Small heater for a 1 car garage?

[Shiftless]

Is that person correct in saying that thier 1500w little ceramic heater costs $200 a month to have on?

Depends on the rate he’s paying.
With no insulation the little heater probably never cycles off.
Running 24/7 for 30 days it would use 1080 kw/hrs.
At 20 cents per kw/hr. that would cost 204 bucks.

 

[kctyphoon]

Depends on the rate he’s paying.
With no insulation the little heater probably never cycles off.
Running 24/7 for 30 days it would use 1080 kw/hrs.
At 20 cents per kw/hr. that would cost 204 bucks.

When I bought my house, the entire living room was an addition about 15x25. The doorway was really small and all the way in the corner. The room was lined with electric baseboard heating on its own thermostat. I moved the doorway, more than doubled it's size, moved the vents for the cental air/ and heat that were also in there - and ripped all that electric **** out...

 

[Den69rs96]

I think people over exaggerate “venting” with propane... i think as long as you dont enclose yourself in a glass bubble while using one - you will be ok..

I don't think I'm exaggerating. My garage is 24x24. I read that I need approx. 26000 btu's to heat my uninsulated garage and my propane heaters lowest setting is 70,000 btu's.

Even with both garage doors open about 6 inches and two windows open approx. 4 inches, I start to get light headed and feel a little sick if I run my heater longer than 15 mins at a clip. Its just to big. I probably would be fine with the smaller heater.

That's why I said if you go propane, size it correctly to your garage.

 

[kngelv]

I think people over exaggerate “venting” with propane... i think as long as you dont enclose yourself in a glass bubble while using one - you will be ok..

Here’s a question - do you ONLY have one outlet, thats on one circuit in the garage? Cause if you have two that are on different circuits - you can just make an adapter cord pulling current from both - and get a real 220v heater with a fan you can hang on the wall or from the ceiling for like $150.. it sounds like, or at least i get the impression - that you want something that will at least heat up a small area quickly - so you can do what you want comfortably, and be done with it. The problem with radiant heat is if youre not right on top of it, its gonna take a while to work. If you go that route you may consider just turning in on for a while before you go into the area to work - to give it a chance to warm up a bit.

Like i was saying before - you can buy a 220 outlet and screw it to the wall near a 220v heater that you would have bought - and out of that box simply run two extension cords that would each plug into a different outlet. Ideal, no.. but for a few hours a year - if its worth it to ya - itll work, and you can buy a heater that will actually do what you want. IF you went that route, youd be leaving the heater unplugged until you plugged in both cords to properly power the outlet. If some guys can do it to power a welder - why not a heater..

Just an option.. alert the safety patrol.

If you have two separate circuits then then this will not work unless the 120 outlets are on separate legs. Which means you might have to move one to a different breaker in the panel. Also when you burn down the building by doing something this dumb your insurance company won’t pay if they find it. If there is only one circuit then I hope it’s 20 amps otherwise a 1500 watt heater some lights and one power tool will have you tripping a 15a in short order.

James

 

[kctyphoon]

^ safety patrol.
Like I (kinda) said (maybe not clear enough to satisfy you) the two donor outlets would need to be fed off different breakers.

Ideal ? No . (Like I also said).

 

[dsimatt]

I don't think I'm exaggerating. My garage is 24x24. I read that I need approx. 26000 btu's to heat my uninsulated garage and my propane heaters lowest setting is 70,000 btu's.

Even with both garage doors open about 6 inches and two windows open approx. 4 inches, I start to get light headed and feel a little sick if I run my heater longer than 15 mins at a clip. Its just to big. I probably would be fine with the smaller heater.

That's why I said if you go propane, size it correctly to your garage.

I think some people are more sensitive to it than others, I have the same size garage and use a 125k btu heater and other than the smell I don't notice it much. I run my heater to get everything up to temp then shut it off and depending how long I'm out there will run it to get the temp up but I absolutely hate listening to the thing run.

For the OP I'd recommend like a 60k kerosene heater due to its small size and then get one of those thermostat controllers to control temp...can't do that with propane.

 

[kctyphoon]

You can even get pine tree scented kerosene - for Christmas..

 

[Parrothead]

Any insulation? Without any, it will be nearly useless. My old house, attached 1 car garage, 2 adjoining walls and the ceiling insulated but door and one wall not insulated, well sealed though...one of those little heaters could raise it all of 5 degrees celcius per hour.

