[WtW] Re: Heating a garage

[Huw Powell]

Well, it sounds like you want a floor or ceiling mounted forced hot air 
burner/exchanger.

I would recommend using whatver you heat your house with already (oil, 
gas, etc.), and simply and safely tapping into that fuel supply.  You 
can also often find used 275 gallon oil tanks used and cheap from people 
who did gas conversions, if that's not convenient.

Then you could go anywhere from a used furnace to a slick new one.  Just 
make sure the exhaust/chimney is done right.

I'd run it off a simple thermostat that has an "off" position.

Forced hot air heats an area up very quickly, and moves the warm air 
around nicely, too.

At your volume, I suspect anything over 50k or so BTU should be just 
dandy.

If you use it much, I'd also recommend getting some insulation installed.

> Well, time has come to contemplate heating my home garage. I asked 
> this question a few years back when i first bought my house but never
>  followed through. Here in Pa. we get pretty cold winters and at
> times the temp in the garage can drop below freezing. The walls and
> doors are lightly insulated.
> 
> the size is about 28x24 with 10 foot roof and an uninsulated ceiling 
> and uninsulated attic overhead. floor is concrete. I'd like to keep 
> the project simple. Not as simple as a torpedo heater though. I'd 
> like a roof/wall hung unit of some sort that is economical to power. 
> I do not need to warm it to 70 degrees, but at least 50-55 would be
> nice. And it wouldn't be used all the time, but i would expect it to
> be safe to use overnight. My two option i suppose are a gas or oil
> fired unit. I currently store about 100 gallons of off-road diesel
> fuel in my garage for use in the tractor i have, so tapping off that
> wouldn't be an issue (there are in 55 gallon drums though), or i 
> thought about installing a propane fired unit with a tank outside. 
> I'd like to hear from those who have experience with either and what 
> their thoughts are. Which one is safer? for limited use, which one is
> more economical?

-- 
Huw Powell

http://www.humanspeakers.com/audi

http://www.humanthoughts.org/