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Garage Heaters

10K views 23 replies 15 participants last post by  Clay's70 
#1 ·
Hi everyone....I have a very large 2 car garage, un-insulated up here in upstate New York. I want to put a heater in it so I can work on my toys. I have natural gas out there, and 220. When I got the house 8 years ago, there was an old heater (fan) in there, bigger than a refrigerator, and it leaked, could smell gas all the time, so I took it out to the curb, and went in my basement and turned off the gas. Id like to get one that hangs from the joists, but I dont know how big, or natural gas, or infareds.....The size is the main thing. Its un-insulated, no flooring on the ceiling joists, wide open up to the roof....Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks.....
 
#2 ·
Man I just hook a central heating in my shop a couple day's ago.I asked my AC man to be on the look out for one that he replace's..He called me and said come get it... :D Boy that thing make's my shop very nice inside..No more working in a cold shop... :nono: The best thing about it it was ''FREE''.... :thumbup: :thumbup:

mine is open too... :)
 
#3 ·
Here's shot of the Modine "Hot Dawg" I have in my 2 car shop (up in the corner). I believe it is the 45,000 BTU unit and it was about $450 shipped to my door. Check out the web for the best prices.

However, if you are going to be spending any amount of time out there in cold weather, I think you are money way ahead by investing in some batt insulation and then covering the walls with some inexpensive drywall or fiberboard. For a ceiling I'd recommend the metal they sell for pole barns or metal roofs. You can see it on the ceiling in my picture.

 
#4 ·
cboy said:
Here's shot of the Modine "Hot Dawg" I have in my 2 car shop (up in the corner). I believe it is the 45,000 BTU unit and it was about $450 shipped to my door. Check out the web for the best prices.

However, if you are going to be spending any amount of time out there in cold weather, I think you are money way ahead by investing in some batt insulation and then covering the walls with some inexpensive drywall or fiberboard. For a ceiling I'd recommend the metal they sell for pole barns or metal roofs. You can see it on the ceiling in my picture.

How well do they work cboy? :confused: I was think about getting one at one time..
 
#8 ·
infer- red , watch your paint , to close and bubble or turn color
heat pump in new york , wow , thats a good one , it most likely run on emergency heat all the time with no insulation .
metal over insulation is the trick , it works better than dry wall or osb paneling .
i know , i've had both ,in same shop . quicker to heat and cool , your not trying to get the wall thickness heated .
like water with ice cubes in it , take longer to heat .your wall material is the cubes .
my shop burnt to ground and i built it back all metal walls this time .
plus you don't get mold or holes to repair like dry - wall .
 
#9 ·
With no insulation you are just going to throw money away. Invest in some insulation first then get a heater. If you are bare rafters/ceiling joist, even without insulation, you would benefit a little (not much though) by adding drywall to the ceiling. With the price of utilities today, I think the only way that I would try to heat an uninsulated area, would be with an airtight woodburner with a blower. Wood will be way cheaper than gas.
 
#10 ·
NEW INTERIORS said:
How well do they work cboy?
The Modines are fine, been around a long time. They do have their disadvantages just like any other heating system. The most obvious being you can't have it on when creating a lot of fumes in the shop (painting etc.). And they probably aren't the worlds most efficient heater. I've got a couple friends up here in the north woods who have the hydronic systems built into their shop floors and they are really like them. The big disadvantage there is they must be left on nearly all the time because they take so long to get heated up.

Bottom line, I consider Modines sort of the tried and true method of heating a shop. Reliable and relatively cost efficient. But I can certainly see the advantages of other systems as well.
 
#11 ·
cboy said:
The Modines are fine, been around a long time. They do have their disadvantages just like any other heating system. The most obvious being you can't have it on when creating a lot of fumes in the shop (painting etc.). And they probably aren't the worlds most efficient heater. I've got a couple friends up here in the north woods who have the hydronic systems built into their shop floors and they are really like them. The big disadvantage there is they must be left on nearly all the time because they take so long to get heated up.

Bottom line, I consider Modines sort of the tried and true method of heating a shop. Reliable and relatively cost efficient. But I can certainly see the advantages of other systems as well.

Thanks cboy.... :thumbup:
 
#12 ·
burnt olds said:
infer- red , watch your paint , to close and bubble or turn color
heat pump in new york , wow , thats a good one , it most likely run on emergency heat all the time with no insulation .
metal over insulation is the trick , it works better than dry wall or osb paneling .
i know , i've had both ,in same shop . quicker to heat and cool , your not trying to get the wall thickness heated .
like water with ice cubes in it , take longer to heat .your wall material is the cubes .
my shop burnt to ground and i built it back all metal walls this time .
plus you don't get mold or holes to repair like dry - wall .
do you have any pics of this? is there any worries at all using metal? prime and paint the metal etc.??
 
