20 x 20 space, how to heat.

[SixStringMadness]

my garage is just over 430 sq/ft, currently a noninsulated door, not sure if exterior walls are insulated. about a 9' ceiling height.

what are some of you guys heating your garages with. I'm really only looking to run heat in the winter when I'm out there working.

saw the 18k btu coleman heater at lowes, up the the 80k btu forced air kerosene small. I don't really want to listen to the forced air one in that small an area, but tend to like the idea that maybe it could just run in short burts....

anyway, please share what kind of heaters you guys are using, and your feedback

 

[Gary S]

Before you think about heating, insulate. You will find immediately that your garage is 20 degrees warmer in the winter and 20 degrees cooler in the summer.

And, you will find that you need very little heat once properly insulated. Unvented fuel heaters consume oxygen from your garage and replace it with water and fumes. To live comfortably in a garage, you want either a vented fuel heater, or electric heat.

 

[Cinneagh]

Subscribed. I'm in the same boat.

I am going to start with insulating the garage door to see if that improves things first.

 

[SixStringMadness]

Well, all I'm able to do is insulate the garage door, as the walls are finished with sheet rock. Maybe I'm lucky enough they are insulated..... who knows. Thanks for the tip, I figured that was my first step anyway.

 

[nehog]

Well, all I'm able to do is insulate the garage door, as the walls are finished with sheet rock. Maybe I'm lucky enough they are insulated..... who knows. Thanks for the tip, I figured that was my first step anyway.

Maybe, cut power, and remove the outlet and switch cover plates for the exterior walls. You may be able to see if they are insulated in the gap between the box and the sheetrock. Careful probing (I sometimes use a hacksaw blade) can help too, but use care doing that (you don't want to damage the vapor barrier...)

If they are not insulated, you may be able to blow in insulation from the top, and patch the resulting holes.

 

[SeattleKent]

I just bought an electric heater for my three car garage. I thought of propane or kerosene. Posting on this site suggest fumes are a problem (who wants to get a headache after an hour or two?) and those heaters put out a lot of moisture (who wants their tools to rust?).

I went with the King KBP2406. $360 on Amazon but only $289 at Lowes (might have to special order). Add about $20 for a 240 volt plug. A bit of a pain to wire up. I plug it into my compressor outlet.

Works really well. The unit is a bit undersized for the garage which means it runs most of the time to keep up with the heat loss through the uninsulated garage doors. I knew this going into it but figured it was OK. The unit is about half the cost of other heaters. The garage comes up to temp pretty quickly here in relatively mild Seattle. The heater is the best purchase I have made in a long time. The garage has changed from a place where I grudgingly went because of the cold to someplace I really like to go.