Winterizing this lil ol space? 250sq ft

[justinmc]

So my one car attached spot needs some winterizing. Basically I have a 11' x 23' space. So 250ish sq ft. When I put up the drywall I insulated the outside & back walls. The inside wall is the outside wall of the house and 1/2 way up is concrete from the foundation. The garage door is the only way in/out of this thing at the moment. My plan is to add a couple of these workforce type heaters from the HD as mentioned in another thread here.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...storeId=10051&List=List&storeCity=Kansas+city

Concerns on keeping this space heated are... 1) garage door entry/exit. Not ideal. Each time I open/close it I'm letting a blast of cold air in. Also the door is an old steel/alum type door with no insulation. The ceiling is open to the rafters and has no insulation (I use some for overhead storage of stuff).

So any suggestions for keeping this sucker toasty while I'm working out there? I don't anticipate a "bunch" of work being done over the winter.. but I'm sure something will come up plus I have a few little projects I'd like to do. Keep in mind.. these are all stop gap measures... my hope is in the spring/summer to enlarge this space and of course properly heat/etc. it.

My thoughts are installing new weather strip at the bottom of the garage door... possibly finding a way to afix foam core type insulation to the inside panels of the garage door and sealing up all the gaps/leaks all around. My biggest concern is the heat loss through the rafters/roof. I was thinking I could get some heavy mil plastic and staple it up.. but then there is the concern of the cheap heaters melting it. Thanks guys!!

This is an old very out of date shot of it after I drywalled and got all my junk moved back in.. haha.. its alot less junky at the moment!

 

[Bull]

The good thing about those Workforce heaters is that they aren't affected by wind or a draft from you opening your door, since they heat objects and not the air.

 

[justinmc]

The good thing about those Workforce heaters is that they aren't affected by wind or a draft from you opening your door, since they heat objects and not the air.

I was thinking about getting a single baseboard type heater maybe as well? Put it on the inside wall and then a single workforce heater hanging up by the toolboxes... maybe some heat from as low as I could get it... I dunno.

 

[rickairmedic]

I would go with the radiant heater you are looking at and one of the radiator style oil filled heaters should be plenty of heat . My garage is a 2&1/2 car attatched . I know theres no insulation in my walls and my 15X7 door is not insulated . The ceiling is finished and somewhat insulated . I have one of the radiator style heaters in here and it keeps the garage around 60 when its 30 and below outside .


Rick

 

[Uncle Buck]

30K BTU torpedo heater, use K1 kerosene, it will run you out you will have so much heat. That is what I use in my 2 car garage and I don't crack windows, leave doors open, or anything else! That is all I have used since the early 1990's and I have never had a problem.

 

[justinmc]

30K BTU torpedo heater, use K1 kerosene, it will run you out you will have so much heat. That is what I use in my 2 car garage and I don't crack windows, leave doors open, or anything else! That is all I have used since the early 1990's and I have never had a problem.

H I was thinking about that but technically shouldn't I vent that due to carbon monoxide? What sort of "hours" are you getting out of a bottle of propane or whatever on one of those? My house is nat gas heat and I could run a line out but I'd rather not do anything like that until I get started on the garage expansion. At which point the heating system will step up in quality quite a bit.

 

[sberry]

If I had natural I would pipe a hydrant to it right from the go, maybe set it up for future plans or expansion but those little electric would be ok for occasional use.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

I was thinking about getting a single baseboard type heater maybe as well? Put it on the inside wall

I would not use baseboard heat. Way too easy to set something in front of it and cause a fire.

Charles

 

[justinmc]

If I had natural I would pipe a hydrant to it right from the go, maybe set it up for future plans or expansion but those little electric would be ok for occasional use.

I wouldn't mind running a line over and hooking it up. However I'd prefer something where I don't have to go hacking up the roof, etc for venting at this moment. Until I know for sure where my master plan for the rebuild will go in the spring. Not a "huge" deal to run a line.. but it'll take a little work since my gas furnance, dryer, stove, etc are all more centrally located in the house. Plumbing a new line from there takes a bit more work than I want to do right this second and then possibly have to rip it all back out.

 

[justinmc]

I would not use baseboard heat. Way too easy to set something in front of it and cause a fire.

Charles

Point taken... I didn't really like the idea of it laying out there for that reason anyways. This just reinforces that.

 

[Stuart in MN]

It's not clear from your original post - is the ceiling insulated? That's really the most important place to insulate, if it's not all the heat will just go out through the roof. Also, if you look at the specs for that Workforce radiant heater, it says it only heats an area of 15 square feet - basically the area underneath it. So, expect the garage to be cooler the further away you get from the heater.

