Heating options for a 15' 5"' x 22" garage?

[Rockuf8]

I'm in the process of cleaning up and fixing up my garage and was considering adding some type of heating to the garage. The garage was an ddition onto the house many years before I lived here, there is no living space above the garage. I would describe it as an oversized 1 car garage. There may or may not be a car parked in there, haven't decided yet. Most ofth wall space wil be taken up by cabinets, a tool bench or toolboxes. I will have one wall section approx 4' wide open near the rear of the garage on the side. I have NG in my home but had no idea if a line could be run out there, how involved that would be, or could an electric heater do the job.

A problem may be, I have no idea if there is insulation in the walls, might just be sheetrock. I really would rather not have to pull down all the sheetrock and install insulation at this point, but is it really imperative if I plan on heating the space?. I'm having a sagging ceiling repaired first, then I can add insulation in the attic. Not even sure if I need to add insulation inbetween the roof rafters or just in the floor in the attic, etc. I want the garage to be be consistently above well freezing in the winter, but don't need it to be as warm as my home. I just don't want to have to worry about leaving items in there that could freeze. I could work in there if it stayed 45-50 F or so. So the temperature would need to remain pretty consistent, I'm not looking for a unit I can turn on only when I am in there working. I keep my home at 69 F usually.

Not sure what to do or what my options are. Thanks!

 

[vartz04]

Drill a hole in the wall. If their is insulation some will come out on The drill bit. If their is you could probably just use a oil filled 1500 watt radiator if 45-50 is as high as you want to go. If there is not get a 5000 watt unit heater. The amount of heater you need depends on what is in the walls and what you put in the ceiling

 

[Rockuf8]

Ok, yeah I don't recall seeing any insulation in the wall when I covered up a decent sized 5-6" hole.

The sheetrock looked to be in old crappy condition. I ended up just covering it all with new 3/8" sheetrock a few years ago, not sure if this adds any insulation value by having two sheets/layers instead of one.

WHat type of heater would the 5,000w one be? Could it be left to cycle on and off on it's own 24/7?

 

[dandan111]

You have options on brands. I think 5000w will get it done,they are rated for 500 sqf and under. My farenheat 5000 takes care of my 700sqf. I would think about having some insulation blown in the wall,don't tear down the drywall.

 

[Rockuf8]

How efficiently can they blow in insulation if there is existing rock? There would need to be a hole inbetween each two studs? I may be able to carefully remove the new sheetrock as I used screws, then make the appropriate holes as needed. Is it really going to make that much of a difference? Like how many degrees difference would it really make by adding it, or would it mean the difference of the heater running a lot less through the day/night it it's added? Would need to think if it's worth adding.

 

[steelsmith]

What part of the country do you live in? Down south a 1500wt heater may be all you need BUT in the cold north a 5000wt heater might runn all the time when it is cold out and jest keep things in the 30's. Could you set a LPG tank out side the garage some place? or how far would you need to pipe NG from the house to the garage? More info would be a big help.
Joe

 

[vartz04]

Yes it will make a difference. R 13 makes it 13 times harder for heat to transfer thru the wall. Its tworth it if you can pull it off.

 

[CNGsaves]

FIRST, Research drilling holes in sheetrock at top and blowing in insulation into each of the wall cavities. Then insulate the ceiling.

In addition to part of country/outside temp . . . What other air leaks do you have from garage door (insulated or uninsulated), windows, manual doors,? These all matter and heater salesman can do the Btu requirement with all the variables.

I'd spend my money on insulation first, and get by with temporary heat like BBQ tank propane w/ hose and Big Buddy (these put out 18,000 Btu and have CO2 detector) - - this setup is around $150.

Then you'll know what your final heater should be . . . electric / propane / natural gas. My 2 cents . . . good luck!

 

[Falcon67]

From what I've seen around here, it's maybe a 1 1/2" hole to allow for the nozzle to blow in. For a garage, that should be plenty. And - it will settle. Friend at work had that done a few years ago and thermal imaging shows that it does indeed settle in spite of manufacturers claims.

 

[Rockuf8]

Yeah, sorry for the lack of info guys.

I'm in North NJ, so the winters can be cold. This week is has been in the 20's all week.

There is only one 12' wide garage door, no other doors or windows. But the back of the garage backs up to nothing, like I said it's an addition. There really isn;t any room outside the garage to set a LPG tank or anything.

Right now I have an old wooden 12' wide door that I planned on replacing as soon as the sagging ceiling was repaired. I was looking at a steel CHI door with an R-Value of 17.54, figured it would help over say one that had an R-value of 10.29? Not sure if the extra cost would help make a difference in keeping cold air out in my case.

The ceiling is only around 7 or so feet high give or take a few inches.

Posted these in the sagging ceiling thread, I'll post them here to help provide a bit mroe info.

Garage addition on the right in the first two below pics.

Back of garage on left in pic, windows are an adjacent bathroom and rear foyer

Outer sidewall (22' length) of garage.

No room for anything LPG tank there.

 

[Rockuf8]

Hopefully this might help a bit with insulation. When I had the house resided I had them add Tyvek then 3/4" insulation under the new vinyl siding. Even on the outer walls (side and back) of the garage