The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest How do you heat your garage?

I don't know where to post this so here goes. It is simple question, how do you heat your garage with the possible combustables?

Just wanted to know how you heat your garage???
Rick..

Heat? A garage with heat??? I'm not that fortunate. I have a 100 lb. propane bottle with a double head heater that I put where I'll be working. It actually works quite well.

I just put on an insulated coverall.

you need heat in Texas?? wimp
wear carharts and keep movin

Bill

I use a gas furnace robbed from a house.

i use a coal stove with a little blower on it. $300 for two tons which lasts from nov to late april. i haul it and store it in my big bolt dump. when the truck is empty winters over and time to haul in a load of stone to fix the drive from snow plowing. the garage on average is maintained @60. during the late spring and early fall if need be i can burn wood in it to either take the chill off or lower the humidty. i keep all combustibles away from the stove. i paint with spray bombs at the other end of the shop and hang painted parts off door tracks or close to the heat for quick drying time. should i need a fire extingusher i a dry chem and a co2 mounted on the ashton and a pressurized water can sitting between the front doors.

Garbage can heater from Northern Tools. Gets the shop warm in a hurry. About $100.

Chris

Un hook the dryer vent,BEWARE- (upsets) the women when it's running full blast and nothing's inside!



Don J

if I were in San Tone I would not worry about it..
your right,this post is in the wrong place

51 ashton,thank you for your post as it made me smile. I remember my grandfather cussin the coal company for RAISING the rate to 30$ a ton for coal!!

In floor radiant heat, propane fired boiler.

Too many of you don't have the problem. Remember Tempest?
She had cold till july 4th

Wood fired boiler from Central Boiler. Combustion is 120 feet from the shop. It's 70 degrees at all times and the lack of humidity isn't a problem, it doesn't burn the air within the shop,
Scott

In my Dads garage (where I rebuilt the '55 and the '48 8N now resides) we have an old coal stove that came out of the hose my Dad lived in when he was a kid. Grandpa kept it when he sold the house, and had it tucked away in the barn at the farm he lived on. We burn wood in it.
In my garage, I have a 5000 watt electric barn heater, which is way overkill for a 28x32 garage, but it works and I got it cheap!

I have one of those cheap double 55 gal drum wood stove kits and it works really well.
It sits kind of in the middle of the machine shop and I leave the door open between the shop and house, and if I want the garage warm I leave the door open between shop and garage. It will get to be about 70 in the shop and 68 or so in the house, and something a little cooler in the garage, which is just fine for working.

Otherwise pulling the warm car in the garage and closing the door knocks the chill off a little.
Also have one of those big gray cube shaped propane heaters hanging in the corner of the garage, only ever used it once to see if it worked, the wood stove does a great job so far.

Grigg

I close the doors ,put on a jacket and turn on the propane Mr.Heater for 15 minutes .My 100 lb bottle will last at least 2 years rarely have to use it here in Tx .A/C would be the really nice luxury here besides my fan.

Well I just had a new garage built this summer and I'm still moving in. It's tall - 14' so I can put in a lift, so I was worried about heat. Bought an Eden Pure heater - infra-red, so heater does not get hot, but on lowest setting has kept it very comfortable all winter, and it's been cold - and wet. It's just a small portable thing - on wheels and I'm amazed at how effective and how safe it is. Dale

People with wood burners in your garage, I would go and talk to your insurance people. Around here if your garage catches fire and you have a wood burner, guess what????? You're not covered.

I have a car port, so I cant help you there,...
However! Lately our whole base has been converting the aircraft hangar heating systems to radiant tube heaters. Basicly long tubes with reflectors above them, they have a natural gas burner every 30' or so and an exhaust fan at the end blows it outside. No interior ignition source so you dont have to worry about combustible fumes anyway. They dont heat the air, but the objects in the line of sight of the heater wich in turn heat the air. Works like a champ, can get the in several different sizes as well.
Here's a pretty decent sized one from Northern Tool:
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200455636_200455636

I heat it with wood. A big huge wood fire right inside Herby, my nickname for this wood burning SS outside stove....a Hardy.

The hardy heats water which is fed underground to the house and the shop to a coil in a air handler, then it's forced air.

An added plus is that it also heats the house water prior to going thru the water heater, which cuts back on energy to heat water.

The downside....I have to go get the wood and split it.
Dan

This is what I use.
www.rezspec.com/catalog-vr.html

I don't have any heat right now, but have been looking at diesel powered radiant heaters they just look like they would do a good job, but they are kind of pricey.
I worked in a shop with the gas overhead radiant tube heaters, they work great, the only thing that was annoying was the noise from the stainless steel reflectors forever expanding and contracting every time it warmed up and cooled down, it was really annoying.

