Heater for garage

[Woodywoodchuck]

Hi fellow WWs, im on a quest to heat my garage on the cheap for now or maybe this winter. Its 3 car about 18x 35 3 stall with finished walls an ceiling insualted 1 window on wall. Doors arent insulated just wood.
The garage ranges from 35-50 in winter (inland seattle).
In my research I have found electric works good. I was wondering if anyone here knows of a hetaer that can warm this area and doesnt run off 220? I have 1 220 plug that jointers plugged into I guess I could put a dual plg from it and have both plugged in an turn off heater when working with jointer.

The cheap possibility maybe a duraheat kerosene heater with door cracked a bit for ventilation.I know this isnt good for wood whn its off but its a quick fix for now. I believe Duraheat makes them for Home Depot (HD). 23k for $124 at 1.9 gallons per 9-12 hours.I might need a bigger one not sure.
Also theres a Dyna Glo Pro 70k that blows air that runs off diesel or kerosene at HD for $197. I would think that this thing would be loud? Im not sure if I can buy both and try them an return if they dont work for me after gas has been put in them.

Any suggestions appreciated. My budget is $500 or less.

Thanks

[VASandy]

IMHO, wood dust and fuel-burning heaters just don't mix. The blower type is REALLY noisy. Although you only need to run it for 10-15 minutes then it's warm for an hour or so. This way, you run the blower while you're taking a break to warm up the shop, so you're not actively producing sawdust while the heater's on. A bit safer, perhaps, but I'd still worry. The kerosene heater is probably safer, but you'll have to vent in a high space and bring fresh air in low. This decreases the overall heating efficiency.

Electric is a safe, though expensive, alternative. Lately, the cost differential has decreased as fossil fuels increase in price. I actually think a design with electric heaters would probably be more efficient, less dangerous, and probably near the same cost to run as a fuel-burning heater. The oil-filled radiator type electric heaters seem to be very efficient. You should be able to pick up a few of those along with a baseboard style for not too much money. This way you can place the radiator style heaters where you want, and turn the baseboard heater on as needed.

Good luck!! I hope you find a way to keep nice and warm this winter so you can make lots of things to post about! :)

[blind bill]

I live in your neck of the woods except that our winters are quite a bit harsher (though drier) than yours. I have a similar setup except it's a two car garage.
I found that spot heaters work very well. I heat only the area I'm in and then only while I'm working or going to work. I use an electric 110 volt heater that I bought from HD on sale for about $50. You'll be suprised at how quickly the area you work in will warm up. I don't want it to stay too warm in there because my wood bin is inside and I don't want to worry about cracks.
Good luck and let's hope for some global warming (or at least Pacific NW warming) this winter.

Bill

[wwsmith]

I was in the same boat last year. Do you have Natural Gas available? I ended up going with a Lennox gas heater mounted up in the corner of the shop and it works great. I can go out the shop and find it anywhere from -5F to 35F in the winter. I used it quite frequently last winter and only noticed a $15 ~ $20 increase in my monthly bill.

I looked at Pellet Stoves, but I have 19 foot ceilings in my shop and it was going to take a rather large unit to get me what I needed pushing me out of my price range. I paid $650 for my gas unit installed, but did get a bit of a discount as I ran all the electrical and helped with the install.

Any kind of radiant heat is good. The Hot Dogs are supposed to be nice. Although my garage gets toasty, all the metal in the shop really keeps a cold "feeling" about things and the radiant heat helps to reduce that and works more efficiently. I seem to recall some others using various types of radiant heat maybe they will mention here. Or you can do a search on the forum as this topic has come up a few times.

[Woodywoodchuck]

I was in the same boat last year. Do you have Natural Gas available? I ended up going with a Lennox gas heater mounted up in the corner of the shop and it works great. I can go out the shop and find it anywhere from -5F to 35F in the winter. I used it quite frequently last winter and only noticed a $15 ~ $20 increase in my monthly bill.

I looked at Pellet Stoves, but I have 19 foot ceilings in my shop and it was going to take a rather large unit to get me what I needed pushing me out of my price range. I paid $650 for my gas unit installed, but did get a bit of a discount as I ran all the electrical and helped with the install.

