Heating my 21x21x9' attached

[Scoutman]

Ok, so I've grown to HATE my propane torpedo heater. It's a little 40,000 btu unit that plugs in, makes tons of noise, and I can't stand the smell anymore. I used to use it to bring up to temp and then maintain with an electric space heater but after doing this process the other night I decided I had had enough.

Background.... My attached garage/shop is 21'x21' with 9' ceilings so not a huge space. The walls are not insulated (at least not to my knowledge) and I've added blown in celulose to the ceiling and added an insulated garage door. I don't have natural gas and burning any solid fuel is not an option to me. That leaves me with LP, kerosene, or electric. I just checked our electrical provider's website and it states $0.09 kWh. Winters here aren't all that bad but like most others on this forum, a warm garage is awefully nice to work in. Typical winter is 40's highs/30's lows with cold spells in the 30's highs/teens lows during Dec, Jan, and Feb. The garage is our primary point of entry to the house so it gets opened and closed often. When closed up, the wall mounted thermometer says it reads in the upper 30's but never gets much below that I guess since it's attached to the east side of the house. I'm ok working with a sweatshirt so I'm shooting for upper 50's to 60's temp for a goal. I am only out there maybe a few hours during the evening on week nights (if I get time) or for good chunks of weekends. What I'm looking for is to bring it to temp quickly just to take the edge off or to maintain temp through a weekend project.

A few questions...
---Do the brick style, wall mount, propane heaters still give off the same fumes as my torpedo heater?
---Do Kerosene (the dynaglow that looks like R2D2) give off similar fumes as the Propane torpedo?
---Is the little electric ceiling mount box heater that I've read so much about on here just a resistance heater with a blower?

Anyone have any suggestions for the best approach to take? I like the idea of a mounted heater cause it doesn't take up any floor space which is at a premium in my garage. Other options are nice though cause they can be stored in the shed when out of season but they require feeding fuel and more attention. I am about out of electrical space so I'm looking into what it would take to upgrade my service to put a sub panel in for just garage stuff.

http://www.hsvutil.org/rates/resden.shtml

 

[EB.Bldr]

I'm currently in a similar situation here. I have been investigating IR heaters as a possible option. Check out these.

LINK

This is probably the route I'll take with an existing garage floor.

 

[BillK]

Scout,

You did not post your location so this may or may not be good advice. I have this heater in my attached 22x22x8' garage. I am in Maryland just south of Washington DC.

http://www.heater-home.com/product/PH-5HW.aspx

Walls are insulated but ceiling is not. Entire garage is drywalled. Fairly new insulated metal door that is sealed very well.

Last night when I got home, it was about 25 degrees outside and windy. I turned the heater on right after pulling into the garage. Went in to the house and had a quick dinner and came back out to the garage to fool with and old clock I have been trying to fix. It was almost 70 degrees The heater has a thermostat and it had already turned off. I have it mounted on the side wall near the door right next to the electric panel.

By the way, the biggest heat loss in my opinion is the roll up door. A few years ago when I still had the original wood door on the house, the heater would never do this. Replacing the door made all the difference in the world.

Also, although I dont run the heater every night, I cant say I have ever seen any difference in the electric bill. A lot of weekends it is on all day Saturday and Sunday.

 

[rickairmedic]

Scout,

You did not post your location so this may or may not be good advice. I have this heater in my attached 22x22x8' garage. I am in Maryland just south of Washington DC.

http://www.heater-home.com/product/PH-5HW.aspx

Walls are insulated but ceiling is not. Entire garage is drywalled. Fairly new insulated metal door that is sealed very well.

Last night when I got home, it was about 25 degrees outside and windy. I turned the heater on right after pulling into the garage. Went in to the house and had a quick dinner and came back out to the garage to fool with and old clock I have been trying to fix. It was almost 70 degrees The heater has a thermostat and it had already turned off. I have it mounted on the side wall near the door right next to the electric panel.

By the way, the biggest heat loss in my opinion is the roll up door. A few years ago when I still had the original wood door on the house, the heater would never do this. Replacing the door made all the difference in the world.

Also, although I dont run the heater every night, I cant say I have ever seen any difference in the electric bill. A lot of weekends it is on all day Saturday and Sunday.

