Heating a divided garage with one heater

[Jaja]

Hi,

I'm looking for ideas to heat a divided garage.

I have a 4 bay attached garage which I'm dividing into two - 2 car sections with a permanent wall. On the right is the car and family stuff and on the left is my lift and work area. The garage has two 16' insulated doors and is finished inside although I doubt there's any insulation in the walls. Ceiling in the shop is 10' and 8.5' on the other.

I want to heat the "shop" side regularly and the "family" side occasionally. Since floor space is a premium and NG is a reasonable cost I'm considering a unit or radiant tube heater. I'd prefer one unit and only one exhaust through the roof (this is a key issue - since the garage is "side turned" so the back wall is seen from the front of the house) so I'm open to options. I'd like to keep the budget to around $1500 and plan to do much of the work myself.

Thanks.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Hi,

I'm looking for ideas to heat a divided garage.

I have a 4 bay attached garage which I'm dividing into two - 2 car sections with a permanent wall. On the right is the car and family stuff and on the left is my lift and work area. The garage has two 16' insulated doors and is finished inside although I doubt there's any insulation in the walls. Ceiling in the shop is 10' and 8.5' on the other.

I want to heat the "shop" side regularly and the "family" side occasionally. Since floor space is a premium and NG is a reasonable cost I'm considering a unit or radiant tube heater. I'd prefer one unit and only one exhaust through the roof (this is a key issue - since the garage is "side turned" so the back wall is seen from the front of the house) so I'm open to options. I'd like to keep the budget to around $1500 and plan to do much of the work myself.

Thanks.

is there an accessible attic above the garage?

 

[Jaja]

Yes, it's open and empty. Plywood deck floor. I think I know where your going with this...

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Yes, it's open and empty. Plywood deck floor. I think I know where your going with this...

Well you could put a furnace and A coil up in the attic with some duct work.
Then you could always add central air later if you want..
Or you could also go with a small mini split with a couple of heads if you have access to the electricity to feed it.

 

[Jaja]

I must admit I really like the idea of the mini splits. I expect that the "all in cost" for an effective ceiling cassette unit for Michigan winters and that I need ~120' of line set for the condenser has me at or over budget. Likely over budget with 2 head units and the on demand wont work well for the family space.

As a kid, we had a 2.5 car garage heated with a 100K Reznor unit on propane and later on NG and it never failed once for the 30 years my dad lived there. So I'm partial to the keep it simple rule.

Along those lines and following your other suggestion I could pick up a used furnace and install it quite reasonably and as you said, add AC down the road.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

If you go the used route make sure to have the heat exchanger checked out before buying/installing.

 

[jmiller_2308]

I had a mini-split for A/C and a unit heater for heat in my original 3 stall garage. When I added a 900ft garage addition to be a workshop it was almost as expensive to duplicate the unit heater and mini-split so I tore out the old stuff and put in a single large conventional furnace and A/C hanging high so that it wouldn't take any floor space. My workshop is attached to the original garage with a shared common wall so it sounds similar to what you are planning. BTW: I have a 36" door between the garages and it is almost too small sometimes. It might have been nice to use a double door instead but I decided against that idea because I wanted the wall space more.

I had the installer run duct work to both the new and old garage with adjustable baffles so I could control how much heat/cooling went to each garage. I could have zoned it but I chose to just use the baffles and a single thermostat in the workshop to keep costs down.

This works really well for me as I control the shop temp the most and the original garage I can keep a bit out of step with the shop and it doesn't matter. This way the cars in the original garage are still kept warm in the winter and a/c removes moisture in the summer, or, I could just cut the old garage off all together if I got concerned about energy costs.

As I said, this was cheaper than re-investing in another set of mini-split and unit heater for the new shop. It is also cheaper to operate and maintain. What it doesn't do is allow independent control of heat/cooling for each garage but that could be added by making it a two zone setup ($$$).

 

[Showkey]

Mini splits and Michigan and $1500 budget ..........not a good mix for all the reasons mentioned in many other posts.


Really hard to beat a NG 60- 75k btu hanging heater horizontal vent with maybe an added duct to the other family side. Or two 40k units one of each side they are $400 each plus install.

Or NG Goodman condensing furnace cost $700 plus install in the attic with two simple ducts.

 

[Jaja]

Mini splits and Michigan and $1500 budget ..........not a good mix for all the reasons mentioned in many other posts.


Really hard to beat a NG 60- 75k btu hanging heater horizontal vent with maybe an added duct to the other family side.

Are you referring to a unit style heater or a horizontal position attic heater? Can ducts be added to unit style heaters?

Or two 40k units one of each side they are $400 each plus install.

Is it possible to tie two unit heaters into one B vent?

Our NG Goodman condensing furnace cost $700 plus install in the attic with two simple ducts.

I realize they are hard to find today new, but are 80% efficiency units best for attic installs due to no need to drain the condensate?

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Nothing wrong with a good 80% furnace installed right

 

[Showkey]

Agree handling condensate is an added concern..........but the flexibility of PVC inventing is a huge added bonus plus 15% less fuel cost is always a bonus.

 

[Jaja]

I'm finding some nearly new furnace 70K BTU and 18000 BTU AC pairs from locally for ~$600. Seems a no-brainer to go that route.

 

[Renfrick]

Do you have a boiler in the house? You could use a modine type of hot water coil and fan piped from the boiler. There cheap and easy to install


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[Jaja]

Do you have a boiler in the house? You could use a modine type of hot water coil and fan piped from the boiler. There cheap and easy to install

No, just a water heater.

 

[Jaja]

I'm having second thoughts about a conventional NG unit and condenser. While the prices are within budget, these things have me concerned:

1. Plumbing for condensate drain. This will require winterizing/freeze proofing.
2. Drain pan and "open" water in my attic
3. Either vertical or horizontal install takes away a lot of attic space.
4. Fire safety, if my basement furnace catches fire, it's on a concrete slab and there's no combustibles nearby. In the garage attic, it's surrounded by lumber.

Like most of us, I don't need more things to worry about. So with that in mind, I'm thinking of two 40K unit heaters tied to one roof B vent like here: http://www.duravent.com/uploads/images/Type_B_Gas_Vent_installation.jpg and in the future adding a one ton mini split on the shop side just for cooling.

 

[Renfrick]

No, just a water heater.

You can still do it just use a bronze circulator and brass fittings. Put in 2 zone valves. Use the hot and cold inlet - outlet of the water heater. It works good like that


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[Jaja]

You can still do it just use a bronze circulator and brass fittings. Put in 2 zone valves. Use the hot and cold inlet - outlet of the water heater. It works good like that

I know someone who has a large shop - 40x100'ish that's heavily insulated and they heat the whole thing with a ring of copper pipe that is hung from the ceiling and the hot water supply is a wood fired boiler that's outside.

And your right, with ceiling fans, the temp is much better than it is outside!