Best variety of space heater for garage this winter

Thread from 2014:

With some luck (and a good bit of work) I'll have power restored to my garage over the weekend and be able to begin to use it properly. Unfortunately, it's also now winter and is getting cold- and the garage is not heated nor is it anything resembling insulated. And I want to be able to use it to work on things as much as possible. So, I'm wondering what the best kind of space heater to heat up the garage. It's somewhere around 500 sq ft. I'd prefer something electric- I have a kerosene heater, but always worry about running it in the closed garage. I already have at least one (I think two) of the oil-filled radiator-looking ones, but those really require an additional fan to heat more than small area. If another type is going to be more effective at heating the garage I don't mind picking one up. Thanks!

I bought a $60 120V electric heater I could buy a few years ago.

In the morning, I'd just go out and start it on full blast, then go back in and relax, eat breakfast, etc. Then it would be warm enough to be comfortable with a long sleeve shirt and pants. (I also laid on cardboard)

But that doesn't fix the cold tools.

If you have 240V in the garage and/or aren't afraid of adding a 2-pole breaker and some wire, I have a 5000 watt electric cube heater from Northerntool that does a reasonable job of heating my garage (12'W x 30'D, 10' ceiling). It could actually get the garage warmer than my house.

Heating load will depend a lot on insulation as well. Attached or detached. How well is the garage sealed. Open ceiling. While that heater works in my garage, my ex's garage - about twice as large and with minimal insulation, two large garage doors and a hole in the ceiling for stairs to the vented attic - it was pissing into the wind.

Depending on the kind of work you plan to do and where (most around a bench and/or in front of the car), you may be able to get away with a ceiling hung electric IR heater aimed at the primary working area.

With a fully charged battery the 8 hour fan run time is no joke. Let's you take it and your propane bottle wherever you need it. I've had mine for 3 or 4 years now, used to have me comfortable in a tee shirt in my single car uninsulated central OH garage in the dead of Winter.

The amount of heat will depend on where you live, how big your garage is, how well it's insulated, how warm you want it to be, etc. There are online heat loss calculators you can use to figure out about how many BTUs will be required, and then you can go from there.

Personally, I'd recommend against any unvented combustion heater, whether it's kerosene or propane or whatever. They pump a lot of moisture into the room as well as carbon monoxide; the moisture condenses all over everything, and because of the CO you need to keep a door or window open to get proper ventilation.

Electric heaters are cheap to buy but will most likely be expensive to run for any period of time. However, it's a good choice for intermittent use. If you're looking for something to plug into a 120vac receptacle, the biggest heater you'll be able to find is 1500 watts (which is about 5100 BTU). Don't go for anything fancy, the cheapest milkhouse heater you can find will work just as well as any other heater.

If you want an electric heater bigger than 1500 watts, you'll need 240vac power. Look for an electric unit heater - they hang up in the corner of the room and come in a variety of sizes. This site sells a bunch of them, but you can get them from a lot of sources: http://www.heateroutlet.com/productcart/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=8

Last Saturday, it was 20 out in the morning. I have two electric space heaters: a cheapo heat coil one with a fan, and an oil-filled radiator. I put them both on and got my drafty garage up to 60 in a few hours!!!

There is theoretically 220V in the garage- it's wired for it from the breaker in the house, but I don't think I'd trust my temporary patch line for actually running anything very big on it. The plan is to have a separate 100A service installed to the garage from the pole, so I'll be able to put in a REAL heater at some point.

It's a cinder block garage on a concreted floor with open, uninsulated ceilings. No insulation at all, and the windows are ancient single-pane and poorly fitted. As much as I enjoy the natural light from them, it's sorely tempting to just fill the window bays with insulation.

I use an electric convection type. Set it up in the morning before class then the garage is comfortable when I get home.

I like my Mr. Heater Big Buddy (propane). It has an oxygen sensor that shuts it down when O2 levels get below some point. I have had it shut off automatically, so I know it works. Does a great job- I like that it's convection vice forced air. Just hook to a

I heat a 400 sq ft garage with a 30,000 BTU topedo kerosene heater and don't have problems with condensation or CO. The garage is attached and usually remains above 32 deg. except when it gets down below zero outside. It's also insulated and dry walled. If I wanted to keep the garage warm all the time I would use a vented heater.

