Need advice on heating my garage

[TrentW]

Last year I used a kerosene bazooka heater which heats my 2 1/2 stall garage nicely, but it's kinda noisy and kerosene ain't exactly cheap. I'm covering the roof joists with plywood tomorrow to keep most of the heat from escaping, the walls are insulated and I got a new insulated overhead door this summer.

My garage is detached from the house and has electric power, but just curious what electric heaters are a good choice or should I just run a gas line? Figuring gas would be more cost efficient right? Let me know what you guys are doing.

[e30:)]

my neighbors shop has a oil heater that runs on used oil, its a big unit but he also has a large shop for semi trucks. might look into it though.. cheap to run not very loud either. i dont know if they make them small or not

[TrentW]

Interesting. I can build my own for $36 and burn free waste oil. Al Gore would approve.

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_motherearth/me4.html

[e30:)]

right on! i would do it if i had a garage ha

[OrganicMechanic]

waste oil heat FTW!

[JTapper]

With the work involved on the waste oil heat, I ended up running a natural gas line to my garage just last week. I've now got cheap heat at the flick of a switch.

Electric heat is pretty inefficient and expensive. You could put a used furnace in and run it a week for the price of what electric will cost just to run.

I picked up a free furnace on Craigslist. The guy said it didn't work, but he had something wired wrong becuase it works fine for me.

[3bvert]

keorsene seems to put a slick film on things, and smells like shit
kerosene adn propane dragons put mositure in the air, bad for painting, drywall work etc ( when in construction)

electric is nice as it has no open flame....something to think about if your gonna spary anything, or have the actuall heating unit in a different room

gas is cheap adn easy

however, friend of mine had a gas heater, pulled his car in , an it had a gas leak, he did not know, must have just happened......well insulated garage, cold out, was gonna work next moring on car so left heat on low

next moring went in and kaboom, fire department figured it just needed more oxygen when he opened door, blew him back
lost car, boat adn two motorcycles

it was a floor mounted unit......that is why it is suggested that gas water heaters in a garage, or heaters, be off the ground as gas and fumes are low and stay near the floor

we had a waste oil heaeater in one shop, fire marshal made us mont it high, same reason, potential open flame, fumes from chemical related to cars

I currently have no heat,( wiht the exception of occasional electric or propane space heaters, but when I do , it will be gas , mounted high. a ppower exsaust fan, and a outside shut off near/on the garage

[2002maniac]

Natural gas is the best option imo. The heater buddy 40k btu unit is pretty sweet but pricy at 400 plus. Another good option is a small wood or coal burning stove. Messy, but cheap to run.

[TwoJ's]

What do you mean electric heat is inefficient? All of the electricity used goes to making heat.

If I were in your shoes I would use an electric heater. But I do believe the county I live in has the cheapest electricity in the country, so that may have something to do with it.

[Farbin Kaiber]

I have electric and propane throughout my home. Electric is nice for bringing a room up to a desired temp, but I enjoy my propane to keep the whole house livable...

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=propane+garage+heater&cid=2721001585595933546&sa=title#p

I have something similar in the garage and it costs me about 35-50 a month to keep the garage at a constant 65 deg. I'm sure there are Natural Gas units available too. And it keeps the frost off the glass surfaces.

[TrentW]

What do you mean electric heat is inefficient? All of the electricity used goes to making heat.

If I were in your shoes I would use an electric heater. But I do believe the county I live in has the cheapest electricity in the country, so that may have something to do with it.

Based on national average propane, natural gas, and electric costs: natural gas is least expensive to run, followed by electric, then propane.

[mrsleeve]

use gas,


Farbin it has not even got cold up there yet, winter lasts a while too, heating season has just begun for you.

[Asbradley21]

This crazy old polish guy in town that is an e30 nut and a BMW head and rebuilds 2002's, e30's and z3's with his incredibly eccentric Australian son uses a really awesome wood stove heater. Works insanely well and wood around here is more than plentiful.

[mrsleeve]

yeah a out door wood boiler to a fan and heat exchanger in the shop works great but very costly to set up. If your gonna do that you want to heat the slab with it, and plumb it to the house and set up a heat exchanger to your standard forced air system.

That system works great if you have ready supply of wood and are not too lazy to cut split and stack it, and then cart it up too the boiler and stoke the fire 1-2 times a day.

[TrentW]

/\ Agreed. If I get a large enough gas unit to heat my 500+ sq ft garage it's around $500. Unless I find a used furnace, but then don't I need some sort of fan to circulate the warm air? The other down side to a used furnace is it takes up space on the floor, where I could mount something like Farbin's talking about up on the wall and out of the way. Then I've got to have a gas line run to my garage--no idea how much this will cost. Anyone have a rough idea? It's probably 50 feet or so.

Damn, might have to just get by with the bazooka heater til next year.