residential garage heating options

[weicm3]

winter is coming soon. what are the heating options I have? I'm interested in bigmaxx unit but there is too much plumbing work(gas line and vent). I used to use kero heater but I hate the smell.

I found some hot water heater coil units but not sure if they're efficient enough. are they worth it? seems to have less trouble to install comparing the bigmaxx one though.

any other heating options?

 

[StingRay]

Vague question. It depends on where you are, what kind of building, how big and how it's insulated. Some brands and some types of heaters are only regionally available to boot.

 

[brownbagg]

the best method would be the heated water coils in the slab, other than that, no answer

 

[BRB]

How about an electric furnace? I have one in my garage and we get darn cold winters up here (like 40 below cold). Works great for me.

 

[weicm3]

it's for regular residential 2 car garage in nj. it's not super cold here in winter. probably 15-20F as lowest. heated water coils in the slab is out of question. not looking to redo the floor.

 

[purpony]

what type of heat do you have in your house?

I have a 4 zone hot water baseboard system in my house. The zones are, 1st floor, 2nd floor, basement, garage.

I have a Modine heater hanging from my ceiling that looks like this
http://www3.modine.com/v2portal/pag...markets/building_HVAC/level_5_content_021.htm

Im in CT and have a 2 car garage. I keep my garage at 55 degrees all winter long and if im out working in it, i just crank the heat up. Within mins my garage can be 80!

They also offer this garage heater
http://www3.modine.com/v2portal/pag.../building_HVAC/market_level_3_content_013.htm

 

[krooser]

You could use a small gas-fired radiant tube heater... I have an 80K unit in my shop and it will melt your face at -30F.

http://www.superiorradiant.com/

http://www.reverberray.com/products/li.html

 

[rwhite692]

+1 for radiant tube. There are some pics of my install in my (still unfinished) new detached garage, at the link below:

 

[tcianci]

Since you mention that you have looked into "hot water coils" I am assuming that you are talking about a hydronic unit heater, that is a self contained unit with a hydronic coil and a fan. You mentioned residential garage, I think you may mean it its attached. If that's the case and you have hot water heat, a hydronic unit heater may be your best bet. I installed one in my garage (22x25) 3 1/2 inch FG in walls 6 inch in ceiling. It gets down to about 0 here in the winter, but not often and my 25K btu unit does a great job. I would offer one suggestion to anyone who installs one of these units and doesn't intend to keep the heat running all the time... Install a small bypass around the zone valve (if used) or the flow-check valve (in the case of the zone having its' own circulator). This will allow a small amount of heated water to circulate simply by convection and it will keep the coil from freezing when the garage gets real cold.