How do you guys heat your garage?

[mcconneje]

I know, I know, some of you lucky guys don't have to.

But here in Ohio, it gets so cold that for about 3 months of the year, an unheated garage is a useless garage when it comes to working on the 'stang.

I have tried a torpedo heater, but the fumes build up and make the area uninhabitable. If I open the doors or windows for ventilation, it defeats the purpose of the heater. I have thought of a woodstove, but in researching that, I find that there are likely some Fire Code/Insurance regs that would be a problem. I tried a kerosene heater, but my garage is a three car model, and the kerosene stand alone type heater can't efficiently heat that big of an area.

I hate not being able to work on my car, but I hate frostbite more. Any thoughts that don't include moving to south FLA?

[66gt350]

No heat required out here.  But growing up we had an old wood burning stove out in the shop did a pretty good job on heating up a shop the size of a large 2 car garage. 

[70 StangMan]

For the 2 cold days down here I insulated the garage door, added to the insulation in the attic and tied into the duct coming out of the air handler on the central air/ heat unit with a vent and it does a real good job of keeping it cool/warm and is controlled by the inside thermostat.  It was more for the A.C in the summer, but it works either way.

[pprince]

The single best thing you can do is insulate the garage well. If not insulated well it is hard to keep the garage warm and is also very costly to keep it heated.

In your case I would hang a plastic sheet down from the ceiling to make the square footage smaller and easier to heat. You might be able to get away with an electric heater then.

[RustyRed]

It really doesn't get that cold down here.  However, my garage has one of the upstairs rooms over it.  So when it's cold out if I close all the garage doors it stays reasonably warm.

[silverblueBP]

It's cold here for 6 months, it's unbearable for 3. I use a propane convection heater which I tied into my main tank line. Unlimited heat and I'm not screwing around with 20lb bottles. It heats it up pretty quick and then I turn it down to maintain.

Forgot to add, it's a 3 car garage, well insulated, insulated door and high ceilings. It's not too bad until the therm-o-meter hits single digits outside.

[guruatbol]

Mine is insulated and for the last three days of work in it, I used one 5 gal tank of propane with this heater.  http://www.thehewitt.net/guru/garage/heater1.jpg

It worked well.  Cost was about $5.00 a day.  I don't work out there for weeks at a time when it is cold, so when I do I just break out the 35000 BTU heater.  My garage is 12' ceilings, three car and a work area.  Pretty large for an attached garage.

At some point I am going to put a natural gas heater in.  I am thinking of just buying a furnace and have my HVAC guy install it in the attic and run a thermostat.  Keep it at 50 unless I am working out there.

I also know that door placement is super important.  I goofed that one up, my doors face North.  Should have done it to the South.

Mel

[caspian65]

As mentioned, single most important thing is insulating the garage.  I have a 22x23 attached to the house, fully insulated with finished walls (drywall.)  My garage door is also insulated.  Temperature rarely gets below 50 with no heat going in there.  I use a little $25 ceramic heater whenever I need to do some work, takes about a half-hour to warm it up.

[AtlantaSteve]

How do you insulate the door?  My garage is finished and insulated, but the door is just a door.   When it gets below the 30s outside (about as cold as it gets here, ever) the garage can get below a temp where I'd want to work out there.   Insulating the door would probably help, but I've never had a garage door before 3 years ago, so didn't even know you could do that!

[caspian65]

My garage door is steel insulated construction.  I guess you could put some of the board style insulation on if yours is wood.

[RapidRabbit]

I have mine insulated but not drywalled yet. Still gets pretty cold. So january and February are out for working on the car here.

My neighbor has a ceiling mounted heater that runs on Natural gas in his garage to work on his truck.
He has a thermostat that keeps it at about 50 degrees all winter. The whole setup ran about $1200 installed.

[guruatbol]

My doors came already insulated.  I spent extra money on them, and it was worth it.  The panels of the roll up door are thicker and metal on both sides.  They are flat inside and have a raised panel look on the outside.  I opted for no windows in the door.

I should have had the door opening go 11-12' instead of the 10' it is.  I have already messed up both hoods on my two cars.

Mel

[Shaun]

I have mine insulated but not drywalled yet. Still gets pretty cold. So january and February are out for working on the car here.

My neighbor has a ceiling mounted heater that runs on Natural gas in his garage to work on his truck.
He has a thermostat that keeps it at about 50 degrees all winter. The whole setup ran about $1200 installed.

This is the ONLY way to heat a garage.  Either on propane or gas.  It was a royal PITA for me to install one but now I have clean, non toxic, dry, non smelly heat anytime I want it.  I keep the shop 40* when not in there and 50-60 when working.  I also spent close to a grand on insulation.  Heating adds only about $50 to my winter heating bill.

The torpedo heaters stink and pump out moisture.  You'll give yourself a headache so you'll have to open the door.  What is the point of that?  Infared heaters only heat objects, not the air.  Woodstoves take too much maintenance and you can't leave them on when you are not in there (like overnight).

