What are you using to heat your garage?

[woodwright]

go talk to a few heating and AC shops. Sometimes people upgrade their furnace and you can get the old ones pretty cheep. Then all you gotta do is wire it and mount a thermstat on it. They will pretty easily keep a 6000' house toasty warm. Alot of the builders and painters around here do that cause the AC guys won't turn on the house furnace until the house is done. Paint doesn't like to dry when its 2 degrees in the house. I'm hoping I can do this soon.

[Senator350]

i have a large 2-car. uninsulated. it get's into the negative digits where i live.

i use a 115,000 bullet type (salamander) multi-fuel heater. and i run an inline whip thermostat to keep it from being 100+ degrees inside the garage.

i run jet-a or kero to keep the carbon out of my lungs

[Sillyoldman]

I have two kereseone heaters. Smell bad when you turn them off, but pretty much heat my space.

[chip46wis]

Overhead type 80.000 btu propane furnace and wood backup,although the wood takes a couple of hours the stove and wood were free.Honestly when it gets below 10 above here I dont even try to heat it with the price of propane here.$2.49 on pre-pay

[BarryB]

I have a 24 by 28 attached to the house. I have been using a 55,000 btu kerosene heater. I am going to try and put in a woodstove this year. I am hoping I could leave the door open and let the heat from the stove radiate into the house and help with the heating bill. Since the air return is fairly close to the door going out into the garage

[463]

i am useing 3 - 5kw electric construction heaters. one is set to maintain 40f and the other 2 work on demand. the shop is 26'x26' with a 10' wall 2 10x8 o/h doors that are rated r14, walls are r20 ceiling is r40. the temp will go as cold as -45 f in the dead of winter. the shop will on ave warm up from 40f to 60f in the 2 hr range. when i built the shop i had planned on a max heat nat gas but in 2003-4 gas jumped 2x so i went with the electric. this way there is no open flame to give me a surprise. here is a pic with the xmas lights. yes the burnt out bulb is changed ok.

[NONHOG]

Do you check The Garage Journal ? lots of threads on this subject. I am still thinking what to do myself . I may try to find an old "take out" home furnace .
Most installers sell them. (around 100$ )
This winter I will tough it out , hat gloves etc.

[corn]

I have 2 old 5000watt 220 electrics that do a pretty nice job & a 60,000BTU LBWhite if the electrics wont do it. I have a 24X22 garage. I only used the propane heater twice all last winter & we have real cold winters.

[lyrikz]

Originally Posted by Senator350

i have a large 2-car. uninsulated. it get's into the negative digits where i live.

i use a 115,000 bullet type (salamander) multi-fuel heater. and i run an inline whip thermostat to keep it from being 100+ degrees inside the garage.

i run jet-a or kero to keep the carbon out of my lungs

You have a picture of what that looks like?

Originally Posted by Sillyoldman

I have two kereseone heaters. Smell bad when you turn them off, but pretty much heat my space.

So, its ok to use a kereseone burner in the garage, but not propane? Can i run a propane heater on kerosene?

Originally Posted by BarryB

I have a 24 by 28 attached to the house. I have been using a 55,000 btu kerosene heater. I am going to try and put in a woodstove this year. I am hoping I could leave the door open and let the heat from the stove radiate into the house and help with the heating bill. Since the air return is fairly close to the door going out into the garage

Pics of said heater, or a link to what your running...

Im not worried about me being warm. I just need the area to be warm for an hour or two so i can warm up my metal, lay some paint and get out. ahaha

[fastwillie 696969]

i just waited until i went back in the house and warm up by the black headed creature that kept breathing down my neck ,your spending to much time in that dam garage ,you dont fix anything in here,blah blah blah
im toasty now

[BarryB]

here's a pic of something similar. I also have a home made thermostat made up. Set it on 65-70 runs about ten minutes until it shuts off, then on and off while I am out there working.

[lyrikz]

Originally Posted by BarryB

here's a pic of something similar. I also have a home made thermostat made up. Set it on 65-70 runs about ten minutes until it shuts off, then on and off while I am out there working.

Thats one of those things that say dont use indoors right? I wanted to get one.

Can you run that on kerosene and its safer???

[RunninLo]

I've been using Propane to heat my garages for 12 years not a single problem.( have 2 Co2/gas moniters @ opposite ends of the shop) My first one was a torpedo that was way to much for my first single car garage. I then got a double element radiant that sit on top of the cyl. like the one pictured but bigger. Last two years I've had to run both since the garage remodel (from small two car 24x25x8 to 36x48x12) This summer I aquired a free kerosene torpedo that has been running diesel(??? that's what was in it been working ok) and I've used it two or three times. About 6-10 feet in front it's too hot, about 15 feet is t-shirt and the whole shop is livable. I will eventully try to go natural gas but that's a few years down the road. Drywallin in my ceiling instead of open trusses to the sheeting will help too.

[NONHOG]

FWIW I know your aware of safety concerns with a fuel burning (non vented)
heater but I wonder about the fact you want to paint. Won't the moisture from the exhaust be an issue with painting ? ? ?

