Suggestions for my garage please......

We have a 28' X 28' garage with a walk up second floor. It's detached from the house. It is soon to be insulated. It is wood construction, vinyl sided with a 10/12 pitch roof. The walls are raised off the cement floor the heighth of one row of cinder blocks. I have a 9' floor to truss distance with an additional 18" in heighth of the trusses. At this point, I am only out there for a few hours in the evening and a lot of hours on the weekends. At this point, no vehicles are driven in/out of it. Now that I got the basics out of the way, here is my question.

I am looking for suggestions for heating. I refuse to go with a wood burner because it's more work than it's worth and (from a safety standpoint), you can't shut it off. We have natural gas and that leaves me with two choices: a "Big Dog" (box) style of forced air heater that hangs from the ceiling, and a down draft forced air furnace (80,000 BTU) from a mobile home. If I opted for the later, I figured I could construct the ducting that would run through the second floor trusses that would spread the heat evenly. The latter furnace is free, so I figure that ducting would set me back about $400. The Big Dog (or some competitor brand) would cost me about the same about of money as above, but require no ducting other than chimney,

A third option is a 15' or 20' infa red heater that hangs from the (second floor) trusses. This would set me back almost $850 just to purchase it. I want the best in efficiency PLUS the lowest operating cost. mind you, this is a hobbiest garage, not a fully functioning work shop environment. I value everyone's opinions, good or bad. Please give me some input.

We have a BIG Dog unit at our summer home and the garage is a four car attached garage with concrete floors. The garage walls are drywall and insulated. There is a loft in the garage also so it has high ceilings.
I am very content with the Big Dog unit. It is compact and heats the garage great. It was in the teens the other night and I was comfortable in a t-shirt and jeans.
I dont remember how many BTU heater it is though so do your homework.
Hope this helps.
BB

My shop is 30x40 with a 14' wall.I heat it with an electric fiurnace about the same size as your natural gas one.I don't have any real ductwork, just a plenum with seven inch round outlets on three sides.Furnace is part way down one wall.I have a house type ventilation fan at one end to help circulate air.This works well, so don't think you really need to spend money on ductwork.I'm in Manitoba with colder temps. than you will have.

If ya go with the used furnaces I would suggest a carbon monoxide detector
Thats how my step dad died 13 years ago this month...

do what we do at "the dirt shop" two fires in barrels haha j/k but really thats what we do we are like bums when it gets down to the 40's but i would say go with the big dog it seems to be your best bet

I've got a 40 000 btu Big Dog and it has no problems heating up my 28'x20' garage in just a few minutes. I have 6" walls and it is insulated very well, so well that I just installed an exhaust fan to get rid of welding, grinding and paint fumes. It get's down to -30 degrees Celcius here and it works just fine. I think the biggest concern is insulation. Right now I got paint stored in there I don't want to freeze so I run it at about 10 degrees C 24 hours and it probably only costs an extra $20 a month.

I'm expanding next year to double the size so I'll probably buy another one for the far corner and just run the one on the side I'm working with a curtain in the middle.

Oh yea and I used OSB plywood on my walls instead of drywall cause it's cheaper and stands up better.

Sean

Hope this isnt hijacking the thread. If so tell me to go away.
I design my next garage in my head when I cant sleep at night. I am kicking around the thought of possibly doing a heated floor. My thought was to run reinforced poly tubing before they pour the concrete. Run a manifold set up thru a 50 gallon hot water heater with a recirc pump and bypass valves.
Wonder if the heated floor would transfer the heat to the air though the simple law of thermal dynamics?
It would need to be done with some free or sale items because the tubing and pumps could get steep in price.
BB

dodgeman33 said:

If ya go with the used furnaces I would suggest a carbon monoxide detector
Thats how my step dad died 13 years ago this month...

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I agree... this is a very serious problem as this post illustrates. Same goes for short exhaust systems on enclosed cars & trucks!!!

BoB

In floor heating is very effective but in a cold climate it costs a lot to run it. My daughter's family heated a 1200 sq. ft. garage so the kids could play floor hockey. After a month they shut it off and told the kids to wear their winter clothes out there.
I have a 30,000 BTU hanging furnace in my 1,000 sq. ft. attached shop/garage which works well. With 1 foot thick styrofoam walls, it stays above freezing even with no heat. I've hardly used the heater because I'm so cheap this year. Just work faster to stay warm.

I agree....

Tripper said:

I agree... this is a very serious problem as this post illustrates. Same goes for short exhaust systems on enclosed cars & trucks!!!

BoB

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Very serious problem and it's always out there.
We lost my wifes sister and husband a few years ago to this.
Please take all the right precautions and invest in a carbon monoxide detector or two.

I have a 24x24 non insulated garage, with a 9 ft ceiling. I got a used Modine 80k BTU hanging heater from Craigslist. I paid $250 for it. I ended up replacing all the electrical controls except for the gas valve. It works really well. Alot of what you choose depends if you are going to leave it on all the time, or only turn it on when you are working in there. I only turn it on when I plan on working in there. It takes about a half hour for it to become comfortable. I need to insulate my walls like sgo70. Just so much damn work because of all the stuff I've got on them!

motorpsykler said:

I need to insulate my walls like sgo70. Just so much damn work because of all the stuff I've got on them!

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I think we can ALL relate to that part.
It almost makes sense to dry wall as soon as the walls are wired BEFORE you put anything in the garage.

I have a Lennox unit similar to the bulldog. I got it new for cheap from a dealer friend of mine, and I love it. I have stuff that I don't want freezing in my shop, so I keep it at 45* while I'm not there, and heat it up to about 60-65 in about 5 minutes when I want to work. My shop is insulated and 28 by 36.

Since I paint in there, the electronic ignition is a handy feature, (no pilot light) plus the fact that it's 6 feet off the ground. I just warm the shop up to about 75, shut the heater off, paint, cleanup, make sure the garage is clear of fumes and fire the heater back up before I leave for the night.....

Here's the bomb I heat my garage with. There are so many leaks around the doors I don't worry much about CO.
I uae diesel fuel...........much easier to get in 5 gal cans.

T2T, Looks like it takes a BIG spark plug to ignite that furnace!!!

big dog

I have a 30x50 shop with 9' ceiling, 2x4 walls insulated and dry walled. shop stays 45-50 f unheated, with 20-30 temp outside, takes bout 15 min to get room up to 70. run on propane and costs bout 75 bucks a month to use just while i'm working