I bought a propane convection heater at Home Depot, I use a fan to blow the warm air around. When it's in the 30's it takes about 15 minutes to get my ~600 sq ft garage to 80 inside, I then shut it off and it will stay that way for at least 3 or 4 hours, my garage is well insulated.

I use one of these: 

Cheap and reasonably effective. My garage is uninsulated and something like 24' x 60'. Anything less would be like pissing in the ocean.

In reply to Teh E36 M3: ditto. I like how much faster it heats up than anything electric and having an alternative fuel source when the power goes out is nice. I hear a one car garage with mine and it's t-shirt comfortable in 15-20 minutes.

Bonus heat: I use a 500w halogen work light from big lots to see what I'm working on. That thing puts out a crazy amount of heat and light.

I have a 240V, 1700 BTU electric heater. It is hung from the ceiling and blows in the direction of the work bench. Works pretty good until it gets really cold. For extra heat I have a small propane radiant heater. I have used a kerosene forced air heater when I needed to thaw my ice racer.

If you can swing it, install a minisplit.

Heat in the winter, A/C in the summer. Here is a 12K btu heat pump for $525.

I have a propane torpedo tube heater and it's worked great the last two winters. Doesn't seem to use much gas either. The only downfall is that it's loud, but I just crank up the radio.

KyAllroad wrote: In reply to Teh E36 M3: ditto. I like how much faster it heats up than anything electric and having an alternative fuel source when the power goes out is nice. I hear a one car garage with mine and it's t-shirt comfortable in 15-20 minutes. Bonus heat: I use a 500w halogen work light from big lots to see what I'm working on. That thing puts out a crazy amount of heat and light.

Those halogen lights do help a lot heating the immediate ares they're lighing area(and your body). I like the style with two of them on a stand/tripod. Makes working outside in the cold a lot more bearable. They're also pretty durable once you put (properly installed) severe service bulbs in them.

If you log onto your local Freecycle you'll find people giving away oil furnaces. I picked one up complete with chimney and a 100 gallon oil tank. 120k btu, forced air and silent. It'll run on diesel if your local home heating oil supplier doesn't want to deliver to an older unit that they didn't install.

Lots of good suggestions, thanks! When the garage is renovated down the line, I'll look more seriously at something like the minisplit to keep the temps comfortable year-round along with insulating the whole place. For now though, I can tough out the heat with the door & windows open and fans running. I'm thinking for the time being I'll use my existing oil-filled space heaters and a fan and put a Mr. Heater Big Buddy on the list for the in-laws to get me for Christmas- it sounds like the most effective and efficient way to go without putting something permanent in.

Hmmm... may not wait on that after all, if it works this could be a pretty good option: http://lexington.craigslist.org/hsh/4743194278.html

I used this in my garage when I was in PA. http://www.harborfreight.com/15000-btu-tank-top-propane-heater-67857-4913.html

I don't know how many sq ft it was, but it was a 3 car garage, actually large enough to squeeze 4 cars in. While it wouldn't make my garage tropically warm on the coldest winter day, it made it warm enough that I wasn't seeing my breath and wasn't shivering.

I bought one of these last weekend. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Dyna-Glo-50K-200K-LP-Convection-Heater-RMC-LPC200DG/202895383

My garage is fully insulated, though the doors are a bit drafty. It was 28 degrees last night and I was working quite comfortably in a long sleeve tshirt while running the heater on low. I had a fan at ceiling height blowing down to get the air mixing around.

No signs of condensation so far.

In reply to Klayfish: Yup, that's what I use.

The Harbor Freight one isn't a bad option either given I always have excess 20% off coupons, though I might consider getting the 2-burner one since I've got a bit more space to heat.

Just my two cents. Radiant heat is your friend. Trying to heat the air is expensive and somewhat pointless since there are so many air leaks and probably poor insulation. Radiant heat warms surfaces, not air. So as long as you are in its path (tools included), it will heat whatever it hits. That is what they use on patio restaurants and retail store entrances.

Any time you have a poorly insulated space, radiant is the way to go. I do have a kerosene torpedo as well that I use to heat on really cold days, but within minutes of turning it off, its freezing in there again because the hot air just escapes.

Something like this