Garage Heater Install Questions

[sam08861]

Got one of those Farenheat FUH54s that are available at Home Depot. Biggest unit they had instore so 5000 watts.

Garage is 20 x 22, but about 20' tall.

I installed the unit on a wall with the bottom of the unit about 7.5' off the ground.

Installed on an 11" bracket arm with two 2x4s as standoffs to get the 13" distance from mount point to wall.

Ran 8/2 romex in 3/4 schedule 40 conduit into a 30A double pole. Black tape on the white hot wire at the appliance. (conduit fill, using the widest part as diameter, is less than 51%, per code good for NM as I understand) Cable clamp at entry to unit and flex conduit for the last 2' or so.

I'd welcome any feedback on the install itself to make sure I'm up to spec and have installed safely. Pic below..



Heater works and heats up all but the lowest 4' of the garage up to 65-70 degrees. The lower 4' are like getting in a pool of cold water! Outside temps were ~13 degrees F. (Just the part I need to be warm, working on my car over the winter!)

Two of the 4 walls are inside walls and the door and wall with 2 windows face the weather. Don't think weather facing wall is insulated, but is concrete up from the foundation for 5' or so.

Here's a wider shot to show the ceiling height.



Any suggestions for repositioning, perhaps circulating the air better?

Or, do I need a bigger unit?

Is there a better place to mount it?

 

[ItsNemo]

Ceiling fans...heat rises right, so unless the heater is on the ground you aren't going to get any heat down low.

 

[sam08861]

Opposite view of garage to show layout.

Please excuse the sad state of angle iron and the mess, lol. That whole thing is being junked to clear up some room.

 

[sam08861]

Thanks ItsNemo. I was afraid someone was gonna say that.

Any suggestions on how to safely get to a 20' height? I've got a 19' ladder but with nothing to lean it against in the center of the garage.

 

[KillNThrill24]

You could rent some scaffolding to get up there. Tho, at that height I'd personally look into a scissor lift rental. I'm with you, ef ladders. My wobbly self hates them. But agreed, you definitely need ceiling fans to push the heat down.

Sent from my Note 9 using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[u3b3rg33k]

I have a floor standing fan that points up - enough turbulence to mix the air without being horribly loud. more useful than the grill on the heater, although yours looks flat instead of angled down. might help get you 1' lower.
Looks like you have some decent ceiling height in there. plenty of room for a lift for toy storage

 

[ItsNemo]

Yeah, scaffolding or a lift. When I finished my garage I built my own platform out of 2x4's and plywood, although I wasn't dealing with as much height as you are but it worked well for me.

If you do, I'd recommend painting the entire garage while you're at it brightens the entire place up and keeps things cleaner (painted drywall doesn't absorb as much or hang on to things).

 

[sam08861]

Thanks all!

Hey u3b3rg33k, is that a regular oscillating type stand fan? I'd rather do that than haul scaffolding.

I do have a 120V outlet on the ceiling that the funny guys who built this house put there for a garage door opener that's not in use, since I installed a jackshaft type opener (to avoid the whole ceiling thing), so perhaps paying someone with scaffolding or a lift might be just as cost effective as a rental. Thinking since there is a GFCI switch under the panel, it must be for the outlet up top (req'd around here for garage door openers) and I can replace that with a switch without having to rerun wire up there, or just use the test feature as the off switch, lol.

Also, I don't have a truck, just an SUV, so will probably have trouble dragging the scaffolding home and back to the shop.

Roger that on the lift. I've been meaning to convert the garage door to a slide up type so there's no interference. Got 2 breaker slots left in the panel and I'm saving those for the 220V double pole breaker for the lift. Thinking an atlas 8k 4 post would be great and free up some much needed space.

 

[tipsy]

Maybe it's just me but I don't see any pictures.

 

[sam08861]

Will have to take a look at those pictures to find out what I'm doing wrong.

In the meantime, gonna try one of these as it looks like I can mount it pretty close to the ground. Fingers crossed this actually works until I can mount the ceiling fan sometime in the future. (or perhaps this unit, if it's ceiling mountable)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MI3HJQ/?tag=atomicindus08-20

This also looks interesting, but thinking I might need more than one.

https://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/...r-floor-warmer-rooms-lower-heating-costs.html

 

[u3b3rg33k]

No, mine is just a little squirrel cage floor drying fan - I lean it on a wall, aim it up and set it on low speed. shoots cold air straight up and mixes with the hot air. eventually there's not much cold air left by the floor. otherwise I had the same kind of stratification issue you do - all the hot air was up in the rafters.

it may not be my permanent solution, but my ceiling is much lower so a ceiling fan would be a hazard for my face.

 

[sam08861]

Thanks again everyone. Think I've got the pictures fixed. Hope y'all can see um.

 

[shadycrew31]

Pick up a ceiling fan and be done with it. Lowes still has a few 52" on clearance for $44.

 

[sam08861]

@shadycrew31, Picking up a ceiling fan is not the issue, installing 20+' up is. Scaffolding & truck rental, etc as stated a few posts above. Will eventually install a quality ceiling fan and paint, and of course install a better fan deserving of that effort.

Until then, got a vornado 660 and it works a charm, even with today's high of 7 degrees and 40mph wind gusts.

Bonus is the spare room over the garage has never been warmer. Garage itself is 78 degrees on the medium setting and I'm surprised how much heat that little heater kicks out. Was really worried it was undersized due to air volume. Had to make some adjustments to the chute of the snowblower yesterday and the warm garage made it so much more painless.

Will have to see the next elec. bill though, as I know these all electric ones are not the most efficient.

 

[u3b3rg33k]

I only run mine when I'm out there (or if it's single digits and i'm going to be spending time out there). I'll eventually have a small heat pump out there.

 

[sam08861]

Yep, that's my plan as well (on only when I'm out in the garage). Besides having fun with the new 'toy' as the wife calls it, have left it on the past few days as I knew this cold spell was coming and I'm doing the clean out and disassembly of the bottom 2/3rd of the floor to ceiling rack.

 

[johnnyradiant]

Go watch some crazy 'russian' engineering youtubes, get yourself inspired, then go back to the garage. I'm sure you'll figure a 'safe' way to get up to the ceiling with what you have to install a fan or two.

 

[ford33]

Purchase a quality ceiling fan. One that will last a long time. You don't want to go back up there to repair or replace it in a few years.