Garage Heating

[CB427]

Building an insulated 28 X 36 X 9' ceiling garage, 2" X 6" walls, R-19 walls R-30 ceiling, with 2 10' wide & 9' high insulated garage doors. Desire is to install a propane heater for occasional garage use with temp set at 60 degrees. Any recommendations on brand of propane heater and size ?

thanks

 

[doorfx]

These radiant tube heaters are awesome.

 

[ForceFed70]

What type of heater are you looking for? Unit, portable, ventless, radiant, etc...

 

[dlcwent]

Goodman offers some good products and are reasonable priced.

www.goodmanmfg.com

I've been using one for a few years. Originally purchased as a secondary heat source, I found myself using it as my primary heat source last year. It's been a very reliable unit.

 

[73RR]

I am looking at unit heaters for one of my buildings currently w/o heat and found this site: http://www.ecomfort.com/quick_search.php
Prices seem reasonable after a lot of shopping.
Remember that radiant heaters only heat things like 'people' or what ever it is pointed at.
Unit heaters heat the air.

 

[Showkey]

Another place similar to ecocomfort:

https://www.alpinehomeair.com

There are several brands of garage heaters and some are the same units with name changes.......Typical garage heater:

http://beacon-morris.com/html/garage_heater_bru.asp

 

[73RR]

I just looked at the Alpine website and played with their size 'estimator'....it failed to consider that it was -9° here this morning.....

Forgot to mention that a stainless steel heat exchanger usually adds 50% to the life span for not a lot of extra money.

 

[CB427]

What type of heater are you looking for? Unit, portable, ventless, radiant, etc...

Propane, heater mounted high in the middle of the back wall

 

[CB427]

I just looked at the Alpine website and played with their size 'estimator'....it failed to consider that it was -9° here this morning.....

Forgot to mention that a stainless steel heat exchanger usually adds 50% to the life span for not a lot of extra money.

Noticed the estimator only asks for square footage, without cubic footage to take into consideration a high ceiling.

 

[Showkey]

77rr.......here another ball park estimator .....fine tune the guess up or down based on ceiling height, insulation value and climate.

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Just replaced a Lennox 65k btu unit that had a circuit board melt down. Replaced it with a 45k btu Beacon Morris because it was in stock and on sale, fit the ball park estimates. 900 sq. Ft. 9' ceilings and well insulated. It works just fine and we are expecting -15* F tonight. I keep the shop at 50-60* all the time.

The Lennox was 15 years old, getting rusty and the board and upgrade kit was over 50% of the new unit.

 

[73RR]

Thanks Showkey. My old eyes can't quite make out the bottom of the chart, do you have a link to the brochure?

 

[Autorotica]

77rr.......here another ball park estimator .....fine tune the guess up or down based on ceiling height, insulation value and climate.

[/URL][/IMG]

Wow, heat 4K square feet with 120K unit heater? That must be designed for something that will be heated all the time...

What about something heated only when being worked in? Sporadically.

Chris

 

[matt_i]

One of the assumptions is 60F temp rise over ambient/exterior.

So if its 10F outside you should be able to hold 70F inside constantly....no real calculation for internal gradients but just a "box" analysis of heat in vs heat out.

Some oversize is nice because it heats rapidly. But, at the same time, the 60F temp rise may not be needed. I'm usually happy with a 50-60F interior with a 20F exterior.

 

[KiltLifter]

Did you insulate the slab? That might take a while to heat up!

 

[6768rogues]

My personal preference is Reznor. I have 40x60 and a 36x48 buildings in western NY that are insulated but not quite up to your specs. They both have 100,000 BTU hanging Reznor units and they heat well. I keep them at about 50 degrees but when I want to warm them up to work in them they heat quickly.

 

[James-W]

I have a 24X36 garage with an 8 ft ceiling. I have R-19 in the walls and R-30 in the ceiling. I am using a Hot Dawg natural gas 60,000btu heater and it works wonderful. But keep in mind that I keep the temperature at 50F when I am not working out there so when I decide to do some work out there and I turn up the heat, it warms up pretty fast. Since you don't plan on heating it all the time, a 60,000 btu heater will take longer to raise the temperature up to a comfortable level. But 60,000 btu's seems to be the right size for the insulation you have and for the size of the building.