What I'm doing to my Garage...anyone else done this?

[ChevyDude]

Hey Guys...My 3 car garage which is my shop so to speak is freezing cold in the winter, I live in Colorado and our house faces north. So after doing some research I have decided to get the garage heated. The best way to heat it from what I have found is Detroit Radiant Infered. It is a 3-4" diameter tube that hangs from the ceiling and runs for 20' in length centered in the 3 car garage. I am told it is the cats me-ow for heating shops. Anyway my heating guy is installing it this next coming week or the week after depending on his schedule. Maybe then I can get out there and do some work on my truck. Anyone else done this to there shop or garage?

[REPO1]

We have this in the shop I work at. We have one on each side of the shop running the length of the shop. The shop is about 30' X 50' It has been down to -40 F here this winter and the shop is nice and toasty.

The cool thing about the overhead radiant heaters is that it dries the floor up real quick.

Recovery time is a bit slower if you were to have the large bay door open for whatever reason, but still the best bang for the buck in my opinion.


Also around here I would say that at least 30-40% of places use them with no problems.

[67cst]

we also have one at work running down the center of the shop, they really pump out the heat well, and like repo says they dry the floors up good too

[gonebad2]

Something to think about if you work in your garage with the doors and windows closed for a long period of time is carbon monoxide. Since those have no heat exchanger they are a direct fire unit and vent carbon monoxide directly into the living space. If you start to smell aldyhydes ( kind of smells like a diesel bus ) open a door or window for some fresh air. I prefer a suspended unit heater with forced air. They have a heat exchanger and vent the exhaust outside. Plus, they are usually cheaper to run. You could easily use a 40,000 btu unit. It will cost about the same as a water heater to run. Reznor makes some really nice units.

[REPO1]

Originally Posted by gonebad2

Something to think about if you work in your garage with the doors and windows closed for a long period of time is carbon monoxide. Since those have no heat exchanger they are a direct fire unit and vent carbon monoxide directly into the living space. If you start to smell aldyhydes ( kind of smells like a diesel bus ) open a door or window for some fresh air. I prefer a suspended unit heater with forced air. They have a heat exchanger and vent the exhaust outside. Plus, they are usually cheaper to run. You could easily use a 40,000 btu unit. It will cost about the same as a water heater to run. Reznor makes some really nice units.

As for the carbon monozide, these are the safest units out there. They blow the heated air into the tube the runs the entire length, then at the other end it goes directly outside. It doesn't let any of the warmed air, (or burnt nat. gas fumes) escape into the building. Thus the radiant idea. The tube is heated on the inside of it, and radiates the heat from the tube downward via the reflectors. There is 0 carbon monoxide. If you are getting any, the installer did something wrong, or you have a leaking tube or no exhaust at the other end, outside of the building.

[Sooner1970_K10]

Heat rises? If a heater is hanging from the ceiling wouldnt a large percentage of the heat go directly into the rafters? Does this mean you need to insulate your roof well? I assume this is an electric radiant heat not steam? I realize I am being slightly critical but I want to find out the facts. If this happens to be a better method of heating I will use it when I build my shop in another month or so. I had been planning on using some type of compact wood brickette stove.

[REPO1]

Of course any time you are heating an area, the entire place needs to be insulated, including the roof area. Also when installing radiant heat it is a good idea to install a couple of ceiling fans to push the warm air down and keep the air circulating inside the building.

[gonebad2]

I think he would be using Natural Gas or Propane.

[67ChevyC10Stepside]

my garage is old and crappy.....so i was looking to just use a turbo heater....how do i figure out what size i need? it's a 2 stall split in the center so i only need to heat one side. with my truck in there there is enough room for me to walk around one side the back and the front but that's about it.

[gonebad2]

There is never 100% complete combustion. You said "it runs the entire length, then at the other end it goes directly outside". That would be the vent to let the exhaust out. I have not seen this type of radiant heater. I wonder how that type of radiant heater works with no heat exchanger.

[Rollie396]

Radiant heaters are very common in garages and shops here.Like was mentioned,there is no exposed flame and no CO release.They work very well,but I agree that ceiling fans are a good idea to help push the heat down and spread it through the shop as there is a noticable drop in temp the further away from the source you get (stands to reason).
One thing that I have been told by dealers (this is argued by some owners though) is that you must have at least 10' ceilings in order to run radiant.They claim that any lower you will run the risk of damaging the finish on vehicles .

[Steven Sellers]

The one we have at work is propane, we have 2 pipes, one on each side but ours are at least 3" diameter. They work well however as somebody pointed out, when we open our doors to bring in the big rigs it takes a few minutes to heat back up. We have I believe a 100' X 40' bldg It is a Rubber building kinda looks like a tent so it has no insulation and it holds up pretty well

[classicchev]

just a note, a little advice, find one that has a sealed combustion chamber, this will take fresh air from outside and not any interior air. Cool thig is you can leave your heat on when you a working with combustables. I sprayed my truck in the garage in Febuary using this system, works awesome. JM2C Darren

[69moneypit]

THIS METHOD FOR HEAT IS OLD AND SIMPLE MY SHOP ONLY CAN FIT THREE CARS INSIDE WITH NO TOOLS,REFRIG OR ETC. What I do is whatever car I plan on working on I pull inside several hours ahead of time . If I plan on working on my truck before I leave for work i pull the truck inside and close the shop doors. my great grandma gave me a huge woodburning stove and i simply load it down with oak and it keeps the whole building warm. Also I have three wall mounted natural gas for backup to help warm the place up if I have to open the doors. the stove works well becuse of the amount of OAk trees in the area.

