Heating options

[filtered]

I have a 2 car garage with vaulted ceilings. There are vents at either end. The garage is currently uninsulated. I won't have time to insulate this year. I am just looking for a temporary heating solution for this winter.

I do not want to cut a hole for a vent until the garage is 100% complete. I am leaning towards propane because it's detached, electric will cost too much and so will oil. I've been looking at torpedo and construction heaters with a 100lb tank. I'm only looking to heat the garage up long enough to work on my vehicles 5 hours tops once or twice a week. I have considered ventless wall heaters but I don't think they provide enough btus for my garage.

I am looking to heat up the space quickly for short periods of time. I know the slab will be cold and make working on the floor unpleasant. There will be no woodworking, painting, or heavy use of chemicals. I may do some welding but the garage doors will be open for that. I am just looking to avoid freezing again this year.

How much ventilation will I need with a 100k btu propane heater? Will the two vents near the roof be enough? Are there other options I should be looking at? How much open space would I need in front of a torpedo heater to keep it from melting stuff? And what are my other options.

 

[trythis]

What are your long term plans for heating? I would look into making that decision first, without thinking short term, then try to make the short term money work wowards teh long term solution.
I vote for a radiant tube heater, they can work off of propane or Nat gas and really would make sense in a vaulted ceiling.

The propane torpedo heater fumes are awful (not as bad as diesel or kerosene) and you have to have a lot of fresh air to not feel sick.

 

[sixball]

I've got about the same situation as you, but my garage is insulated (walls not celing) I looked at electric, running gas lines etc... Then I looked at the time I was going to spend out there, which is only afew hours here and there durring the week, and almost all day on Saturday.

I then went with a torpedo heater, that I run Diesel thru. I don't notice the smell at all. I installed a power roof vent and can now just crack the man door and it vents quite well. No fumes, no feeling sick etc.

I bought a radiant style torpedo that is half as loud as a regular torpedo but heats a better radius than a torpedo. 70,000 BTU burns me out of my 24 X 32. I get hot, I turn it off, I get cool, I turn it on. My 5 gal Diesel can lasts me afew weeks, so there is no scare when the heat or electric bill gets to the mailbox.

Bottom line like said above, you have to weigh the cost vs the ammount of time you spend in the garage. I've got allittle over 200$ in my heater, and it costs me about 120$ in diesel for the winter if I had to guess.

Sixball

 

[filtered]

The reason why I am not making plans for long term is because I am going to wait till heaters go on sale for spring before I buy a long term heater. So I do not know exact what I am going to end up with.

I will look into radient tube heaters and I also didnt think about adding fans to the vents. That would be very handy to have to vent heat in summer and fumes from welding and chemicals.

Thanks for the suggestions and ideas guys.