Garage heat?

The fan motor in my garage furnace appears to have gone for its last spin at some point this weekend while I was out of town. Luckly the garage did not burn down, but it did fill the air with that beautiful you have been working on a Jaguar smell (aka it let the smoke out).

So the cheap thing to do is pull the fan, go to supply house and install a new fan. However, I have wanted to replaced the ceiling mounted forced air furnace for a while with one or two of those radiant tube heaters. The furnace in my garage is huge and probably over sized for the space. It was removed from an old fire station I was told. So I know replacing it with either a new furnace or radiant heat (not in floor) would be way more efficent.

He is the problem I have no knowledge of the tube heaters. Anybody here work in a shop with them or have one in their garage? If so how well do they work? Also I have to find out if they qualify for Obama's energy tax credit. If I can get 30% back at the end of the year, I might just have to do a lot of research on them quickly.

Funny thing is today while driving home I was just thinking to myself, what should I do with that extra december paycheck. Guess I have one idea now.

Thanks in advance,

P.S. Florida people should not suggest a space heater for the two nights it gets below 35 outside. Current temp is -3F with a wind chill of -17F.

You mean those infrared ones, big long gas powered tubes? We use them at FM - a 22,000' steel building without much insulation. They work pretty well at keeping the people warm.

They have them at a wall mart in town. Its in the outside garden part and it puts out a good amount of heat.

In reply to 20Ver: "P.S. Florida people should not suggest a space heater for the two nights it gets below 35 outside. Current temp is -3F with a wind chill of -17F"...

I happily gave away my propane torpedo heater when i moved south...

I shouldn't have, cold tolerance goes way down when your used to 80 degree weather. It was awesome, just point it in the direction you want heat, and you've got heat. indoors, outdoors..didn't matter. i have no idea about using one for a permanent solution, but right now, i want mine back...

my brother went to harbor frieght, bought vogelzang (sp?) small wood burner.

we've got a 1000 sq ft shop, 13 ft tall, with a lift, lots of cold steel, etc. we insulated the crap out of it, and it has a 18x12 ft garage door (monster). that is also high-end insulated double wall steel.

we fire that little stove up, and point a fan at it.

whole garage is warm in 10 minutes, for free. finish eating breakfast, and walk into a warm garage. free heat rules.

It's a bit more work to install a wood stove, but worth it if you're spending a bit of time in there. My friend's rented garage where I fixed up her MR2 (which I got to autox in return ) was a fairly large space with a wood stove. I worked on that car through the winter, but with a little wood in the stove it heated that place up to shirtsleeve temps. In Maine.

But the propane heater is a decent option for a quick fix, or if you can't make such a major revision to your house.

I just put a Modine Hot-Dawg 60k BTU ceiling mounted heater in my garage over the weekend. Its small and has no trouble keeping everything toasty in my 750 sq ft area with outside temps down to -3 overnight last night.

I had originally asked about the radiant heaters that hang like lighting but the guy at the heating place said they aren't very efficient, use a lot of gas and they aren't vented so its not good in a space where you don't have a lot of air changing (like a big open warehouse with outside traffic). Also that the moisture from running them unvented runs down the garage door and freezes it to the slab.

Tube heaters work very well. Make sure, however, you get the right one - most of them are designed for use in higher ceiling areas, say 15 feet or more. If your garage is typical (say 8 feet or so) those heaters would be too powerful, and would cook you and the cars. Make sure you get one designed for the height of the garage.

You can certainly get a vented tube heater, and you can get one that is energy efficient.

I have a propane tube heater. It works great for a temporary system, but I'm looking into something where I can keep the temp regulated all year, so maybe a used central heat and AC system.

We use flame thrower tube kerosene plug in forced air heater works great , my brother james took a sliding glass door and made a 2by 6 six box attached to it and installed black coroplast sheet << real estate sign board>> and installed solar fan = free heat

I should have mentioned I don't want anything temporary (kerosene/propane space heaters). I like the fact that I can set the T stat at 45 when it gets down around 0 and keep it there till its back in the 20's -30's during the day. Sure, I pay the price with a higher gas bill, but I'm willing to pay that cost for getting in a warm/dry car every morning. Also since I travel here and there I also don't want anything I have to stock/feed (aka wood burning).

Garage is 24x28 and has a 13 foot ceiling height Garage door is 18'x11', but is set to only open to 6'6". Garage door is a new door double insulated door and garage is insulated and sheetrocked. One 2 post lift that I typically store a project car and park my daily under it. So I am worried about a radiant tube heating baking the project car and freezing me under the car.

By the way previous owner was a Snap On tool dealer and yes it was one of the main reasons for me buying the house. He convinced the city to let him have the height, because of the value of his tool truck and not wanting to park it on the street. He also pitched the idea as his tool truck was not pretty and he wanted to keep it out of his neighbors view.

