Garage Heat - What do you use?

[Morley]

Hey guy's

I'm considering buying one of these 4800 Watt Cube heaters from Princess and wiring it up to my panel in the garage.

Any experience with this type of heater, or recommendations?

My garage is 24'x22' and non insulated.
I don't need to go all out for the time being until I unsulate probably this comming fall.
Thanks,

 

[Farm Boy]

I use them regularly in construction. They would work nicely once it is properly insulated but almost worthless without the insulation. You would need to insulate or poly the ceiling to have much effect. If you are trying to be as cheap as possible, get some 6ml poly from Home Depot and staple it up to the ceiling to keep the heat in. Also, plug any drafts there may be, (ie around the garage door etc) with tufts of fiberglass insulation. It won't be toasty but should take the chill off.

 

[Dannyboy33]

I use something like that to heat mine just bigger, I got it when I used to work construction. My garage is well insulated so it works really well I can work in a t-shirt out there. On a day to day thing I keep it just above freezing so that I can leave stuff out there all winter long.

 

[Morley]

I know that it wont be super toasty uninsulated, but just need temporary heat in the area that I am working, I think this should help.

But I totally agree with the insulation, which is a summer/fall project on my many "to do" list of activities

 

[Farm Boy]

I'd still reccommend poly on the ceiling to keep what heat there will be in. Poly is cheap and should only take an hour or two to put up and the difference will be well worth it.

 

[Morley]

It will also help to stuff the soffit with insulation. Then put the VB up. At least any heat that goes up isn't sucked out side through the vented soffit.

:smokin:

Thanks,
Just regular pink fiberglass ? Or is there a specific kind for this?

 

[Kunker]

Anybody on here using radient floor heating? I've seen more than a few shop builds on Pirates that are going that route, and was curious if anyone around here had any advice.

 

[Root Moose]

FWIW, I have over head radiant heat in my shop (propane fired). It is great and sure beats the old nat gas ceiling furnace I had in my old place. There is nothing being blown around and the stuff in the shop (tools, equip, cars, etc.) are instantly warm for all intents and purposes.

If I had my time over again I'd go with the in-floor stuff though. I've been to John's and it is a nice kind of heat. My overhead is pretty good too but in-floor is nicer. I'm going to do in-floor in the house eventually.

 

[Root Moose]

I'm not sure John. I can relate to the not wanting concrete. My one hundred and thirty year old house won't put up with that too well me thinks.

I thought I saw a diagram once where there were routes cut into a plywood layer to run the PEX. There is metal clip on thingies (<-technical term) on the PEX to keep in lined up in each groove. This layer of stuff is sandwiched between to thin layers of plywood.

Let's see if ascii art works:

----------------------------------
                                           <--- fascia layer (hardwood, ceramic tile, whatever)
----------------------------------  <--- top layer
----------------------------------
           |  /\  |                       <--- middle layer with tube in a groove
           |  \/  |
----------------------------------
----------------------------------  <--- bottom layer
                                           <--- subfloor 
----------------------------------

Lots of stacking in my scenario because of my old structure, certainly there must be something easier for new construction. I have nine foot ceilings so I'm not worried about the stacking too much.

I wish I could find the resource where I saw this talked about.

 

[Root Moose]

I guess it depends on how much money you want to throw at the "top layer" to make it thick enough to be able to use hard wood.

I'm like you - real hardwood is what I like.

 

[Farm Boy]

There are 2 ways that I have done to help solve this problem.

The plumber we used had a program to calculate the layout of the pex based on BTU requirements per given zone factoring in floor coverings, ceiling height, additional heat source (ie fireplace), additional cold (ie overhead door) and just about anything else you could think of.

First time was in a 2 story wood-framed garage. Main floor was poured concrete with the pex inside and divided into atleast 4 different zones. Interior walls were layed out with spray paint prior to running the pex to be sure we didn't have a line where the walls went. For the second floor we stapled the tubes to the bottom of the subfloor (the subfloor was the finished floor as it was only storage) and attached some reflective strips below that to direct the heat up) I can't remember but we may have also insulated between this reflective strip and the drywall ceiling. Never had any problems keeping it toasty.

The second time was in a $800,000 house where they wanted to lay hardwood. Pex was stapled down to the subfloor and then we ran 2x2 between every run of pex giving us nailing roughly every 8". The lightweight concrete was the poured over the pex and between the 2x2. High grade hardwood (no short bits) was then nailed to the 2x2.

More recently I have also done electric radiant (16x25 sunroom). 25yr warrenty wires were run about every 1.25" then covered with a skim coat of light weight floor leveler. Tiles were then mortared to that as usual.