Heating Cooling Reccomendations

[davkenrem]

Hello all, Just completing my 24'x32'x12' Garage and looking for reccomendations for heating and possibly cooling. I live in NW Ohio (Zone5) and my garage has 2"x6" stud walls with R-21 Faced insulation throughout. The ceilings is drywalled and will have about 15" of OC AtticCat Pink insulation (roughly R-49) blown in.

I definately want heat for the winter months and have run a natural gas line to the garage. I also have a 100a elctrical service in the garage with plenty of space.

Looking for advice on choices.



I intially was leaning toward a Mr. Heater 50000-BTU Forced-air Garage Heater. I'm confident this would heat my garage comfortably with releativly low cost. My goal would be to keep the garage in the high forties to low fifties during Dec-March, which is the coldest part of the year and bump it up to the low 60's if I needed to do any prolonged repair during those months.

This is my first summer with the garage and it's been pretty hot, so know I'm considering A/C and a mini split heat pump. Probably 18000BTU.

How well does the mini split heat pump do for heating? It gets down to the low teens here in Feburary and March which pretty much as cold as it gets. Maybe a few below zero days. And for cooling mid 80's to mid 90's is the norm for our summers with 1 or 2 days breaking 100 degrees.

Any one gone from a gas heater to minisplit HP and can talk about the the change in cost?

Any brands of heat pumps to avoid.


Let's hear what you think. Obligitory photo attached.

 

[jlv03]

If you have both natural gas and a good sized electric service, I would go with both heat sources (heat pump and gas fired heater).

50k BTU gas heater seems excessive for the size space and how well insulated you have it. 30k BTU might be as small as you can go, but still pretty healthy in size.

 

[davkenrem]

If you have both natural gas and a good sized electric service, I would go with both heat sources (heat pump and gas fired heater).

50k BTU gas heater seems excessive for the size space and how well insulated you have it. 30k BTU might be as small as you can go, but still pretty healthy in size.

Hmmm, why do you reccomend both? The 50K is reccomended from 700 1250sq ft. I used a 80k BTU Portable convection heater and is really sucked down the propane but worked great. 15mins and it was t-shirt temp in there. Leaked out fast with no ceiling last year. It will be very different with the drywalled ceiling and insualtion this winter. Now that I think about it your probably right that a 30k BTU may do just fine.

 

[jlv03]

I say both to give you options, both cost and comfort.

If you heat solely with a heat pump, you're not going to be able to quickly ramp up temps like you would with a gas heater. If your goal is to keep above freezing in the dead of winter (coldest days of the year), there may be days or periods where electricity is the cheaper fuel source. A gas heater may require you to keep a higher base level temp (50F) vs. freeze protection on the heat pump. Opening up the garage door will quickly let the heat out - the gas heater can recover pretty quick and then you can let the heat pump take over from there.

I'm sure there are other things I'm not thinking of.

 

[davkenrem]

Well that makes sense. The gas heater will definitely get warmer quicker.

 

[jack stand]

If you're positive about wanting a/c, I'd install a mini split first. Go through a winter and see if you're satisfied. Pay attention to the temperature when/ if you're not happy and keep that in consideration for your overall satisfaction.
Personally I'd much rather leave a light jacket on during the coldest times but be comfortable in the shittiest hot humid summertime. A small gas unit could always be added later to help the heat pump when necessary.

 

[davkenrem]

I'm guessing the Heat pump will use more energy (Electrical) than the gas heater but the gas heater will use both gas and electric, which could be a wash...

 

[mike93lx]

I'm guessing the Heat pump will use more energy (Electrical) than the gas heater but the gas heater will use both gas and electric, which could be a wash...

Heat pumps are extremely efficient. But when it gets too cold they can't pull enough heat from the air and that's when you would run your gas unit.

Check out Mitsubishi hyper heat, or whatever they call it. Heating down to 17 degrees ambient

 

[djjsr]

Check out this fuel comparison calculator. It may help.

Fuel Comparison Calculator for Home Heating | Coalpail.com

Compare the costs of different home heating fuels like coal, wood, natural gas and oil. Values are adjusted for efficiency, BTU content and other variables.

coalpail.com