#14 ·
SWITCHCRAFT said:
sorry guys I found this post on an internet search and realized after I posted my reply that it is a 4 year old thread
What's the difference? You did your homework by finding this in a search, the thread has good info to start you up, and now you have a question. I say you've done everything right. :thumbup: It's not like it's an old thread where the guy is looking for lug nut bearings for his 1987 Maxwell and it was posted 8 years ago. :D Now let's see an answer, anyone? Dan
 
#15 ·
SWITCHCRAFT said:
do you have any pics of this? is there any worries at all using metal? prime and paint the metal etc.??
There are no worries by using all metal inside the garage JMO I have metal on my celing and going remove the old dry-wall and put metal on my walls aswell.
Not only easier to heat and cool as stated but it looks so much cleaner IMO
I have seen were most new garages / shops around here have went to all metal on the inside.
You don't have to do anything to the metal just cut it to fit and screw it down you will be using the same metal that will go on the outside also, It's all the same inside out. :thumbup: :cool:
Cole
 
#16 ·
Just a thought here, metal prices fluctuate greatly with needs across the world. At this time prices are fairly low and stable, rumors of another price increase abound. Buy this while prices are decent, maybe look into this a little further to be sure that my sources aren't blowing smoke.
 
#17 ·
dinger said:
What's the difference? You did your homework by finding this in a search, the thread has good info to start you up, and now you have a question. I say you've done everything right. :thumbup: It's not like it's an old thread where the guy is looking for lug nut bearings for his 1987 Maxwell and it was posted 8 years ago. :D Now let's see an answer, anyone? Dan

Thanks I wasn't sure what kind of replies I would get I know some people in forums can't stand it when a post is dug up form the grave...
 
#18 ·
thanks for all the help so far guys, what thickness is everyone using?

this is great news because my garage has insulation in it and the vapor barrier is on the walls and when I heard about this metal idea I thought it was genius!

I would assume you guys are priming and painting this metal also? or are you just using stainless?
 
#20 ·
thanks for all the help so far guys, what thickness is everyone using?

this is great news because my garage has insulation in it and the vapor barrier is on the walls and when I heard about this metal idea I thought it was genius!

I would assume you guys are priming and painting this metal also?
Ayuh,... Steel roofin'/ siding man...
All painted, just screw it up....
 
#21 ·
Heat with pellet stove

I recently put a wood pellet stove in my house. It is an old house, without central heat. The house was heated by a wood stove, in the living room, that my dad put a "not quite to code" natural gas burner in. I turned off the natural gas, it was unsafe. Very unsafe.
I have a horse boarding stable, and I was putting old fence boards inside one of the stalls to keep them dry, for firewood. The old boards ran out in mid November. I started to buy fire wood, that I would have to haul, then split, and then take in to the house, to burn.

I originally looked into replacing the wood stove with a modern natural gas stove, with code approved plumbing, but that would have required having a plumbing contractor come in, extensive modifications to the chimney, and the contractor to come in and install the stove, cost estimate around $4000.00.

I then started to look into a pellet stove. A pellet stove would not require gas line plumbing into the stove. I could just hook the exhaust of the pellet stove into the existing chimney.
 
#22 ·
The pellet stove was pretty easy to install. It is thermostatically controlled, and will go on by itself, without being lit, as long as it has pellets in it. It will hold about 60 pounds of pellets.

The total cost for the stove, and the accessories I needed to install it was about $2022.00 I have used about $220.00 in pellets, since 12/26/2010, and this was wrote on 02/03/2011. It has cost about $6.00 a day to run the pellet stove.

When I bought the stove, I picked it up myself, and also brought home 1000 pounds of pellets. I made one trip to buy another 2000 pounds of pellets in mid January, and that may last until the end of February, depending on the weather.

The pellet stove need a little maintenance. You have to clean out clinkers out of the fire pot every few days, and vacuum out the interior of the stove about once a week. there is a little more work, above that, but the cost to run the pellet stove is about the same as I was paying for firewood, in the old wood stove. And I do not have to buy wood, and split it every few days. The pellet stove runs all through the night, with out having to put more wood in it.

The pellet stove I got is rated to put out 8,000 to 30,000 BTUs/hour. It is rated to burn 1.5 to 4 pounds of pellets per hour. In addition to the thermostat control, it has a three speed switch for the feed rate of the pellets. It has a way of hooking up outside air to the combustion process, but in no way would I consider it explosion proof.

The Pellet stove cannot put a huge amount of heat in a short period of time, but if you turn it on early in the morning, It might be a good economical alternative to other sources of heat for a garage. The thermostat is just an on-off switch, and it would be very easy to get a thermostat with a timer that could turn on the stove early in the morning so the garage is warm when you want to work in it.
 
#23 ·
insulate, insulate, calk

When my wife built her cinder block 4 car garage at the Farm she super insulated, insulation fill for the cores in the block , no windows, insulated doors, Her late husband's brother owned an insulation company , she was up in the attic running the hose, her kids were supposed to be in the garage to relay info to the guy in the truck. When she got it 3 ft high she yelled fot the kids to have it stop. they had left and gone in the house, She got the whole truck load, about 5 ft high before the truck ran out of bags, She thought she would be smothered before she could dig out the access hole. That garage has a gas furnace and is nice to work in,
 
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