OMG that thing is stupid expensive. Heres the heater I run in my garage . Costs me roughly $60.00 a month to keep the garage at 65-70*F full time. I got mine at Grainger but its the same heater as the one in the link from Drill spot. This is the G73's little brother . I have an insulated 7X16 door and the ceiling is insulated but theres no insulation in the walls behind the drywall. Also my garage is 21X28X9' +

http://www.drillspot.com/products/51637/Dayton_3VU36_Heater



Rick

 

[Scoutman]

I'm in North Alabama. It sounds like both you guys have similar setups. My drywall walls aren't insulated, my ceiling is blown in, and my 2 car garage door is pretty well sealed and is insulated. There are no man doors to my garage.

We had to replace our home HVAC units a few years ago and I kept the working blower/heat strip assemblies out of both of the air handlers. I need to see what it would take to turn these into working heaters. Since they were meant for emergency heat for an entire 1200 sqft floor of my house, they should bring the garage temp up QUICK and only take short bursts to maintain temp.

 

[Jackfre]

I heat my garage, house and shop with Rinnai Energysavers. www.rinnai.us
I also represent them in my business so, bias noted, but they are excellent and 95% of those I sold in 1991 are still in the field.

 

[tcianci]

Unless I missed it, You didn't state what you were using to heat your house. In my instance I have a 22 x 25 x 8 attached and forced hot water heat in the house. I added a zone to my boiler and installed a 25k BTU Beacon Morris unit heater. It heats the place beatifully. I have 3.5" of fiberglass in the walls and 5 inches in the ceiling. There is an unfinished 2nd floor above the garage.

 

[Scoutman]

Unless I missed it, You didn't state what you were using to heat your house. In my instance I have a 22 x 25 x 8 attached and forced hot water heat in the house. I added a zone to my boiler and installed a 25k BTU Beacon Morris unit heater. It heats the place beatifully. I have 3.5" of fiberglass in the walls and 5 inches in the ceiling. There is an unfinished 2nd floor above the garage.

I have 2 HVAC units, one upstairs and one down.

 

[787B]

Scoutman, I was in the same situation - tired of my noisy, smelly 30k BTU propane torpedo. I found a 30k ventless "blue flame" heater on craigslist this past Fall for $60. I've been very happy with it and a ceiling fan to distribute the heat in my 28 x 28 x 8.5 basement garage with uninsulated cinder block walls. Makes no noise, no smell, never sets off or even registers on my CO alarm. New they are about $200.

It's undersized for my garage, but it will reach 60 in an hour. I supplement it with a 5000 Watt (17k BTU) 220 Volt electric heater when I want to get the temp up quick.

 

[Scoutman]

Scoutman, I was in the same situation - tired of my noisy, smelly 30k BTU propane torpedo. I found a 30k ventless "blue flame" heater on craigslist this past Fall for $60. I've been very happy with it and a ceiling fan to distribute the heat in my 28 x 28 x 8.5 basement garage with uninsulated cinder block walls. Makes no noise, no smell, never sets off or even registers on my CO alarm. New they are about $200.

It's undersized for my garage, but it will reach 60 in an hour. I supplement it with a 5000 Watt (17k BTU) 220 Volt electric heater when I want to get the temp up quick.

Good to know. Just to make sure we're talking about the same type of heater...

I wonder why a torpedo heater would stink and a ventless blue flame brick heater (pictured) wouldn't?

 

[787B]

Good to know. Just to make sure we're talking about the same type of heater...

Not exactly. Mine actually has... well... blue flame.
Like this:

The one you've pictured is the infrared ventless heater. It puts out just as much heat, of course, and is better if you work in one area and can put the heater facing that area. The infrared heat will heat you and your stuff more directly and the air less directly. The blue-flame heaters heat the air more directly. I think the infrared is often the better choice, but the blue-flame is what popped-up on craigslist for $60 when I was looking.

I wonder why a torpedo heater would stink and a ventless blue flame brick heater (pictured) wouldn't?

The torpedo doesn't burn very cleanly or completely. The ventless heaters burn completely so there's nothing left to stink.

 

[daynamleo]

yes its @@ Good to know. Just to make sure we're talking about the same type of heater...