Hydronic Baseboard Heat in Garage

[jvcobra]

I'm in the planning stages to upgrade my house from electric to hydronic baseboard heat. I'm wondering if there are any drawbacks to using this to heat the garage area also. My garage is approx. 450 sq. ft and I would add a seperate zone with it's own thermostat since it doesn't need to be as warm as the house all the time. Would it take too long to heat it from say 50F to 65F for when I want to work in there. Would I be better with a seperate forced hot air system?

Thanks

 

[Steve in Mi]

If you have the capacity in your home heating boiler to add the extra zone it will be lower cost heating of the garage compared to a separate forced air heater. Raising the air temp from 50 to 65 shouldn't take very long at all as the natural air circulation pattern is already set up at the 50 degree setting. Raising the temp of contents and floor will lag as there is more mass involved.

I added a zone to my home hot water heating to heat a breezeway I enclosed (12' X 24') using two 8' lengths (one on top of the other) of 1" copper w/4"x4" fin tube. These are fed with 1/2" copper tube and they really dump the heat in the area quickly setting up a natural air circulation - no fan needed.

A possible negative is you may not be able to shut it off completely in the Winter if freezing can occur.

 

[Josh61513]

A possible negative is you may not be able to shut it off completely in the Winter if freezing can occur.

Ditto what Steve said. I too have hydronic baseboard heat in my home and have considered the same for my attached garage. You would have to always heat the garage reasonably (at least 50 degrees, possibly more?) because 1) the pipes could freeze, and 2) to prevent "shock" to the boiler from super cold water returning to the boiler's heat exchanger when you initially turn the zone on which can severly reduce the life of your boiler. That is, unless you live in a very mild climate???

 

[PAToyota]

Just add an anti-freeze solution to the system - no more freezing problem.

 

[sneezer41]

think about a fan coil instead, more instant heat when you want it