Any kind of radiant heat is good. The Hot Dogs are supposed to be nice. Although my garage gets toasty, all the metal in the shop really keeps a cold "feeling" about things and the radiant heat helps to reduce that and works more efficiently. I seem to recall some others using various types of radiant heat maybe they will mention here. Or you can do a search on the forum as this topic has come up a few times.

Im sure topic has ben up but I wanted to throw my scenario into it. I know what electricians cost..:eek:
I have natural gas heating house an stove, Here it seems to be my gas is like 65 in summer but over 200 in winter an electric is always around 35 so maybe electric is cheaper here than gas.
Thanks

[wwsmith]

Im sure topic has ben up but I wanted to throw my scenario into it. I know what electricians cost..:eek:
I have natural gas heating house an stove, Here it seems to be my gas is like 65 in summer but over 200 in winter an electric is always around 35 so maybe electric is cheaper here than gas.
Thanks

With the price of gas these days you could be right about the cost. My garage is attached to the house and is two bays deep on the side and two wide on the front (so shaped like an backwards L I guess). One thing we noticed was since the garage shares that long wall with the house that when I run the heat in the garage for long periods of time our heat runs less inside.

I did not even really consider electric here as I would need something very large to heat my shop and am sure it would have been more expensive than gas. My little gas unit can get my shop from 0F to 62F in about 15 ~ 20 minutes. I put 2 ceiling fans in which I run all the time and really helps with moving the heat around and notice the heater runs less in the garage since I added them. My only main loss of heat now is the garage door. On the coldest days the heater will kick on every 1/2 hour or so.

In my last shop I used a small pellet stove and loved it. That was a simple 2 car garage, so a bit smaller than yours. It worked great and only cost me around $170 every two years to heat (1 ton of pellets would get me through 2 winters). Took a little longer to get warm, but the blower helped nicely. I believe I paid $700 at that time for the unit. So it may be out of your price range as they might be more expensive these days as it has been quite some times since I last checked.

I really suspect electric will be more expensive to run, but really can't say for sure. Two of my neighbors use electric and during our last gab session I believe they mentioned they were pushing around $60 ~ $80 more per month when running them. Not quite sure what they have though...

[ironhat]

I have a Hot Dawg which is fueled by LPG. This is *not* cheap. In fact, after the first winter I was aghast at the bill (sorry that I don't have that exact number but it was well over $200 for my little 14x24 shop). Since then I have added a simple solar panel to the south facing window and now I only turn the heat on when I'm out there. The solar unit keeps the area about freezing her in zone 6, south-central PA. Here's (http://www.ridgidforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13410) the basic design however, I just stood mine upright against the inside of the window. Not perfect but adequate.

[Ruudacguy]

Most common garage hangers are 80% efficient. This means for every dollar of gas you buy, 20 cents goes out the flue. Taking that 80% efficiency into account, and figuring electric rates at 7 cents per kwh, natural gas would need to be less than $1.64 per ccf in order to be cheaper than electric resistance.

Hope this helps. :)

[The Wood Meister]

I used my neighbors old natural gas furnace when they upgraded to a gaspack A/C unit. I mounted it OUTSIDE so I could run it even when i'm spraying lacquer inside. It draws outside air and blows in through a rectangle hole I cut in the block. It actually works excellent. the heater was free and I grabbed and modified the ductwork too. Nothing special, just an elbow to get from the heater into the shop. It also gives me some positive flow through my filter door for heavy spraying. Yes, it gets cold here, 30's in the winter but I can get it roasty toasty in no time and my gas bills are not too bad.

[tpendo]

This is kind of basic, but I bought an old dryer off of Craigslist and use it to heat my garage. About an hour before I want to work I go turn the dryer on, without clothes in it. I makes things nice and toasty.

[Woodywoodchuck]

This is kind of basic, but I bought an old dryer off of Craigslist and use it to heat my garage. About an hour before I want to work I go turn the dryer on, without clothes in it. I makes things nice and toasty.
No way, your not serious are you. I was thinking about burning lumber but?? I may need it.

[erngum]

I have a two-car garage shop and I use a parabolic electric heater from Costco:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11173501&whse=BC&topnav=&browse=&lang=en-US&s=1

They are supposed to be energy efficient, and with the parabolic reflector, I can feel the heater standing 10-15 feet away. Maybe two of them placed in opposing corners would be sufficient for your shop. They also speed up drying times without blowing any dust onto your finish.

