Garage Heating Advice Needed

[JoeF]

Does anyone have garage heating advice. I have been to a few plumbing supply places and I am getting conflicting advice.
I had thought I was just going to hang one of those unit heaters up in the corner that runs on natural gas and vents through the roof, but someone told me I could have problems with fumes from the cars. He suggested a closed system that pulls the air for the combustion from the outside. These closed system units were very expensive.
Someone else said the best way is to just get cieling radiator units that worked off the furnace in the basement, but the furnace I have is too small to do that.
I already have the natural gas line run to the garage, I have a line on a good used hanging unit, am I worrying too much about fumes from the cars?
JoeF

[Rot 911]

Originally posted by JoeF
I had thought I was just going to hang one of those unit heaters up in the corner that runs on natural gas and vents through the roof, but someone told me I could have problems with fumes from the cars. JoeF

I'm not sure what you mean by this? I find no problems with the unit heaters that vent to the outdoors. The only concern is making sure you don't have flammable fumes in the garage when the furnace ignites!

[paintinmotion]

the thing hangs from the ceiling and pumps out loads of warm air ... i use one up here in rural canada and believe me when i tell you it takes no time to warm up my 3 bay garage. the only drawback is that if you stand in front of the blower it dires out your eyeballs

[dean]

I think you would be fine with a unit heater. You could ask your building inspector to be sure.

[cab83_750]

I just bought a 30-dollar unit from Home Depot that attaches to a propane tank. It says use outdoors only.

Heck, if I die.........

[Rot 911]

Originally posted by cab83_750
I just bought a 30-dollar unit from Home Depot that attaches to a propane tank. It says use outdoors only.
Heck, if I die.........

And you will if your garage is small enough for the carbon monoxide to build up to lethal levels!

[VincentVega]

A friend has a cieling mounted gas heater in his garage, very nice. It has a thermostat to keep things in check as well, nice feature. It cant be any more dangerous than my kersosene heater.

[911boost]

I have a Moline Hot Dawg unit that is rated at 50,000 BTU. It is a tad bit of overkill, but heck, its fun to have the garage door open (I have a 3 car tandem garage) with it snowing outside and be sitting in shorts with it 80 degrees in the garage. Not that I do, but I could.

Mine runs natural gas, vents to the outside, and it cost me $1200 installed. I can't complain. I even have a thermostat so I can set the temp and then not worry about.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate asking about it. I can get you model numbers and stuff.

Bill

[jester911]

The unit heater is fine. It has a pilot light just like a gas water heater or furnace. You can wire a thermostat and just turn it up when you want it to come on. It will heat up a garage in no time.
Just have it properly vented out of the roof.

[2.7911E]

I,ve got an 80,000 BTU radiant tube style heater. It warms things better with the radiant heat, but I'm not sure if the recovery time from opening the garage door would be as good as a unit heater. The floor is warmer and the heater is more efficient than a unit heater. It draws outside air. Mine is a Sunray, made in Canada,but search for Roberts-Gordon Caribe in the States for a similar style. I love mine, by the way. Michael

[cstreit]

What about those Torpedo heaters?

(for temporary use) you could leave the heater outside (to draw in outside air and use a duct to blow the warm air in...

I've been thinking of this for my rented garage.. Amy I missign something?

[PORSHIN]

If when you say fumes you are referring to gasoline vapors, you don't have to worry about gasoline vapors igniting higher than about a foot off of the floor. If you are talking about a unit that has an ignition source say six or more feet above the floor, it will not ignite gasoline vapors even if they are present. Gasoline vapors only ignite when the air-fuel mixture is just right. Given the barometric pressure and air temperature, the correct mixture occurs about six inches to one foot above the floor. Any higher, it's too lean and lower it's too rich. That is why proffessional shops can use gas or oil fired heating systems with spark ignitors or pilot lights with no concerns. But notice that they are always mounted more than six feet above the floor. That provides an excellent safety factor. Hope this helps!
Rob

[jmohn]

Originally posted by JoeF
Does anyone have garage heating advice. I have been to a few plumbing supply places and I am getting conflicting advice.
I had thought I was just going to hang one of those unit heaters up in the corner that runs on natural gas and vents through the roof, but someone told me I could have problems with fumes from the cars. He suggested a closed system that pulls the air for the combustion from the outside. These closed system units were very expensive.
Someone else said the best way is to just get cieling radiator units that worked off the furnace in the basement, but the furnace I have is too small to do that.
I already have the natural gas line run to the garage, I have a line on a good used hanging unit, am I worrying too much about fumes from the cars?
JoeF

I am a building inspector. I don't know what mechanical codes NJ uses but under the "Uniform Mechanical Code" (currently the code here in Minnesota) you have chosen a preferred means of heating this type of space. My only suggestion is, if you intend to heat the space continually (rather than intermittently) and depending on local code requirements, ask about a "direct vent" type of unit heater. The direct vent feature means the vent consists of concentric ducts, the inner duct carries the exhaust from the unit, the larger, outer duct brings in "combustion" air right to the unit (otherwise you should provide ducted outside, combustion air near the unit). You definitely want a vented heater, if a gas burning appliance isn't properly vented it will (besides being a health and comfort risk) introduce huge amount of water vapor (a by-product of LP or nat. gas combustion) to the interior of the space (i.e. your garage) ... not a good thing.

Jerry M
'78 SC

[pwd72s]

Anything that burns anything creates carbon monoxide. I've been thinking of installing a small woodstove that could plug into my fireplace chimney...but here in the NW, I don't need a lot of extra heat...

[47silver]

if you are building a new garage use under floor radiant heat that pumps hot water through hoses buried in the concrete.

place th boiler somewhere that will not ignite any vapours.

the unit heater should do the job in the garage, a friend has ventless ones in his that seem to do the job and co does not affect him much,

also buy a couple of co sensor and put in the garage, these are perfect for alarming when co level is high

anything over 50 ppm is bad.

[slammed1000]

i would suggest a 90% efficiant furnace. they only require a pvc vent pipe and they dont loose the heat out the vent pipe like most conventional furnaces do. you will save in a year what the difference cost you between the two units. you can put your hand on the vent pipe and it is barely warm. just my 2pennies

[JoeF]

Thanks for all the help! I am always amazed at amount of information that is available on this board. I will be searching for new heater units today. I went to look at the used one last night, it will not work in my application because of its size. I may be back with more questions. Thanks
JoeF

[vesnyder]

I use one that attaches to the top of a propane tank. It puts out about 40,000 BTU and I can easily move it around to put the heat where I want it. Do these things put out a lot of CO? I am thinking about getting a CO sesnor? Shoudl have run a natural gas line when I put the garage in!

[jabb]

I also have the Modine Hot Dawg heater. You just want to make sure there are no open flames in the heater, if you have vapors in the garage that can by ignited by the heater. The new heaters have electronic ignition to fire the heater. The heater I have the flame is concealed within the tubing of the heater.

[stew]

I installed a used natural gas furnace in my 26x30 garage and am very comfortable in the coldest of weather. my garage is not all insulated yet and it is great. total cost including furnace 110.00 installed myself . vents outside. i am a building contractor .