Heating Bonus Room above Garage?

[NWOhioChevyGuy]

Well when I get back from this weeks work trip I should have a finalized set of plans from my architect. Now I need to start thinking about the finishing off details i will be doing once the GC builds the structure this spring/summer.

The room above the garage will be 14'W x 40'L with 8' Ceilings across 7' in center of room. I will need to heat this room seperately from the house as I won't be able to (nor do I want to) get ducting to it from the existing furnace.

My options and things I want to hear opinions on are:

A) Corn Buring Fireplace
B) LP Fireplace
C) Mini Split (will also give room AC)
D) Others??

Existing house has old Fuel oil forced air furnace that will be replaced in the future, just not sure how far down the road. At that time I will be concidering putting in an Outdoor Corn Burning Boiler and heat the house with hot water heat. This I think would be the most efficient way to do it and I live in the middle of the country with corn accesible from many sources.

But this system will be used now and until the furnace upgrade happens and even maybe after it does.

Feels Like I'm rambling, give me your input.

 

[cookster]

I can say pellet/corn stove are expensive. First built my house used pellet stove for few years then pellets got very expensive. The stove sits in basement now. Now put sunroom on back house has wood stove and back up wall heater 30000b btu. As for wall heater [vent free] very cheap run on natural gas. Even have one in basement now. Very pleased with both. My personal opion wall mount heater.

 

[Brunsi]

We have our bonus room ducted off of the house furnace and even though it is insulated very well and finished it is still the hottest room in the summer and the coldest in the winter. If I did it over I would have gone with zone heating and cooling. In your case I think the mini split is the way to go. you will get both heating and cooling out of it.

 

[tomroblee]

I built a weekend/vacation house several years ago with a 36' x 64' footprint. The first floor is half garage and half living area. I have a 12/12 pitch roof with attic trusses to give me an 18' x 64' upstairs with 8' ceilings. I used separate heat pumps for the downstairs and upstairs. The ducting for the downstairs is in the crawl space under the living area. The ducting for the second floor is flexible ducts run above the ceiling with vents in the ceiling. The air handler for the second floor is located in a closet approximately in the middle of the upstairs. This arrangement has worked well for me.

If you are building with attic trusses, you might want to consider one other thing that I did. My first floor walls are 2" x 6". The attic trusses only provided 2" x 4" side walls for the upstairs. I insulated the second floor side walls with 4" fiberglass batts, then covered the walls with 2" rigid foam insulation before drywalling.

 

[ghnl]

I installed an 18,000 BTU mini split for the ~22'X44' room above our garage. Easy installation, quiet running, heat & A/C.

some pictures here

 

[NWOhioChevyGuy]

I was wondering can the line sets be run inside the garage wall instead of down the outside on the Mini Split systems?

I know if I go this route I will have to landscape around the compressor unit to hide it.

I think the mini split will be the easiest system to install and use, but is it a good $ system to run?

 

[Rosco]

I hope so, that is where I plan on running mine. Seems no different than any other central air lines.

 

[ghnl]

If you plan ahead, you can run the line sets inside the wall.