Heating your garage, what's your setup.

[zmotorsports]

I have a 150k btu Reznor gas fired heater in my shop. Nice and quiet and comfortable.

 

[racecougar]

30'x60'x13' building near St. Louis, MO. R-19 walls and R-55 ceiling. Two 16'x8' insulated sectional overhead doors, one 9-lite steel man door, and six low-e 3'x4' windows. I used a 220V 5kW Dayton heater and a dual head tank-top propane heater for the first few winters, only heating the space when I was out there. That was marginal, and the propane increased the humidity in the building. I also cooled the building with two 5K BTU window AC units.

I installed a 24K Gree mini-split this past Spring. It was phenomenal in the Summer, and thus far has been just as great at providing heat. The real test will be in January/February, but I sincerely expect it will not have trouble keeping the place warm.

 

[tncatadjuster]

I just purchased a Chinese knock off diesel heater, after a few days with it I ordered two more. My work areas are located in many different rooms in different buildings so this will allow me to pick a room to heat.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJ1WMSD9/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[CraigStu]

If you would reconsider propane I have one of these w/ the built-in fan.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016I0DH3W/?tag=atomicindus08-20

30,000 BTUs and I run it off a spare BBQ grill tank. My trick to feel safer is to shut off the tank and wait til the flame goes out, then shut off the heater. This is the spare for the grill in the summer and the grill is the spare for the heater in the winter. It is easiest for me since they are close to just exchange tanks vs filling them. This way I can let the tank run completely empty vs always giving the exchange place some free propane because I don't want to run dry.

 

[Sturgeon]

I'm useing a 60,000 btu propane Hotdog suspended from ceiling. Shop's 34x52x14 and surprisingly heater throws heat really good. Con's = noisy but trade off is positive. Mini splits are improving all the time and l will make one my first upgrade in a couple of years, unless my hearing fails some. He he

 

[Jackfre]

I just installed my last two Rinnai DV wall furnaces. One went into my daughters garage/play room and last week I install the EX22 in my gara/shop. Actually it is a shop. No way a car will ever fit in there. The gas line took a few hours as I no longer have my dies and had to make a few trips to the Store. Setting the vent and heater and trimming it out took about two hours. Sweet heat!
If you can afford it the mini-split is the way to go in a well insulated space.

 

[zendriver]

I have one like and a 34 foot extension cord.

https://www.northerntool.com/products/newair-portable-electric-garage-heater-19-107-btu-240-volts-model-g56-37651

I have a well insulated garage, but I normally don’t keep it heated. I’ll just sit this near wherever I’m working in the whole area warms up nicely quick.

Effective and cheap to operate.

 

[logical]

75k btu nat gas Dayton in a 3+ car garage. Works great.

 

[remagenman]

With a well insulated 1100 sq ft garage, a Toyostove Laser 73 has no problem keeping up with prolonged -40ºF spells. It's a 40k BTU direct vented heater about the size of a suitcase and runs on #1 fuel oil. These are very popular heaters in AK.

L-73 Toyostove Vented Heater

Experience the L-73 Toyostove Laser Vented Heater: efficient, eco-friendly, and compact. The ideal solution for whole-home warmth and comfort.

toyotomiusa.com

-40F!!!! I dont think I will complain much anymore!

Damn, now I realize I have way too much stuff for the space to be able to hang anything. My garage is your typical ranch style garage with no insulation, bare studs and not even insulated in the ceiling. I work more with electronics in the garage so I have wall to wall filled with stuff.

***** to have to work on vehicles outside under a pop up tent because it always raining here, WA, and the damn exposed aggregate driveway does not help any. At least the last homeowner left a gas backup generator.

Thanks all good setups (jealous of those big clean garages!) and have a better idea what to work with.

Btw, the person from remote SK, where is that?

 

[jonesg]

I still ise a 60K BTU kerosene bullet heater when I have to be out there. Garage is insulated except for the wood panel overhead doors (2 car garage). Kerosene was getting rediculously expensive last winter, so I'll proably have to come up with something else.

we heat our house with a 10k btu kerosine heater up in maine, kero is at the pump , around $4.50 gal.
i'd like to get a kero torpedo version for the garage, it was 17F last night.

 

[SweetD]

24' x 24' insulated attached garage here...I've had a 30k btu natural gas ventless blue flame Mr. Heater wall-mounted unit since 2008. No problems. I have an 8" portable fan mounted to the ceiling which makes an immense difference in moving and mixing the air in the room.

 

[skulldrinker]

2-1/2 car garage. 50,000btu gas Modine.

 

[finn]

32’x54’ garage with three doors + a man door, and ten and twelve foot ceilings. 75k Beacon Morris hang propane heater. Shares the 500 gallon tank with the house.

Shop is 48’x75’, with 16’ ceilings, but a 16’x60‘ section isn’t heated. The main shop work area, plus the office and bathroom has in floor hydronic heat with a wall hung 120k propane boiler, and a 300 or 330 gallon propane tank. The main shop area of the building is 32’x75’ and has another Beacon Morris 75k btu hanging heater. I find it more economical to maintain a low base temp, then bump the temp with a hanging heater when it’s work time.