If you decide against a tube heater, probably the next best choice is a gas unit heater, one of those boxes you hang in the corner of the room. A Modine Hot Dawg is a popular choice, Reznor is another good brand.

We have 6 Reznors in our shop. A balmy 63* out there right now.

Buy 20 pizzas and a keg of beer....

Advertise free pizza and beer at a local college.

The students standing around will throw off enough heat to bring the temp up in your shop.

Well after some research today, I learned a few things.

1. I can not find any sort of garage furnace advertised with 95% efficent rating. 95% is the magic number to be able to qualify for the federal tax rebate. I plan to keep looking into this, because getting 30% back from the gov't would be a nice change rather then always giving them 30%.

2. After reading lots of websites, I am convinced that a radiant tube heater is the next best thing after in floor heat.

3. My garage works out to about 700 sq feet. 700 sq feet appears to be right on the cut off point from 40,000 to 50,000 BTU's for a radiant heater. If I step up from the 40,000 size to the 50,000 size (which I feel like I need) the length gets long. In fact the lenght becomes an issue as I need to be able to clear the door when fully open, clear a lot of 4 foot light fixtures and I store my 16' 6" kayak from pullies against the ceiling. Truthfully moving the kayak (not sure where it would go) and putting a tube heater in that space is about the only place that makes sense and gives me enough room. Nice thing is the kayak hangs across the front of the garage and that is where my work bench is and where the front end of a car is on the lift.

4. Nobody that I called and spoke with stocks tube heaters, they all have to wait for them to come out of a warehouse and that is anywhere from 7-14 days. Then I have to install it, which looks to be a decent length job. As I would need to move the gas line, electric and add a vent to the outside for the intake.

5. The blower fan was in stock at an appliance parts place about 3 miles from work and was only $126 bucks.

So my current plan: I picked up the new motor tonight after work, started tearing down the furnace (keep in mind I am working 10-13 feet in the air) and got the old motor out. The entire furnace is so dusty (previous owner did a lot of body work and everything inside is covered in bondo dust) that I had to take everything to the basement to wash it piece by piece. So right now I am waiting for everything to dry so I can reassemble. Which probably will not happen till tomorrow after work. Assuming I get the furnace back working and everything checks out ok. I am going to do some research and call some actual HVAC places and see if I get a pro or two to come out and give me some advice and a quote for just having them install a tube heater at some point next summer.

I am having a waste oil heater built for me, no moving parts and only $350 to purchase, I also have a very powerful factory fan that should spread the heat throughout the area. The fan should only run for about 10 minutes, but time will tell.

This unit is a gravity feed system with a valve to reduce or increase the amount of fuel to raise or lower the heat.

In addition I have an old oil heater barrel, that I need to clean out, then the used oil will be stored there, run a gravity feed to the heater and another tap to control the flow.

If it works I will store enough oil through the year to have free heat all Winter.

Oh I have 12' ceilings, and a floor area about 40' x 60', in this room.

aussiesmg wrote: I am having a waste oil heater built for me, no moving parts and only $350 to purchase...

Are you going to be giving more details??

What aussiesmg is describing sounds a lot like vintage kerosene heaters that used a regulator to drip into a pan in a combustion chamber, It required manually lighting it, but worked pretty well. The trick was figuring out how much flow you needed to have the right amount of heat. If you set one too high and didn't watch it could burn down the place.

We looked into waste oil heaters... the problem can be how much oil they burn... typically around 1gal/8 hrs... so they are good for a full-time garage that does oil changes... or you are in a situation where you can get a consistant supply of waste oil... but unless I want to start changing oil for free for all of our friends, it just isn't practical for us. Despite the 6 running cars we have, we only have to change the oil in them during an entire year to supply oil to heat the garage for maybe a few days... much of that thanks to the 3 gallons in the sump of my Cummins...

but could a waste oil heater be converted to veggie oil?

mad_machine wrote: but could a waste oil heater be converted to veggie oil?

I believe they can.

Google Mother Earth News Oil Heater or similar for a good design.

-James

Canoe heating?

raised from the dead 6 months later for a canoe?

Platinum90 wrote: raised from the dead 6 months later for a canoe?

Thankfully the canoes aren't all that smart. It makes them easier to eliminate.

20Ver, you never said what you had access to. Is the one that burned out an electrical heater or some other media?

I had a wood furnace, too labor intensive. By the time I got the 24 X 42 X 11 high garage warmed up, I got nothing done because I was baby sitting a fire. I replaced that with a 50,000 btu propane unit. Propane tends to give headaches but I'm starting to like it. If I were smart I would have run a natural gas line from the house when I ran the electrical.

A coworker just built a garage and put gas fired hot water piping in the poured concrete floor, don't know what that system is called, but it works well. It takes a while to heat things up, but once up to temp it stays quite nice.

What are your preferences, what's available for fuel?

Dan