Garage questions.........heat source

If it is a hanging radiant unit than I think they suck ,you only feel the heat when you are exposed to the unit ,walk to the back of the car with the heater in the front and it will be cold.I just don't like them ,if it is radiant in the floor than DO IT . I have a forced hot air unit it works good and it was cold last winter ,,,it is still cold
DAVID

 

I agree .... get a forced air unit and over size it one step. That way you can get the room up to temp in a short order.

 

In various homes I've tried the following:
- Tank-mounted propane infrared heaters
- Salamander-style kerosene units
- Vent-free natural gas wall-mount
- Ceiling-mounted forced air furnace

The latter is definitely the best of the bunch. I've owned two home with Reznor forced-air units suspended from the garage ceiling. See: http://www.rezspec.com/index.php?pageid=000000000007&mod_catalog[catid]=000000000035&mod_catalog[category]=000000000001&mod_catalog[mode]=detail

I wouldn't waste my money on any other solution if you live in a cold climate. You just set the thermostat and forget about it.

 

if your starting from scratch put radiant heat in the concrete slab.....I know someone who hooked to the hot water line on the circulator for there house hold water there gagage stays 60 degrees year round. His thought is the water is constanly circulating for the house hold water why utilize it for heat source.

 

I use a pair of propane radient units, 30K BTU each. 2 car garage with high cathedral ceiling. Ceiling fan up high.

PRO: They heat the garage up fast, starting from down around freezing to generally usable in a couple of hours, warm in 4-5 hours. Takes a long time to get that concrete floor slab warmed up.

But, one of thems pointed more or less towards my workbench, can work comfortably almost immediately after lighting it up.

The ceiling fan helped a lot.
The radient heaters (or other unvented type heaters) are 100% efficient. All their combustion heat goes into the garage.

CON: Radient heaters (also other unvented type heaters) the combustion products go into the garage. Propane or natural gas burns very clean, just H20 & CO2. So fumes per se aren't a problem.

Infrequently the H20 likes to condense out on metal surfaces obscured from the heat while the garage is quite cold & warming up. Infrequently noticed some condensation on the bottom of the car when it was up on the lift & garage was down around freezing when I started warming it up.

Doesn't seem to be a problem as long as I keep the temp up above freezing. Every couple of hours I open the garage door for 5 minuites which freshens the air & gets rid of moisture, etc.

Am sitting on the fence as to installing a heat exchanger type hanging garage heater.
PRO: No condensation, could hook up to house propane line.

CON: Only about 80% efficient, Would take a while to warm garage enough to work anywhere in it as entire garage heats up together uniformly.

Best would probably be a apartment style high efficiency propane forced hot air furnace with some stragicly routed ducting. With about 6" of insulation in the garage walls. Probably would do this if I were building a garage.