The shop also has a back up electric baseboard heater, which is sometimes to take the chill out before I fire up the boiler for the season.

 

[NUTTSGT]

-40F!!!! I dont think I will complain much anymore!

Damn, now I realize I have way too much stuff for the space to be able to hang anything. My garage is your typical ranch style garage with no insulation, bare studs and not even insulated in the ceiling. I work more with electronics in the garage so I have wall to wall filled with stuff.

***** to have to work on vehicles outside under a pop up tent because it always raining here, WA, and the damn exposed aggregate driveway does not help any. At least the last homeowner left a gas backup generator.

Thanks all good setups (jealous of those big clean garages!) and have a better idea what to work with.

Btw, the person from remote SK, where is that?

Build a shed for the stuff, then insulate your walls/ceiling. Add some wall covering of choice and make the place comfortable to work in the winter.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Mitsubishi 36K Mini Split

My shop is block construction, 30' X 46' with 12' ceiling. No insulation in or on walls and ceiling insulation is currently only R13. In east TN the mini split does so well, I have no plans to upgrade any insulation. My shop stays 65 degrees year round, and the highest electric bill I have has was $137.

$137/ mo for the shop and house or shop alone ?

 

[Glemon]

20 x 16' fiberglass batt insulated 2 x 4" construction. I have a 7500 Watt electric heater https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QM2H5TR/?tag=atomicindus08-20 which is more than I need for the space, but I generally just use it when I am out there. It warms up the space in about 20 minutes or less.

I am happy with the setup for what I have and do.

 

[Jagmandave]

700 sqft 2 car oversized garage with low ceilings of about 8ft, I use a window A/C with a heat strip - works a treat and of course it's fantastic in the summer heat and humidity. . It was inexpensive ($600) and easy to install, although I did have to run a 240V supply for it.

 

[jonesg]

I just purchased a Chinese knock off diesel heater, after a few days with it I ordered two more. My work areas are located in many different rooms in different buildings so this will allow me to pick a room to heat.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJ1WMSD9/?tag=atomicindus08-20

i see guys use these when working under the car outside, they run the hose.
i might try one, cheaper than a torpedo heater.
do you just run it on gas station diesel ?

i ordered one from amazon .$99.

 

[ronr80]

electric furnace mounted up on the ceiling works great and it's cheap.

 

[evh]

Sharing what I do. I have a newer home with the standard 3 stall garage. One double door and one single door. Our two vehicles take up the main portion. My shop is in the single stall. Note, there is no wall between the two.

I have thought a number of times about installing a mini-split, or natural gas heater. But what I show in the pic below has so far proven more versatile and suits my needs. It’s your basic Harbor Freight welding cart. Welder and supplies occupy the top two shelves. 60/90,000 BTU propane heater is on the bottom shelf with propane tank mounted on a wood insert in the pack with a hole cut in the bottom to keep the tank secure.

90,000 BTU rely heats up my work area quickly. I usually don’t have to run it for longer than 15 or 20 minutes. It is very portable and I can aim it at the vehicles on the other side if I happen to be working on one of them. I have a Carbon Monoxide detector with a display mounted close by. It never registers anything when running. A full tank refill is $19. I refill about 3 or 4 times a winter in the upper Midwest.

 

[engineer2]

Williams 'between the studs' natural gas furnace. It was free because the HVAC guys couldn't fix it (or didn't want to). A $25 thermocouple magnet fixed it. I think its 32,000 BTU or so. A little big for a 2-car, but it heats fast. Sensi WiFi thermostat to run it.

 

[loganb]

18k Mr. Cool Minisplit for my 3 car attached garage in Omaha, NE. Probably could've gotten away with 12k due to how protected the garage is, without a doubt it's my favorite tool in the shop as it makes every other one more pleasant to use...or even just to stare at

 

[tncatadjuster]

i see guys use these when working under the car outside, they run the hose.
i might try one, cheaper than a torpedo heater.
do you just run it on gas station diesel ?

First three tanks have been on diesel, with the hope of processing used motor oil through a centifuge and blended in with diesel. You will be impressed with btu output.

 

[D45]

Modine Hot Dawg natural gas power vented vertically

Indiana

 

[ZRX61]

Living in the Mojave Desert works extremely well...

 

[Monza Harry]

... Btw, the person from remote SK, where is that?

SK is short for Saskatchewan a Canadian province north of Montana/North Dakota. I wasn't the poster, that was cannuk
Harry

 

[Whitworth]

Have a 30k btu Mr. Heater propane unit. I estimate during the coldest days it consumes about 1 gallon of propane per day. That's only on the coldest days, and in central NC, so it can get cold, but only for a couple weeks and it doesn't get no where as cold as up North.

Also, I keep it off during the night and have to fire it up and heat the shop from stone cold up to temperature. Takes about 2 hours to get toasty in those cases. I'm nervous about leaving an open flame device on unattended, no matter what.

