Looking for suggestions on electric heaters, do most work with a separate thermostat? How can you turn the the thing on with it being 8 ft off the floor? Ladder all the time? What are some quality units that I should be considering? Is 5000watts enough?
I chose the Marley Fahrenheat FUH54 unit:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Fahrenheat-5-000-Watt-Unit-Heater-FUH54/202043073
The same heater made by the same manufacturer (Marley) is sold under many brand names. This heater has a built-in thermostat. The general idea is to turn it on, wait for the room to reach the temperature you want, then slowly turn down the thermostat knob until the thermostat clicks off. Then leave it there, and the unit will cycle on and off as needed to maintain that temperature. It's a fairly crude, but simple way to operate. Marley offers a remote thermostat option if you'd prefer, which would make it easier to adjust without getting the ladder out. Also, if for some reason you decide that 5000 watts is overkill you can rewire the unit to other, lower, wattage values by rearranging some jumper wires inside.
Based on info from other Garage Journal posts, I made a slight modification to mine and added a 30amp switch on my wall that essentially serves to toggle the unit's thermostat on and off. That way I can flip the switch to turn off the heating unit but the fan continues to run to extract the remaining heat as well as cool the heating unit down, then it stays off until you flip the switch back on again. It's important to note that with this setup the heater still has full 240V power flowing to it even though the switch is "off", so you have to toggle the circuit breaker back at the panel to shut off all the power if you truly want the heater to be "off".
You can opt for a higher wattage version if you think you'll need it. I chose to try out the less expensive 5000 watt unit first, and haven't had a need to upsize.
Pay now or pay later with bigger electric bills?? Damn, all for a little bit of heat in the garage on rare occasion!
That's why I went electric. If you want to maintain a warm garage all the time, electric is probably not the right choice, and indeed may be the worst choice (I'm considering other options for my new detached garage). And honestly at 5000 watts it will take a little while to get the room up to temperature, so set your expectations accordingly - 30-45 minutes depending on how cold it is and how warm you want the space to get. If, like me, you're going to be out there on the occasional weekend for a few hours it's hard to beat (in my opinion). I've positioned mine fairly close to where I'm typically working, so I can feel the warmth even before the whole space warms up. And in the wintertime a 55-60 degree garage feels a lot warmer than a 55-60 degree day feels in the summertime.
Good luck whatever you choose to do!