With a detached garage and no insulation, you might as well be blowing the heat right out the door.

^^^ THIS ^^^

You have to do something to trap the heat.

I’ve used plastic sheeting years ago to get a 2 car uninsulated detached garage over 80 degrees in the dead of winter to paint! Granted we used a gas grill (don’t!!!) and some other heat sources but the real savior was the plastic. Clear plastic sheeting is your friend in this case.

 

[Citation]

Is that person correct in saying that thier 1500w little ceramic heater costs $200 a month to have on?

Here is a simple calculation I use. I think it was true if you are paying $0.11/kwh. I think that's a relatively low rate across the US. Figure it cost $1per watt per year. So if you leave a 6 watt night light on all the time it cost you $6 per year or $0.50 a month.

The same math says a 1500W heater on 24-7 costs $125 or a bit over $4 a day.

BTW, using this math you can see many LED bulbs part for themselves in a few months. Consider an outdoor light left on at night. A 60W bulb will run about half the year and cost you $30 in electricity. A 10W LED bulb will cost you just $5. So long as the LED bulb costs less than $25 you save money the first year. Basic LED bulbs are under $1 these so after just 3 months you are saving money.

 

[hsvtoolfool]

One caution with any propane/kerosone/diesel fuel heaters is carbon monoxide. In a barn or garage with open doors/windows and plenty of vertilation, CO is not a problem. With my 2 car garage door down and both windows closed, my torpedo heater tripped the CO alarm in about 15 minutes. I was never able to find a good balance of warmth and ventilation. So I ran a 220V 30amp line and added an 5KW electric garage heater...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003XOZN7A/?tag=atomicindus08-20

With insulation and some fans to circulate air, it does fine for my 600 SF garage.

 

[jubilee]

I have 3 heating systems in my single garage.( I don’t count the 1500 watt electrics). A propane space heater, a propane tank top heater, and kerosene heater.
Kerosene is the go to heater and will run all day without raising CO levels much. Have two CO monitors in garage and the space heater will spin the numbers up almost immediately. Tank top heater is the simplest and best bang for the buck, but must watch CO levels.

 

[fsae0607]

OP, get yourself a parabolic radiant heater. I have the Costco one and I point it at me when working in the garage. Warms you up quickly.

 

[Robinson1]

Is that person correct in saying that thier 1500w little ceramic heater costs $200 a month to have on?

Depends on where you live. Electric is ridiculous here. I was paying $650/month on a 2300 sq/ft house in the winter months. Stopped heating with electric and bill dropped to $90/month. Power company even came out and changed the meter after I installed gas!

To answer the OPs question:

Look into a midsize torpedo heater and burn kerosene in it. They stink like an old truck if you run diesel.

 

[Jason280]

Where are you located? Makes a big difference...

That being said, I wouldn't even consider electric...I'd make sure it was well insulated, and use one of those infrared style heaters on top of a 5gal propane bottle. I use them in my 20x25 and 24x32' shops, and they work great. Granted, I am in Georgia and both shops are fully insulated, but I have no trouble keeping either heated in 20* weather.

 

[Htscheg]

Has anyone used one of the ventless natural gas/propane heaters??

 

[kctyphoon]

Has anyone used one of the ventless natural gas/propane heaters??

I had a vent free NG fireplace in the basement (my pad) when i was younger and lived w/ parents. My father actually has it in the basement of his house now.

 

[Jacobson]

OP, get yourself a parabolic radiant heater. I have the Costco one and I point it at me when working in the garage. Warms you up quickly.

This?
https://www.costco.com/presto-heatdish-plus-parabolic-heater.product.100505979.html

 

[Jason280]

Has anyone used one of the ventless natural gas/propane heaters??

Our hunting/shagging cabin has four of them, all propane....never had an issue with any of them.

 

[driz]

Our hunting/shagging cabin has four of them, all propane....never had an issue with any of them.

And also on the dreaded ( and overblown ) CO issue all of the newer types of gas heaters have auto shut off safeties.
One other thing that I came to really appreciate with my barbecue bottle and radiant propane rig is its ability to put the heat right where you want it. It comes in handy for drying cold soaked cars ect. It’s also quite handy if you’re stuck working out doors in you can actually stand the thing behind yourself and you manage out in a snowbank if you have to. That’s portability sure comes in handy sometimes like when there’s an ice storm with extended power outage.


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