[lyrikz]

Originally Posted by NONHOG

FWIW I know your aware of safety concerns with a fuel burning (non vented)
heater but I wonder about the fact you want to paint. Won't the moisture from the exhaust be an issue with painting ? ? ?

My plans are heat the garage up, then shut the heat off and paint. I havent had any problems in the past when we did that method in my buddys shop. I have a radiant heater that puts out 5000btus. Im going to run it for an hour or 2 and see what it does... I just need it about 60 degrees, maybe a tad warmer...

Runninlo, you ran a propane heater in the garage? The bullet type? If i wore a respirator you think that would be a problem. Like i stated before, i plan on runnin it for an hour, gettin the temmp up nice and high, then painting. So i have no problem of wearing a respirator.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

I run a propane heater but I set it up and open the small side door a little and I crack the garage door get it warm and then shut it off I also shut off the pilot light...

[RunninLo]

Originally Posted by lyrikz

My plans are heat the garage up, then shut the heat off and paint. I havent had any problems in the past when we did that method in my buddys shop. I have a radiant heater that puts out 5000btus. Im going to run it for an hour or 2 and see what it does... I just need it about 60 degrees, maybe a tad warmer...

Runninlo, you ran a propane heater in the garage? The bullet type? If i wore a respirator you think that would be a problem. Like i stated before, i plan on runnin it for an hour, gettin the temmp up nice and high, then painting. So i have no problem of wearing a respirator.

yes I believe it's a small 15,000 BTU torpedo that runs off a tank like on a BBQ, Same with my double burner radiant. first garage was maybe 10x15 with a small roll-up door. A full size car might squeeze in but my 4WD were too tall. only issue I ever had was as the tank got near empty the low pressure woulld result in a slight odor similar to raw propane. You do want to blow them out occasionally with air to keep the dust out. the dust can build up and be burned off resulting in fumes but you would get that with any hot surface. I've done just about anything you can do to a car using these heaters. ( turn open flame heaters OFF before spraying flammables!)
I'm really liking the new torpedo but it leaves a slight odor of the deisel. It says Kerosene or #1 Fuel Oil but not sure where to get either of those here. as I mentioned before it will heat my 1780 sq. ft. shop with no insulation, 12 ft ceiling ( 17 ft to peak), and 3 BIG doors ( 2 10x10 1 16x7) to comfortable in about 5 mins.

One word of caution..... Ventilation/ fresh air is your friend. Just recently a board member posted about a father/son that died by using a heater in an enclosed car hauler trailer, and I have heard of campers using coleman style gas lanterns and stoves for heat and asphyxiating themselves. That is why those heaters are not rated for indoor use. MY rules are:
1) never work alone ( this goes for heat, jackstands , anything that can get you. if I must be in the garage alone I'll text my wife a LOT and she has sent people to check on me if I forget.
2) vetillate, my current situation has plenty of air flow even with the doors closed. I'll re-evaluate after the interior is better insulated/finished
3) if you feel anything like a headache, suddenly tired, dizzy GO OUTSIDE and get a fresh breath. so far I have never had thhis happen. If it happens to you more ventilation is likely needed.

Good luck and Saftey first.

Josh

[glock35ipsc]

* 100,000 btu shop heater: $100 used.
* Convert from natural gas to propane: 1 bottle Michelob Ultra.
* Time to heat 1200 sq/ft shop: < 10 minutes until t-shirt time.

Shown to the right of the cab.

[slomotion]

I use a Miller trailer furnace to keep the shop above 40deg when I'm not out there, but use an old wood stove with a built in fan when I am. I used to be worried about the rattle cans, varnish, and paints that I use, but built a cabinet for that stuff, and keep a 70 watt bulb burning all the time, that keeps the locker at a constant 60 deg.

[lyrikz]

Originally Posted by glock35ipsc

* 100,000 btu shop heater: $100 used.
* Convert from natural gas to propane: 1 bottle Michelob Ultra.
* Time to heat 1200 sq/ft shop: < 10 minutes until t-shirt time.

Shown to the right of the cab.

Where did you get the shop heater from for 100 bucks?

[Spray-Bomb]

Originally Posted by DirtyLarry

Did you vent it like it says you have to ???
It just seems to me that it would waste a lot of heat to vent it

[glock35ipsc]

Originally Posted by lyrikz

Where did you get the shop heater from for 100 bucks?

I bought it from the owner of the company I work for. He replaced this one with a radiant heater.

[hdflstf]

Open the garage door. Move the 'cars' out. Shop is not ready and warm enough.

[lyrikz]

Sorry to bring this back, but i bought a 5000 btu heater.. SUCKS HORRIBLY.... It was 39 freakin degrees in my garage yesterday.... That wont cut it.. With the bullet propane heaters, how can i use that without killing myself?? Its a two car garage, insulated, but no heat in there.

If i fire up the bullet, then get it up to 60 or 70 or so, then open the doors to air it out, there goes all the heat right???

[glock35ipsc]

Yikes, 5000 btu's is only good to heat about 100 -125sq/ft. You would need around 20,000 - 22,000 btu's for a 20' x 20' area.