[donkey69]

ChevyDude- those infrarred tube heaters are the way to go if you've got the headroom. Don't know about the Detroit models,but the Reznor units take outside air to burn and exit out the sidewall or roof if you want-as mentioned above...... The tube heaters heat objects, not the air....like the sun.
just my two cents

[ChevyDude]

I have done the research! The Detroit Radiant and it's competitor CO-RAY-VAC are the best for heating a shop. My ceiling height is over 10' so I will have no problems. Carbon Mono is not and issue because the tube vents to the outside of the building on one end and takes in clean air from the other side. I will post some pics when the install is complete. I was told because they are radiant if you leave a wrench on the floor it will become warm and so will the frame of a truck or anything else that is in the garage. A friend here that has it says he leaves it set at 45 degrees and after it has be on for a bit the garage become about 60 degrees from heating up the objects in the garage.

[ljbear]

Originally Posted by ChevyDude

I have done the research! The Detroit Radiant and it's competitor CO-RAY-VAC are the best for heating a shop

I have to agree with ChevyDude, I'm doing a 3000 square foot shop with slab and the Radiant is the way to go. I have 1500 square feet now with the Reznor heaters and they work fine. The temp seems to go from too warm when it's running to almost too cool when it's cycled off, and the noise from it gets old. I looked into a full hydronic system with boiler, but the recovery time and initial start up are too slow for this kind of application. Here's a link that explains the system better, http://www.reverberray.com/theory.html

[SweetandLong68]

Hey,

This is what I have in my 20x40 shop. On the very lowest setting it keeps the shop at a comfortable working temp of 60 degrees all the time. It is propane fired and works pretty nicely. I never would have thought that something that is so small would work so well. But it does...

Here is a couple of pics of the shop.

lata
CHRIS

[70 shorty]

I was in the tire side of the local Costco last night and that must have been what they were using to heat the area. It was a tube suspended from the ceiling. It definitley gave off some serious heat standing direclty under it.

[purple gas]

One good thing about radiant heaters is less worry about flamable vapors. Because the flame is in a tube on the cieling the chances of starting a fire are reduced greatly. Here in the Great White North nearlly everyone uses them. They install easily ( less labour charges) they are extreamly efficient ( lower heating bills) there's no fan ( less dust blowing around) the down side is if it is cold and you leave the door open for a while it takes a little longer to warm back up again. The up side is, as mentioned above, they "radiate" and warm up all the stuff. Great way to go. There are codes as to how high a cieling you need but that varies by jurisdiction.

[StingRay]

Here with a radiant heater you have to have 5 or 6 feet of clearance to any object that may be in the garage (including vehicles). Unless you corner mount at a wall cieling junction it's impossible to use them here in a building under about 12 feet in height. Best to check your building codes. I ended up with a unit heater because of this.

[classicchev]

Hey Sweet, cool Bug. Do we have another aircooled freaks here. I have 2 a 69 and a 55. Porsche Brembos on ALL corners, 18" turbo twists to cover the brakes. Got to get the 72finished first before I continue with the Bugs.

Darren

[SweetandLong68]

Originally Posted by classicchev

Hey Sweet, cool Bug. Do we have another aircooled freaks here. I have 2 a 69 and a 55. Porsche Brembos on ALL corners, 18" turbo twists to cover the brakes. Got to get the 72finished first before I continue with the Bugs.

Darren

Hey Darren,

Thanks for the good word...Yeah I have always loved VWs. Then I found stroker motors! hahah

I am in the same boat as you...Right now my 63 Ragtop is sitting on Jackstands waiting for me to finish my 71 C-10. It is moving along pretty nicely now and I am getting that VW bug 'bug' again!

Here are a couple of pics....One of the stroker motor that I built...2074cc with Weber IDA carbs...Around about 130hp or so....And then a pic of what the car will look like when it is done....

lata
CHRIS

[rodnok1]

Radiant heaters are excellent for larger shops. In my small garage I have a wall mounted a/c / heater like you have in hotels. Since the cold isn't a huge deal in NC but the humidy and heat when you're welding will kill ya I went with this type. In my new shop I plan on putting about 4 of them in at workbench height, and using partitions of some sort to limit what I heat/cool. Probably use a roll down canvas. I have picked up the ac/heat unit for less than 100 bucks on clearance. Wanted to go this route so when I am painting I can heat/cool paint area, turn off, paint and turn bcak on and still have heat/ac in rest of shop.

[Brainchild]

We have a wood heater in the shop.It's huge,no lie.Prolly 3 feet across,and 5 feet tall,with a blower in the back.Sure will put out some heat,but loves to burn wood too.