[dhouse]

i used a combination of torpedo and a big window unit mounted in the wall.... i crank up the torpedo and wall at the same time and in a bout 8-10 mins the shop is around 70-72 and shut the torpedo down and stay comfortable for as long as i want

[PJ Moran]

Mine's a 28x35.  As part of the remodel after buying the house, I rewired (added several outlets and light fixtures, plus a 230 for my compressor), fully insulated, and sheetrocked the whole garage (it was cheap paneling with no insulation).  It's like a big living room without carpet.  It has a drywall ceiling which is also insulated.

I installed double-wall, insulated garage doors, too.  I also plumbed a big, deep sink on one wall for cleaning up stuff (including myself).

On top of all of this, I had a "central" heat pump installed just for the garage.  The air handling unit is in the attic and I have one intake and two outlets in the ceiling.

My main need is AC in the summer, as it gets unbearable.  But, I can just as easily flip it over to heat if it gets really cold in the winter (which doesn't happen very often).

All of this seems expensive, but it's the cost of having a nice place to work on cars.  I don't regret spending a dime of it.  My car would have never been built if I hadn't invested in this facility.  And, it wouldnt' have been completed in just two years, because I was able to work on the car every day.  I don't love the hobby enough to be miserable while doing it.

[napaguy]

Shawn,
Not trying to be arguementative but why couldnt you leave a wood stove running all night? I heated my house for years with wood and always ran the stove all night.

[apollard]

My neighbor has a ceiling mounted heater that runs on Natural gas in his garage to work on his truck.
He has a thermostat that keeps it at about 50 degrees all winter. The whole setup ran about $1200 installed.

I installed one of those two years ago, I have no idea why I didn't spend the $ before. It ran me about $550, doing the work myself (the heater was 299 IIRC).
http://www.mrheater.com/product.aspx?catid=50&id=117
The 45,000 BTU unit heats my 26x30 garage from ~50 to 65 in no time, and holds it there easily. I'ts not well insulated (parts of the ceiling are not insulated, but the walls & door are). I could save some fuel insulating, but given how much of the time I run the heater, I doubt it would payback.

As I said, best thing I've done to make the garage livable. Bonus: now the wife doesn't mind if the little one is out there during the winter. Gotta start 'em earlly. This w/e I plan on more lights and paint (plain drywall now).

[daveSanborn]

My 26x 28 detached garage/shop is fully insulated and I have an electric wall unit that pulls double duty as an air conditioner and a heater.

On the really cold days I use a kerosene radiant heater (linked bleow) to take away the initial chill.  I used to use an old "bullet style" kerosene heater, but there were fumes and it was rather noisy.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=239878-57645-PT-70-SS&lpage=none

[AzPete]

If ya all work faster, no heat is needed.......unless it's beer time.

[lethal289]

I installed a natural gas vent less wall unit in my 15 x 40 garage.  It will get you working in shorts after about an hour of run time.  I have an insulated steel door, and block foundation all the way around.  It can cold here, in fact its been in the teens this week, and the garage stays nice.  Its similar to this one:

[Midlife]

I have central A/C and heat, so it's never a problem.  Always between 68 and 76*.

I agree with wood stoves: you gonna stay up until all the embers have died?  Once an enclosed wood stove is going, you can leave it alone until it dies on its own.  When I lived in DC, that was the only source of heat we used, and we stoked it up good before going to bed, and there were just enough embers to re-start it in the AM. 

As far as I am concerned, heat from a wood stove is the most comfortable system of all.  Sometimes, the air gets a bit dry, but putting a tea-kettle or an open pot of water on the wood stove fixes that right up!

[tjc1965]

I use a propane convection heater and a 20lb bottle.  24 x 24 garage, and it takes about 20 minutes on a 20 degree night to get it to 55 or so, then I turn it down or off.

I had a 25,000 btu for years and it finally wore out.  Just bought a larger one at Home Depot , bargain at $ 99.

Tried Kerosene, too sticky and loud.  Tried a propane torpedo, just too loud.  Electric too much juice $$$

Keep the propane tank off the concrete floor so the gas doesn't "freeze" when it's really cold.

[mcconneje]

I installed one of those two years ago, I have no idea why I didn't spend the $ before. It ran me about $550, doing the work myself (the heater was 299 IIRC).
http://www.mrheater.com/product.aspx?catid=50&id=117
The 45,000 BTU unit heats my 26x30 garage from ~50 to 65 in no time, and holds it there easily. I'ts not well insulated (parts of the ceiling are not insulated, but the walls & door are). I could save some fuel insulating, but given how much of the time I run the heater, I doubt it would payback.

As I said, best thing I've done to make the garage livable. Bonus: now the wife doesn't mind if the little one is out there during the winter. Gotta start 'em earlly. This w/e I plan on more lights and paint (plain drywall now).

So does this unit sit on the floor or is it mounted at the ceiling?

Thanks for all of the great suggestions, guys.  Jeff

[Epperstang]

Our garage is 24x45. Heated with a HotDog natural gas fed heater, 75,000 BTU. Hangs from the ceiling which is 22 ft at the peak.
Thermostat is always set at 55 degrees.
J.

[RapidRabbit]

So does this unit sit on the floor or is it mounted at the ceiling?

Thanks for all of the great suggestions, guys.  Jeff

It hangs from the ceiling. They come in a few different sizes depending on the size of your garage, and can be setup to run on Propane or natural gas.

This is what I am going to install in my garage soon. My garage is about 1000 square feet so I need something kind of big.