I use my 60-watt shop light. No CFL in that puppy.

Got a mr. Heater propane set up from amazon. Puts out 80,000 btu& use a twenty pound cylinder. Works great so far keeps it around fifty on colder days. Cost was a hundred bucks.

Mine is sheetrocked and insulated. The apartment overhead is heated, I've never seen it drop below 52 in the garage underneath, with outside temps in the teens. In the 50's, moving around working and it feels fine. If i'm just standing around I have a small jet propane heater--haven't used all of a tank in 10 years.

Harder part around here is cooling in the summer, I've got a 2400BTU 220V window AC that I cut a whole in the wall for. It works pretty good.

I needed a new furnace for the house,so I took the old one and put it in the corner of my shop. I live in the Mtns. so I tee'ed off my propane tank and ran a line to the shop. vented the heater stack, and used a 12" open tube at ceiling level.
It doesn't snow here but being near the cost and living in the wettest area in ca. I need this heater.
It works almost too well...being made for a 2800 sq. ft home and being stuffed into a 800 sq. ft shop. I'ts only one for about 5 minutes before I either have to turn it off or work in my BVD's . I choose to turn it off due to scaring the wildlife when they pass by the shop windows.
It was very easy to set up, just find a home thats getting torn down or contact a furnace company to get one that still works but the person wanted an updated version. Alot easier to go the wall and slide a switch to get the room to 70 than carry and store wood Oh yea Ashes too.
Nothing worse than cracking a knuckle when its cold. I can remember the days of wrenching on my back in the cold on the driveway..only warmth was the lightbulb near my head so I could see..

Take Care and have a Great Holiday

I have radiant floor heating in the shop. I use a propane fired 40 gallon hot water heater to heat the water. I keep the shop at 60 degrees.

John Gott

I used to heat my shop with a natural gas furnace,but it got too expensive.I now have a wood burning stove in my shop which works out very well.Get up early in the morning,then go out there and get a fire going.Come back in the house for coffee and breakfast,and back out to the shop where it is getting nice and warm.Works for me.Oh yeah and I buy slab wood from a local saw mill,so it is pretty cheap to heat with.

Wall unit Ac/Heat 220V sized for 1,000 SF, garage only 720 SF. in about 15 minutes chilli s gone, and in 30 it t-shirt waether (except laying on the concrete floor)

Reverbaray Infrared overhead Natural gas heater....

only problem it has at that it heats the truck up, not the cold concrete under the truck....

It's hard to beat a radiant in floor heat. You can open the doors and after you close them the whole floor is a giant radiator and warms the shop back up in minutes. Your feet always stay warm too.

I use a Glenwood Parlor stove casted in 1899, I burn Anthracite coal in it ..it is ALWAYS TOASTY in the shop.

i have been thinking about this NOW THAT WINTER IS HERE! been making it good so far. i prob spend about 5 or 6 hours every day in my shop, even longer if it's a day off. i hate the thought of heating it up and leaving about the time it gets warm (i work 2nd shift). i like wood heat but don't want to fire it up then leave. don't want to spend a fortune either. i have a propane heater with a big blower on it i have used in the past before i built this shop. i am only 3 sheets away from getting the ceiling done and then i will insulate up there.
i want to get that done before i try to heat it. the joy of working on a budget, i bet noone else has to do that! this is only my 2nd year in the new building and i still am enjoying just being dry and out of the mud. i guess i will wait till the new wears off that to wory about being warm.

I am really lucky that I have two 180,000 BTU radiant propane heaters I got when this plant was being dismantled. You can work out in the open and be nice in toasty. Just keep it about 5'from you and if you work inside it takes about 10 minutes and you shut it off. If you run it 8hrs. a day the seven gallon tanks last a week which is not too bad. Most tanks will last me about 30 to 40 days. I haven't filled up my tanks this last year as my Sinus Infection I had made feel tired from the meds I was taking.
62Blue
Don

I use a 30,000 BTU space heater but would rather have a wood stove. My shop is 30x40 pole building with R9 insulation, no ceiling with a 6/12 pitch roof so it takes a while to move the thermometer.

I getting a 95% efficiency furnace put in the house. I'm considering putting the old furnace in the garage. The big downside is having to run a gas line to the garage.

i guess i'm just too tight, but i hate the thoughts of heating the garage with propane or natural gas. i know the price on both will have to go up again and i don't want to stuck payin' fer it. i don't mind supplimenting with it but i don't want no $200 heatin' bills for the garage!

Ok here is free energy to heat garage
1. Invite 3 politicians to garage
2. Get em started on an argument
3. Put on earmuffs to save on the noise (get ones with radio in em)
4. After about 20 minute go to work.
5. When done working tell em to leave.

Dan Bentler