in the cold side within 40 min and at 81% efficiency they are fairly cheap to run (nat gas) The beauty of radiant heat is that it heats the objects in the room which then give up their heat to the room. They are fairly expensive but worth it if you want to heat the shop all the time and be very comfortable. I am in the HVAC business and was able to do the install myself which probably saved $1000.00 in labour cost. My shop is insullated to R25 in the walls and R40+ in the ceiling

salamander! just keep an eye on it. weve ran em inside before

Well, with 33 years in the H.V.A.C.R. trade. Just remember if you choose electric heat, be it a cheap walmart heater or a expensive infrared copper tube heated made by the Amish ALL electric heaters are the same efficiency 3.4 BTU / Watt. I go with the $30 walmart 1500W heater. The propane / Nat. gas ceramic heaters are cool, but do add to the humidity, and may have mold problems. The same with any ventless gas heaters. My choice would be a downflow, 80% forced air furnace. Flue is vented to the outdoors, garages usually have enough air leakage to provide for combustion air. Downflow to set on a plenum box and tap 2 collars with adjustable elbows in the sides for air distribution, filter on top. could even run on a 4.5 gal propane bottle sitting next to it. Just run the t-stat wire to the far side of the room.

Any vented heater dumps part of your heat outside of the heating area. In 90s a high eff gas house heater was rated at 86, meaning that you dumped 14% of you heat outside.

We now have 96% heaters, however they must have a drained, and the industry is having problems with the heating jacket (heat exchanger) pitting because the condensation is a bit on the acid side.

Using 316L SS for the jacket we are having cracking problems.

Just do not tell the pubic about it, for they pay a premium for the high eff heater just to have problems with it

Non vented heaters are rated 99%

Texan, that is true. But, non-vented gas appliances; remove oxygen, add CO, add humidity. At my age and number of brain cells left I need all the Oxygen, and the less CO I have in my workspace. especially in a small space like a garage. BTW Amana 90+ furnaces have a lifetime heat exchanger warranty and are resonable priced. I'd still go with a used 80% (check for cracks in the exchanger with a mirror) for my garage. But then I'm just a poor redneck

My cold problem solved! I have decided that working on boats in sub-freezing temperatures stops as of Monday when I leave for Tahiti. I won't return until February and in South Carolina, that's like spring up north. On second thought, maybe I ought to defect to the Polynesian government and request asylum...permanently.

aznative14 wrote:

Texan, that is true. But, non-vented gas appliances; remove oxygen, add CO, add humidity. At my age and number of brain cells left I need all the Oxygen, and the less CO I have in my workspace. especially in a small space like a garage.

BTW Amana 90+ furnaces have a lifetime heat exchanger warranty

and are resonable priced. I'd still go with a used 80% (check for cracks in the exchanger with a mirror) for my garage. But then I'm just a poor redneck

Yes however read the warranty small print. As a consulting engineer for Rheem/Rude (in the late 80s early 90s) I know all about life time warranty. as long as the item is in production. If it is pulled out of production they will prorate the years left and pay the home owner that. Then there is the trick that is to sell out the Co and the new co does not have to honer the warranty....just what Goodman did....and he tried to get me to do some work for him

If propane heaters add humidity, then why do I need to run a humidifier in my house (heated by a hot air propane furnace)during the winter? The relative humidity drops at least 25 points.

He He. I can grab the vent for my pellet stove on the outside of the house with my bare hands. Like I said, all outside air for combustion. Inside you can sit on the thing, just don't touch the immediate front around the door. I can add corn to it too. If you get last years feed corn you can get it at a very low price. When I get corn I put it in a sealed barrel and use a scoop. This one is mine. I'm cleaning the basement and it is not on. The vent and air intake. You can use plastic pipe for the intake. It is set about 2 feet above the ground due to snow. My heat exchanger is cast iron.

Corn stoves similar to pellet heaters are good too. How about outside furnace. It depends on what your budget allows what you get.. My cabin was a garage,then a cabin. And now It is my garage again with a natural gas furnace. I keep my temp set at 50*
in the winter 24x24 well insulated. heats cheap.

tudor,its because your heater,(furnace) has a flu to vent it out.
the propane im talking about is the torpedo heater i have,it has no venting what so ever.john

StevieB wrote:

Hey there.
It is time to start wet sanding my Gel Coat, and it is COOOOOLD out there. Not outside in the snow, but in the garage. I have a two car garage, somewhat partially insulated, and I want to take the chill out before working up a sweat wet sanding, ..... and I was looking for recommendations for heating the area without the smell and having my family finding me laying out stiff on the garage floor.

Ideas?

Big Thanks!
StevieB

I have one of them so called 2-car garages with an attached house. I have an electric oil heater that looks like an old radiator. I run it under my workbench. Our washer and dryer are in the garage and in the winter the dryer vent is blown down into a container of water that blows the heat into the garage without lint. That heat helps alot and you can time when you do laundry with when you will be in your garage. Home Depot sells the plastic vent box. You can also just vent it down into a bucket of water, same principal. It works better than you can imagine. This is NOT for gas dryers..!