Best garage heating option (cost and efficiency)

[CentralIL]

I am building a 2 story home in Central Illinois.

I will have a 1300 sq. ft. 3 car attached garage with an 11’ insulated ceiling and a 34’ x 54’ detached garage with a 16’ ceiling.

I do not work in these garages on a daily basis. I would just like to have the ability to heat the garages, when needed.
I also do not have a lot of money in my budget for this part of the project.

My original plan was to install radiant floor pex tubing myself and then have a plumber/HVAC guy install and hookup a boiler in each garage.

Does anyone have any other suggestions on a cost efficient way to add a heat source to these garages?
I am open to all suggestions.
Thanks…

 

[sneezer41]

Put the pex in the floor, even if you don't use it. You may have more money later

home hot air gas furnaces are cheap cheap cheap. Horizontal on the wall or downfiring on the wall no loss of floorspace

 

[gesoffen]

I'd agree with sneezer on putting the PEX in if you even have a slight preference for radiant heat in the future.

However, for your desire for "on-demand" heat, radiant is NOT the way to go. In fact, for on demand heat of the whole space, there really is no "efficient" solution since you'll need a big gas fired forced air or infrared heater to warm the place up to a work friendly temperature quickly. Of course for the size of the spaces, you're looking at some pretty hefty BTUs for quick heat recovery - without doing calculations, I'd imagine ~100k+ for the 1300 sqft space and ~150k+ for the detached. These won't be cheap to install and they'll be WAY oversized to efficiently maintain heat at a regulated temperature. However, if you only occasionally work in the spaces, they may be the most efficient in the long run.

However, if you do hydronic radiant heat, you could set the thermostat much lower (50 or so) to maintain heat. The benefit of that heat will be that it is were you'll likely feel it most - on the floor. However, recovery time for hydronic heat would be on the order of several days.

My advice would be to really think about the frequency of your visits to the garage in the long term. If you're planning on working in there only a handful of times a month, the big heat recovery systems would probably work. Much beyond that, and you should be leaning towards radiant or heat pump to maintain a lower set temperature (and sacrifice the quick heat recovery ability).

Another option would be a hybrid system with a heat pump to maintain a low set temp and a gas heater to provide quick heat recovery. These systems don't fit the "cheap" part of your equation for up front costs though.

 

[6768rogues]

I have a 36 x 48 with a 14' ceiling in western NY. I use a natural gas 100,000 BTU Reznor hanging heater. It is up and out of the way, it provides quick heat, and handles the building quite nicely. I leave it about 45 degrees most of the time, and turn it up to whatever is comfortable while I am out there working. Usually the working temp is 55 or 60, which is comfortable in typical work clothes. When I bought the Reznor in 1995, they were about $400 but I spent $800 to get electronic ignition and a powered exhaust. The gas company provided a service and meter, and I ran the gas line to the heating unit.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

I agree with gesoffen.

Radiant heat is the berries, but it isn't the best solution for "sometimes" heat.

Put in the pex for someday. Put 2" of HD styrofoam under the slab, 6" of fiberglass batt in the walls, and all you can fit in the ceiling. Use insulated overhead doors and high quality windows.

Insulating it well is more critical then how you choose to heat it.

Gas unit heaters are cheap and will heat it up in a hurry.

Phil

 

[RoscoeJ]

If you need heat for self warmth ,when in there once in awhile, you could go with a gas ceiling hung radiant heater,but that only heats objects, not the air inside .I bought a 36,000 btu wall mount gas heater for my 20x20 garage ,it works great ,costs me about $100 in gas ,for 6 weeks, keeping it at 55 degrees ,being 36 degrees outside. Has built in thermostate and fan ,its pretty quiet too.

 

[Maulerman]

When in floor heat is done it is critical to insulate the edge of the slab. Many neglect that and could ruin the system's ability to provide comfort.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Your ceilings will be high enough that you may want to consider an overhead tube radiant heater. Here is one example: http://www.spaceray.com/garage-residential.html

 

[SteveU]

Seems like the IR tube heat would be the way to go, wonder why more people aren't using them? Makes sense to me to heat the floor & objects rather than the air which will be gone the first time you open the overhead door. How do these compare to the in floor type radiant heaters? In floor would be nice in new construction but for buildings with existing concrete floors it would be impractical to put in. IR tube heat is what I plan on going with especially with the way fuel prices continue to spiral out of control, just paid 3.07/gal for #2 Fuel oil & propane was 2.59/gal last month here.