Home water heater with auto radiator??

[dtbigs]

Greetings all, I just found this site and I'm hoping someone has run a setup like this before and can offer some insight.

I live in Michigan and I have a detached 22' x 26' garage that I would like to heat occassionally when working on things. It does not have a ceiling in it, and is not insulated. I am currently renting the place, so punching holes through the roof or walls for exhaust is out, and I don't want to spend the money on putting a ceiling in there (as nice as that would be). Anyway, I thought about torpedo heaters, but who like the noise and smell of those things, not to mention always having to run after fuel.... That led me to thinking about a set up using a conventional home hot water heater running to an automotive radiator with a fan attached to it. I wouldn't expect that I would be able to get the place up to 80 degrees, but if I can get it up to 40 or 50 during the cold winter days, that would be nice.

 

[lametec]

I'm guessing you'd run out of hot water pretty quick.

 

[CraigFL]

You could use one of those instant recovery(tankless) water heaters but they would get very expensive for what you would need. 1kwh = 3400 BTU so a 50,000 btu heater would be 15kw heater -- approx 125Amp circuit!

 

[D.J.]

It isn't up to code but slap some cardboard up on the bottom cord of the rafters and consider the possibility of using a lp gas torpedo heater!
OK every body jump on!
________
MARIJUANA VAPORIZERS

 

[rasit]

I love creative thinking but I doubt that will work for reasons already stated ($$$$). DJ's idea will keep you warm for a little while........

 

[tdkkart]

A 40,000btu propane torpedo heater will heat that garage decently even without insulation, and will run a LONG time on a 20lb grill tank.
2 garages ago that's all I had, worked in there almost daily all winter.

 

[rodnok1]

Put some plastic on the ceiling to keep the heat in, using a hw heater would be expensive. Use a couple of kero heaters. You would be better off finding an old/new dented electric furnace and just use it and you could take it with you.

 

[rasit]

I have a friend that heated a two car work shop with a car radiator, he placed a coil of SS tubing under a LARGE pile of cow manure connected it to a small pump and circulated it through the radiator with a fan behind it. He said that the shop never was warm but allowed him to work in a heavy shirt vs an insulated coat.

Kinda like thermal heat....what do ya do when the **** cools off???

 

[IanF]

That led me to thinking about a set up using a conventional home hot water heater running to an automotive radiator with a fan attached to it.

It's an interesting idea... and I suppose somebody somewhere has done it... but it's hard to say how well it would work. It's not uncommon to use a dedicated domestic hot water heater in radiant floor systems. Knowing a little bit about systems like this in commercial/industrial applications, I'd look at the following:

The delta-t (temp change) on the inlet and outlet of the radiator vs. the recovery rate of the water heater (it's ability to heat water over a given amount of time). Without knowing how big the water heater is, the size of the radiator and the ambient air of the space, determining if it will work is pretty much impossible.

Hot water boilers that are intended for this application generally have a pretty high recovery rate as they are designed for this. Domestic water heaters are not. They also usually run at much higher temperatures (radiant floor systems run at lower temps which is why you can use a water heater with those).

Power may or may not be an issue. Most water heater need a 2 pole breaker (amps depends on the KW rating).

I'd say it's worth a shot if you can gather up the parts required for minimal expense, which shouldn't be hard to do.

 

[VHF]

Three (3) 1,500W $10 electric space heaters would give you the same heat output as a typical household water heater (with interlocked 4,500W elements), without the 30-60 minute lag time required to get the tank of water warmed up.

At $30, three heaters are probably much less expensvie than even a mostly-scrounged water heater-based solution. However, you would require 120V outlets on 3 different circuits to plug them in.

If you have 240V @ 30A in the garage (which is what you would need for a water heater), there are portable 4,000W garage space heaters in the $200 price range that might work. At around 13,000 BTU that's still not tons of heat, but with a portable heater you have the ability to place it and aim it where you are working.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

I thought of that for my barn. But only because I had an extra water heater (gas) I was given for free and an extra radiator. I went so far as to scrounge a (free) taco pump to do it with...but I never completed the project. Eventually I built a new garage with heat and moved my car work in there, and VERY rarely heat the barn anymore.

I still think it would work. BUT I agree with the previous poster. If you want to use an electric water heater it makes no sense whatsoever, because it will be less efficient and more complicated than cheap 1500 W electric heaters you can buy anywhere for about $25 or less.

In fact, it wouldn't make sense with gas either unless you had the stuff laying around like I did. For all the same reasons.

Phil

 

[krooser]

remember he's in southern Indiana not Bemidji, MN....