Heating garage with Propane

[putttn]

Have a 38x30 garage well insulated in the walls and ceiling (6" studs) & 2x12 ceiling studs and it's finished on the walls with plywood walls covered with FRP panels. The ceiling is insulated and drywalled. I live in Eastern Washington and it gets cold and I want to utilize the shop I've built in the garage. No natural gas but I do have Propane available. I'm looking at the Re-Verber-Ray Tube heater LS series. Got a bid to put in a Re-Verber-Ra LS series 12 Foot propane unit installed for $3100 plus tax. Seems a bit high to me? Any suggestions. I like the radiant heat, had it in a dealership I owned.

 

[ishiboo]

What's the efficiency?

Personally, I think the best value is going with a 95%+ efficient regular house furnace. Another advantage to forced air is you can install a cheap ($200) humidifier which will keep the shop from becoming a 10% humidity shithole in the winter heating season.

We have a standalone humidifier downstairs that runs constantly and noisily to keep up, but upstairs a new integrated humidifier and it's awesome... no noise and perfect humidity.

 

[mygarageone]

Have a 38x30 garage well insulated in the walls and ceiling (6" studs) & 2x12 ceiling studs and it's finished on the walls with plywood walls covered with FRP panels. The ceiling is insulated and drywalled. I live in Eastern Washington and it gets cold and I want to utilize the shop I've built in the garage. No natural gas but I do have Propane available. I'm looking at the Re-Verber-Ray Tube heater LS series. Got a bid to put in a Re-Verber-Ra LS series 12 Foot propane unit installed for $3100 plus tax. Seems a bit high to me? Any suggestions. I like the radiant heat, had it in a dealership I owned.

That's a fair price , If the guy is lic and insured.
Permit fees , heating unit , gas piping , venting , intake air and labor .

 

[Jamie V]

Personally, I think the best value is going with a 95%+ efficient regular house furnace.

That's what I'm doing. Mine isn't hooked up yet though.

24'x40'x20' garage with R-19 walls and R-30 ceiling.

 

[putttn]

I see riggsjr has a thread just about like this only his garage is a bit smaller than mine but guys are recommending the Fahrenheat FUH54 5000W unit. I do have 220 in my garage. Would this be a better unit for heating my shop area? The shop area is really just work benches along the front of the garage in front of the cars. It is open to the rest of the garage and is about 20 feet by 12 feet wide and as I said this runs in front of the cars. At that point it is a 10 foot ceiling. The hvac guys were going to hang the Propane Reverberae from this ceiling. Since I'm using only as a woodshop and not needing it while I'm not working there which unit would be better?

 

[riggsjr]

Puttn,
I am off the idea of an electric heater after sitting down and reading a bunch of posts.I have decided to go with a Hot Dawg 65,000 BTU propane unit.It might be a little over kill,but I think I will be fine with it. Again by garage is 32x24x9 located in PA.Well insulated but 3 garage doors and 6 windows.

 

[Rflagel222]

If you were closer I'd give you the propane furnace set up that was in my shop when I bought it. I now use a forced air wood furnace.

 

[Rflagel222]

I refuse to pay inflated propane prices..
Wood in the shop and pellet stove in the house

I work hard for my money and hate giving it away easily ..

 

[putttn]

I understand there may be some radiant electric overhead units that end up costing less than using propane. I was reading a thread here where he broke down the costs of nay gas vs electricity vs propane.

 

[Mr onetwo]

That's a fair price , If the guy is lic and insured.
Permit fees , heating unit , gas piping , venting , intake air and labor .

Don't forget a 1 year warrantee if he is reputable...there is a cost in that.Price seems pretty fair.

 

[Reg1952]

Spent $3500 on my radiant tube heater for my 28x30 shop. Best money spent. Has outside air intake so any fumes from paint, solvents, fuel what ever have no ignition source from the burner of a furnace. also no air blowing around from a fan when its on. My shop is not dry either but then the door is opened twice a day for the car.

 

[yeldogt]

In many parts of the country electric can actually be cheaper than propane -- so you first want to make sure you have as tight a building as possible and then do a heat load so you purchase the correct size heater. You can find heat load calculators and the different fuel calculation online

The radiant heaters are great if you only have them on when you are in the space -- but I don't like them in a well insulated building where it would be more comfortable heating the whole space.

I'm going through this now as I upgrade my current 1700sf studio. I currently have a 30k 80% propane heater and it costs me about the same as electric with the current cost of propane ... and I am in PA w/ .17 electric.

I'm going with a heat pump and then will use the propane or electric strip for backup.

Having NG changes everything ... since it is currently so cheap. Still don't want to oversize the heater.

 

[putttn]

Propane in our area is pushing $4.00 so I'll be doing a close cosr comparison to see what is most economical. Seems like Propane cost is rising pretty fast.

 

[venom50svt]

I use a BIG MAX propane heater in my 24x24 garage. I run it off a 100lb tank .

Its funny that in the fall the people were saying Natural gas was going to be lower and people could see a savings of 3 1/2 percent or so,,, propane had large supplies on hand and said there should be no shortages.. Ha.. well the cold came, Natural gas went up, propane got shipped to countries that would pay more. So with that happening I only use my heater when I putter doing something in the garage. The heater is 48k BTU and it takes a bit to warm the place up.... The floor is the problem and it keeps it cold.. I may check out a radiant heater to utilize what a radiant heater does-- heats objects...

 

[yeldogt]

Even with a well insulated building the high mass of a concrete floor will take a long time to warm if you allow the building to cool .. that is why most shops are uncomfortable for a long time after the heat is turned up. This becomes more of an issue in many garages as the floor has no insulation.

If you can add insulation to the outside of the concrete/ block wall you will be surprised how much this will help.