If you're just standing at the workbench you'll probably be fine. If you want to heat the whole garage uniformly you may need something with a little more horsepower. I recommend against the nonvented torpedo heater, particularly in an attached garage - since they're not vented, all the combustion gases (including carbon monoxide) get pumped right into the room, along with a lot of moisture.

 

[autoist]

If you have a south facing wall without evergreen trees in front of it, this'll do it for free:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Renewable-Energy/2006-12-01/Build-a-Simple-Solar-Heater.aspx

 

[DaMaN]

got one of these work forces today work fine if you stand right in front and near it. My garage is similar shape / size with non-insulated rafters. i just pointed it towards my workbench and will deal with the rest of the area being cold as long as I can do what I need to and get back in the house. I may design a way to rotate it as needed or do the same and get a 2nd unit.

 

[justinmc]

Stuart.. my rafters/ceiling is not insulated. The rafters are open to below as I use some areas as overhead storage (small spaces make you get creative!). One of my neighbors has this style kerosene heater

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100045793

and uses it to heat his 2 car during the winter to warm enough to do woodworking, etc in. The reviews of that model on HD.com make it seem pretty decent.

Keep in mind I'm not looking for constant heat. Just something that will bring the space up to temp & make it fairly comfortable when I'm doing any work out there during the cold winter. Yes I realize I need to probably insulate my rafters/roof for the best/most efficient heat. I'm debating if its worth it to just buy some heavy mil plastic sheeting and staple it up to at least contain some of the heat instead of leaving it 100% open. Like I said.. this is somewhat of a "stop gap" for this winter and then I'll figure out a more permanent solution (the plan is a completely different garage).

 

[dropride]

I used one of those kerosene heaters last year in my 2 car garage. It puts out some decent heat. After an hour or so of running it was comfortable to work. My garage has open rafters as well but i insulated them and the walls.

 

[trainer]

The problem with plastic and no insulation is that it'll sweat and drip like crazy. If the plan is to build a new garage, maybe you could buy some batts of insulation now and "store" them in the attic until your finishing your new space. Plastic sheeting and duct tape will be ok for a temporary ceiling . If your worried about your heater melting it, then drywall part of the ceiling above it.
I personally wouldnt bother with a cheap 120v heater.

I just converted my old shop into a studio/noise room for my kids. It's 13x20, similar to your size. I insulated the walls to r13 and the ceiling to r40. I put in one of these
http://www1.dimplex.com/productshow.asp?id=164 wired for 2000 watts at 240 volts


So far this winter it's been great. It'll bring the temp from 50 to 68 in about 15 minutes. When it was my shop with no insulation, i used a big old oil furnace for occasional heat. it would always just be getting up to temp just as i was finishing for the day. I should have insulated that building years ago!

 

[89MustangGX]

Any other source for these workforce heaters? I kept meaning to order and put it off and now they appear to be out of stock. Would really like to pick up one or two of them, but can't seem to find them anyplace else.

Adam

 

[justinmc]

Just an update... I purchased a 23K BTU kerosene convection heater. So far my rafters/ceiling is uninsulated. However after watching how this heater works (most of the heat radiates directly upwards) I'm thinking I will pick up a couple of bats of insulation to lay over the rafters and then pick up some of the reflective "sheet" insulation to put directly over the location of the heater to reflect the heat back downwards. My thought is also to use a small household fan to help circulate the heat... kind of a ghetto forced air setup. Its not perfect.. but should allow me decent working conditions when temps are sub freezing as they are now. Ultimately its not perfect and by no means a long term solution.

 

[timgr]

IMO you are definitely going to have to insulate the roof somehow. I presume the roof above is bare rafters and the bottom of the roof sheathing is exposed? How about a pic up toward the roof?

 

[justinmc]

IMO you are definitely going to have to insulate the roof somehow. I presume the roof above is bare rafters and the bottom of the roof sheathing is exposed? How about a pic up toward the roof?

I'll shoot a pic later this week... its exposed rafters/trusses (its a truss type setup) that exposes the sheathing. I use some of that truss area to store some spare parts, etc on pieces of plywood setting on the joists. I was up there moving some stuff around and noticed how much the heat was really going "up"... above the rafter line the sheathing/etc actually contained the heat pretty well as I could feel at least a 10-15 degree difference. The issue I suppose is really just keeping that heated air "down". I don't really want to bolt a ceiling fan up there though, just for a few months of use this winter to push the air back down. So thats why my thought was the reflective sheeting.