Ern

[DaveD]

I installed a Dayton 220v heater that hangs from the ceiling of my insulated, detached 2 car garage. I;m totally happy with it-works very well. I think it was around $300.00. I already had a 220 line out to the garage for a large compressor but it still cost me another $400.00 (electrician)to hook it up.
Over the years I've used several methods of heating - mostly to cure epoxy on a couple of boats I was building. It required heating the garage to about 60 or better for about a day at a time.
-small electric 1500w radiator types using several seemed to get the job done
-Kerosene (kills your lungs - pita to refill)
-small propane radiant and salamander - heats well but co problem and also puts a lot of "liguid" into the air - you need lots of ventilation which defeats the purpose.
Haven't yet figured the cost to run it. Will do that this winter. I've just connected the house to 2 garage walls with a family room addition so heating the garage will be easier this year

Dave

[brucestorey]

I know you are looking for an inexpensive solution and you are trying to avoid using 220, but have you considered a through-the-wall heat pump? It goes against both of your convenience preferences, but with one of these, you will have great heat in the winter and great A/C in the summer, keeping the ambient humidity down in your wood shop. I'm a plumber, so I'm not sure about this, but wouldn't it be good to have lower humidity for the wood you work with? I have one of these units and it keeps my two-car-sized garage cozy all year round.

Bruce

[Woodywoodchuck]

I know you are looking for an inexpensive solution and you are trying to avoid using 220, but have you considered a through-the-wall heat pump? It goes against both of your convenience preferences, but with one of these, you will have great heat in the winter and great A/C in the summer, keeping the ambient humidity down in your wood shop. I'm a plumber, so I'm not sure about this, but wouldn't it be good to have lower humidity for the wood you work with? I have one of these units and it keeps my two-car-sized garage cozy all year round.

Bruce

Thats an idea, so put air pump through wall of house to pump warm air into garage right?
Its not humid up here so im okay on that part.

[Woodywoodchuck]

I installed a Dayton 220v heater that hangs from the ceiling of my insulated, detached 2 car garage. I;m totally happy with it-works very well. I think it was around $300.00. I already had a 220 line out to the garage for a large compressor but it still cost me another $400.00 (electrician)to hook it up.
Over the years I've used several methods of heating - mostly to cure epoxy on a couple of boats I was building. It required heating the garage to about 60 or better for about a day at a time.
-small electric 1500w radiator types using several seemed to get the job done
-Kerosene (kills your lungs - pita to refill)
-small propane radiant and salamander - heats well but co problem and also puts a lot of "liguid" into the air - you need lots of ventilation which defeats the purpose.
Haven't yet figured the cost to run it. Will do that this winter. I've just connected the house to 2 garage walls with a family room addition so heating the garage will be easier this year

Dave

Thanks Dave,
Im thinking about going electric. I have a 220 outlet from my dryer that I may use since dryer runs off of 110. I have one 1500 watt radiator style and it doesnt work very well but I can feela bit different.It was something I have had for a long time.It draws alot of power and has tripped my GFI in garage a few times. Im working on getting 90 amps more in there this week.
Thanks for your advice.

[Tom W]

I have a 20x24 well insulated shop with eight foot ceilings. I take the initial chill off with a propane salamander. Once the shop is up to temperature I use an Eden Pure quartz heater I found in an advertisement, I think, in American Woodworker magazine. As I recall it was about $400.00. I plug it into a 120 wall outlet and let it do its thing. The heater does a good job of heating the shop.

The down side to my arrangement is that a byproduct of burning propane is water vapor. I try to keep the propane use to a minimum, 15-20 minutes, so I don't have to fight the rust. There was a tragic, accidental loss of life in my area the result of a faulty furnace installation so I bought a plug-in-the- wall CO2 monitor.

[threecreeks3]

I bought a forced air hot water powered type unit at an auction to install in my old shop and never did..its sitting out in the garage here an wont be used..its huge
Sam

[foulkeworks]

Something I have been thinking about adding this winter. I found at Menards a ceiling fan that has a heater built into it. I my garage I have 2 lights, one above each car. I want to replace the lights with the heater fans and that should keep me warm and keep the heaters off the ground. It should also help when I have to work in the summer heat, just turn on the fans.