 

[cpttuna]

got the idea from a former plumber(he's retired now.) i have a 60,000 btu mobile home furnace. Got it from the plumber for $300.00 installed in my 2 car garage. I was talking to him one day about his and he said it could be mine for $300. He said that the furnace some mobile home owners get with their new mobile home don't consider them large enough and get bigger ones. Plumbers wind up with a mobile home furnace looking for a new home.

 

[Copymutt]

The majority of my garage heat & light comes from passive solar. I do have a hanging NG 30k btu for cold mornings. Otherwise the sun does the job.
f battery tech, not viable. You need to be located in a high incidence of solar radiation i.e. SW Co. & orient your garage to take advantage of the free heat.

 

[nicholsmf]

$137/ mo for the shop and house or shop alone ?

The shop alone.

 

[NUTTSGT]

The shop alone.

Just a home DIY shop because that sounds expensive compared to what we have for rates.

Spend some money on insulation and you might be surprised how far your rates drop. Especially if your heating and cooling with the mini-split.

 

[PoorUB]

Sharing what I do. I have a newer home with the standard 3 stall garage. One double door and one single door. Our two vehicles take up the main portion. My shop is in the single stall. Note, there is no wall between the two.

I have thought a number of times about installing a mini-split, or natural gas heater. But what I show in the pic below has so far proven more versatile and suits my needs. It’s your basic Harbor Freight welding cart. Welder and supplies occupy the top two shelves. 60/90,000 BTU propane heater is on the bottom shelf with propane tank mounted on a wood insert in the pack with a hole cut in the bottom to keep the tank secure.

90,000 BTU rely heats up my work area quickly. I usually don’t have to run it for longer than 15 or 20 minutes. It is very portable and I can aim it at the vehicles on the other side if I happen to be working on one of them. I have a Carbon Monoxide detector with a display mounted close by. It never registers anything when running. A full tank refill is $19. I refill about 3 or 4 times a winter in the upper Midwest.

If it works for you, great! I can not stand to be in a building with these types of heaters, propane or kerosene fired. I am not sure why, but I think it was caused years ago when I got carbon monoxide poisoning at a shop I was working at. I got it so badly I passed out. I was able to get put of the building but passed out and fell in a snow bank. A friend of mine happened to stop by right before it happened and he said I was out for 15 minutes. I was lucky he was there and lucky I got outside. If I had dropped inside and he had not stopped by i would not be here today.
Since then I can't deal with unvented heaters.

 

[4x4Pete]

60k 25' natural gas infrared tube heater. 30x32x12 shop in southern Ontario. Well insulated and sealed. Keep it warm all winter, I hate working on cold projects with cold tools. It doesn't cost much to keep it on, somewhere around $200 a year. When I go out to work on a project I don't want to wait for it to warm up and the tools won't get warm if you cycle the temperature.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

I'm using a 240volt 5000/7500-watt hanging electric heater in my 20x30' garage, 8' ceilings. Works great. I pretty much leave it at the 5000 watt setting and it gets the garage up to working temps quickly even in the dead of winter. Small, takes up zero floor space, and I can turn it on via a wi-fi switch before I leave work so it's warm when I pull in. Should've went with this setup right from the beginning, not really that expensive to run since it's only when I'm out there working.

In the past I had:
Oil furnace - took up space, had to go buy diesel/kerosene
Wood stove - nice ambience, pain to cut and split wood, stove took up useful floor space
Kerosene heater - small, plenty of heat, had to buy kerosene.. it's now my backup heater for the house or garage

 

[58Yeoman]

I have a 24x40 metal building with 6" in the ceiling and 1.5" in the walls with osb walls. Big Maxx 75,000 propane heater on the ceiling gets it warm in a bit and keeps it warm while I work. I also have three ceiling fans that run almost constantly to move air.

 

[Magnum440d100]

Space heater at the work bench takes the edge off.


For the super super cold days, I have a torpedo heater.


When other remodel projects are completed, I’ll be installing a mini-split or something similar.

For now though, I’m thankful for what I have lol

 

[smackey05]

Hot water through this radiator with a temperature controlled fan. Haven't used it this year yet. I run home-assistant on a raspberri pi and monitor temperature and humidity.

I have an ecobee in the garage which controls the temperature of this garage and an old honeywell in the other garage. It works, but I would have liked a larger unit with a quieter fan. I spend a lot of time recording videos in the garage and work around the sound a lot of the time.

 

[alfadan]

I use a propane tank-top 3 burner catalytic heater on a furniture dolly to move it around easier. I point it where I'm working and might be just the thing if you're at a bench working on electronics.

If its below 35 out there, I'm inside watching youtube videos.

 

[Blk88GT]

20KW boiler - radiant floor heat for my 40x50.

 

[rwilly]

No woodstoves?
I’ve heard all the many reasons not to use a wood stove, but I figured there’d be at least 1 rebel in the group.