Electric heat suggestions

[Shootnjunky]

Although I could run ng into my garage. I already have an undersized electric heater I moved from my old house that is currently wired and working ok.

My 750sq ft garage is attached to my house and I only turn on the heater when I plan on working in the garage.

Was looking at some 25k btu units at northern but some have complaints about running all the time.

Anyway what say ye?

 

[James-W]

I would say it depends on how much you work in the garage. If you only work in the garage on rare occasion and for relatively short periods of time, then electric heat is a good way to heat the space. But if you work out there a lot, then the cost to run the electric heater will get to be rather expensive.

Natural gas would be the least expensive heat, but would cost quite a bit to get set up and running. Keep in mind, not only is there the cost of the heater itself, there is also the cost of running the gas line and the venting.

 

[matt_i]

What is the rating on the undersized heater? You can infer some cost information by scaling the "cost" of proposed vs existing.

Also what is your basic location? The number of "heating days" you need in Minnesota is much different than that of North Georgia.

And, as James asked, how much time do you spend out there?

Ime, natural gas is typically very inexpensive compared on a straight-up cost per kW-hr unit of energy, over electric resistance heat, with some regional differences. So over the long haul you'll save with N.G. But its worth asking yourself the questions. The more you use it, the more that the extra work for N.G. makes sense.

 

[moneyisflying]

I was facing a similar situation a few years ago with my garage. I would find myself doing occasional work out there and in northern Indiana in the winter it would just be too cold to tolerate.

I don't have NG at the house at all so I was looking at all options. I ended up going with a Fahrenheat electric heater. I was VERY happy with my choice. The unit I got only cost about $170, and heats my 3 car garage with 12' ceilings nicely to T-shirt temps within about 30-45 minutes of turning it on. Its clean (unlike some dirty kerosene salamander heaters I tried in the past), it doesn't take up a lot of space (especially since I mounted mine in the ceiling), and really the only downside is the cost of operating, which honestly is not really too bad given that I only do occasional work out there. Do I notice a difference in my electric bill? Meh, not really. In a month if I spend a LOT of time out there (maybe a full week out of the month) I maybe see an increase of $30 in my electric bill.

I will add that I recently built a barn and was looking at installing electric heat out there also, but due to the 30'x50' size of it, the heaters I would need would have been much more expensive, and the electricity needed to heat it would have been a significant amount more. I ended up installing a 55 gallon barrel wood burning furnace. It cost me about $40 total for the furnace, and another $200 in ducting, but with having a ton of firewood available it has been essentially free to use and does heat my barn VERY nicely.

 

[dandan111]

I'd say don't fix it if it ain't broke. Now if you have extra money and want to upgrade
Go for it. Electrics are to easy. I'll never change to gas in my attached garage.

 

[Notgrownup]

Through the wall PTAC heat pump unit from Alpine air.

 

[Davefr]

Although I could run ng into my garage. I already have an undersized electric heater I moved from my old house that is currently wired and working ok.

My 750sq ft garage is attached to my house and I only turn on the heater when I plan on working in the garage.

Was looking at some 25k btu units at northern but some have complaints about running all the time.

Anyway what say ye?

Without a description of your local climate, how well your garage is insulted and what comfort level your looking for, then any suggestion here will be nearly worthless.

 

[Showkey]

Without a description of your local climate, how well your garage is insulted and what comfort level your looking for, then any suggestion here will be nearly worthless.

+10 ^^^^^^^^^ if shootin is in Northern MN that heat pump idea would not make the top ten list of good heaters to solve the problem.

 

[theoldwizard1]

How many hours you run an electric heater will determine if this is a good solution. Electric resistance heat is the MOST EXPENSIVE way to heat a space.

 

[Stick78]

Where I live propane is $2.60/gallon and electricity is $0.0935/kWh. If you use 80% efficiency for the propane heater and 100% for electric, 1 million btu would cost $35.58 for propane and $27.26 for electric making electric heat cheaper than propane.

 

[Stick78]

Certainly not saying electric resistance heat is a cost effective way to heat but I have decided to go this route because I don't have access to natural gas and I will only heat my shop on average probably 5-6 days a month. I almost put a wood stove in it but I don't feel like messing with it.

 

[Showkey]

Propane in Wi is currently $1.52 for comparison

2016-Dec
12/05 1.391
12/12 1.424
12/19 1.470
12/26 1.476
2017-Jan 01/02 1.527

Fall of 2016 it was $1.15

 

[chrispyny]

Simple answer. Wood stove.

 

[Shootnjunky]

Wow guys I'm sorry, I am just now getting back to this one.

I live in northeast Ohio and while it is abnormally warm right now it is typically pretty dang cold where I am at in the snowbelt of the area.

Only one outside wall, with ink all insulation and I have 3 insulated garage doors. Typically the garage will stay in the 40's on normal nights.

I usually work in the garage once a week, Due to my work schedule so electric costs will be fine.

I was looking at either replacing or augmenting with an infrared 3k watt tube 57" from fostoria. But am looking in to your other suggestions. And maybe now that I have actually answered some additional information that might help as well.

 

[rburke65]

Electric being most expensive is a pretty general statement that's not nessarily true.

 

[finn]

Our electric is about $.23 per kWh, and I paid $1.59 /gallon for propane yesterday.

Generalizing energy costs isn't a good thing.

 

[dandan111]

What size is your heater you mentioned in the first post?

 

[Shootnjunky]

I believe it is only a 4k watt version called "The Hot One" I got from HD a number of years ago.

I used it again the other day and it basically is only giving a warming feel not really adding any heat to write home about.

I just had my shed built in the back to move all my yard stuff in to a 12x16 so that should give me back the workshop part of my garage and now I want to focus on getting the heat figured out.

 

[dandan111]

My 5,000 watt is undersized for my garage but I add a milk house heater
When it's real cold and it works fine. In your situation I'm thinking maybe you
Should bite the bullet and just get a 7,500watt. Menards has the profusion pretty
Cheap. I think you need to get some more wattage heater somehow and it might
Be better to just change it. Sell the hot one on Craig's list or something.(I know Hot
Ones not a cheap brand).

 

[nsula_country]

An air handler with 10kw-15kw heat strip would be ideal. It would cycle and isn't much more than a couple of the wall mounted 240v heaters.

I am looking at this option before next winter in our 40x60x17 metal building. I have no NG and would have to go thru the trouble of getting a propane tank for occasional use in Louisiana. Except that I'm probably going with 25kw strips.

Install a short vertical plenum with wide throw louvers on each side and front. A fan will help move stratified air.

IF you ever wanted AC in the garage, all you would need is a condensing unit and coil...

CT