Another garage heater thread...

I waited until today to ask this so the other thread didn’t have competition. 

I have a 24’x24’ garage and it is currently heated by a mr heater propane tank add on. It fumes me out and someday, between the carbon monoxide, welding fumes, and hot metal smoke, I’m gonna get the cancers. 

Ive been searching for an electric heater I can hang on the wall, it absolutely has to be 110v. No gas in the garage(HOA says no), and no 220v. 

The few I’ve found look ok, but most are just infrared tanning booths. No fans to waft the warmer air. I could ideally place two in the garage. 

Anyone have experience with this?

It will use a ton of juice.  Resources may be better used on insulating.

I have some cheapo space heaters that would be just the ticket for you.  If you were in California, I would loan one to you so you could check it out, but if you lived in California, heating the garage would not have come up.

Trackmouse said:

No gas in the garage(HOA says no), and no 220v. 

Does the HOA say no 220V?  Or are you saying just that you don't have 220V wired out there (but could)?  

No gas in the garage, OK, but can you have gas in the house attic and a vent and return to the garage? You could put a small forced air gas furnace in the attic and just do one vent for the supply and one vent for the return. You can get used or new furnaces on Craigslist for cheap. It's going to be way more effective and way cheaper to operate than any electric heater. Installation will not be cheap (or easy if you DIY) but it'll last a long time.

Get a wood pellet stove. Easy to install, programmable, takes just a little 110V current to run. I pretty much heat my house with one.

If you have a propane tank heater already you can just as easily run a propane furnace off the tank. You may have to change it weekly, or get the 30# bottles, but it is probably your easiest/cheapest option.

In reply to xflowgolf :

Correct. No 220v out there. I might tackle that this summer, especially if I win that sweet welder setup from Eastwood!

ChasH said:

Get a wood pellet stove. Easy to install, programmable, takes just a little 110V current to run. I pretty much heat my house with one.

I thought about this. How much room do those take and how does it vent? I have a wall of regular garage crap that lines one side of the garage. The other side of the garage connects to my neighbors garage, so I can’t vent that way. Can one make a vent that goes through the garage door window (HOA commies will burn down my house for that I’m sure.)

Trackmouse said:

ChasH said:

Get a wood pellet stove. Easy to install, programmable, takes just a little 110V current to run. I pretty much heat my house with one.

I thought about this. How much room do those take and how does it vent? I have a wall of regular garage crap that lines one side of the garage. The other side of the garage connects to my neighbors garage, so I can’t vent that way. Can one make a vent that goes through the garage door window (HOA commies will burn down my house for that I’m sure.)

My stove is 3ft high x 2ft wide x 2 ft deep. Intake and exhaust are on the back and can go directly straight out. Installation directions for the stoves are usually available on line so you can plan ahead. I bought a used oil fired heater for my shop (28x40) but I think I'm gonna put in a wood pellet stove so I don't need a chimney to the roof peak, which is 23 ft up.

BTU's = Watts of power....   Watts = Volts x Amps so with 110 your going to need more amps then one 20 amp breaker will do to heat that size.  Don't forget your adding a crap load of moisture to the air with your propane now unless the exhaust is ducted outside.  If it were me and i had the time I'd make a garage door panel that could be slide in to place when in use and put in a direct vent heater in that panel. (like a window A/C) but under the door.  HOA can be a pain.

You might consider a Mr Cool pre-charged heat pump kit.  (amazon) .

Depending on the size you choose, it could be less than $1000 and low operating cost would make up for it. Clean , and can cool in the summer too.

If you're planning on staying in this place for several years, a mini split would be pretty nice.

I desperately want heat in my garage as well, but can't handle kerosene/propane fumes. My garage is 24X30 with a storage loft above it. Only partially insulated as I ran out of ambition years ago with that itchy stuff. I'm intrigued by the MRCOOL heat pump ductless units. Do you think they would work in a garage my size with insulation in New England? The added benefit of cooling in the summer is also a bonus.

The best you can do with 120 vac electric heaters is 1500 watts.  The cheapest and simplest thing would be to get a couple milkhouse heaters (so called because they were often used on dairy farms to keep the milkhouse from freezing.)  1500 watts is 1500 watts, so spending more money on heaters that come with fancy extra features won't get you any more heat.  You will need separate circuits for each one, trying to run more than one of them on the same circuit will pop the circuit breaker. 

You should be able to buy them most anywhere, from the local hardware store to various online sources.  They sell for less than $20 / each.

I used to run one of those milkhouse heaters in a detached single car garage growing up and it did ok.  I'd imagine 2 would work well but not sure about a larger garage.  

Curious how those propane heaters work, do they really give off alot of fumes?  My current garage is attached to my house so def something I would have to consider.  Any fuel burning heater would be a no go for me.

https://www.harborfreight.com/30000-btu-tank-top-propane-heater-63072.html

In reply to Stanger2000 :

After a few hours in the garage, with the door closed, I start feeling light headed, and I lose focus. My wife usually walks in and says “is that normal? It smells like your going to die out here”. I agree with her and then Open the garage door to waft it out, right along with my heat. Keep in mind, central Oregon was in the single digits a few weeks ago and it isn’t uncommon for negatives here after dark. 

The catalytic propane heaters don't give off much CO, but they do use up a lot of oxygen and produce CO2 (both of which can become a problem).  In extreme cases, you'll start getting CO when the oxygen level gets low enough.  They also throw off a ton of moisture.  

A friend of mine has a wood stove that he found at the dump piped into the corner of his garage. Seems to keep things reasonable when he is working out there.

I just installed this. 

This being a 24K Btu heater out of a RV that I picked up at LKU for $20. Power is handled by a $15 12V power supply. The thermostat is a cheap-o off Amazon. The exhaust is a piece of EMT conduit. By the time the exhaust gets to the end of it it's down to 120*. It will take the shop from 40 to 65 in about 20 minutes and then cycle every 30 minutes or so. It hasn't been in long enough to go through a tank of propane so I'm not sure how efficient it will be. 

The blower fan draws air through the larger tube and recovers a lot of the exhaust heat before it gets to the wall ten feet away. 

got this in my e-mail today.

sportsman guide

That sounds like a killer deal on the RV heater along with the heat recovery tube. Not as big of a deal in warmer places but I started looking at rocket/mass heaters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxIXNTgXjDY

I used a mister heater big buddy plugged into a standard propane tank past couple weeks. Only probably was out there a few hours at a time but had no issue with fumes and it kept things warm enough I was usually taking my sweatshirt off

In reply to plain92 :

I've been researching these the last couple days myself.  It would be nice to have something to supplement my existing electric heater, especially if it could warm my slab floor some.

The 120 volt is a pretty serious restriction. Maybe the answer here is to think outside the box (in this case garage). Could you build some ductwork and a fan and steal heated air from the house? That way you leave the small breaker for work in the garage and utilize your existing heat setup already installed for your house (probably relatively efficient?). Jcamper