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portable garage heater

BADBK

BADBK

Well-known member
Looking for a portable electric heater -Not 220/240v-

Only needs to heat a stall and a half a little so I'm not cutting my floor out with my nipples.

Watcha got?
 
Ahem,did I read that right? "Cutting my floor out with my nipples"?
BK,I think you might have gotten us confused with your other chat room.
Let's just pretend this never happened. :poke::rof:
 
Yes, the garage is insulated and sheetrocked....

john lamon said:
How bout electric with a little propane behind it? I have one of these to warm it up quick, don't need it anymore so it's for sale but it worked great to heat it up quick for when you just need to work on something, I always found it took forever to warm up with the little electric heater.

http://www.mrheater.com/product.aspx?catid=46&id=181
Click to expand...

I looked at those, not really interested in burning 20lb's of propane every 8 hrs of work.... a natty gas or 240v elec heater would be more cost efficient. Thanks tho.

sim said:
Ahem,did I read that right? "Cutting my floor out with my nipples"?
BK,I think you might have gotten us confused with your other chat room.
Let's just pretend this never happened. :poke::rof:
Click to expand...

You def read it right... I lean down to start cutting with my skill saw/sawzall but it's sooooo damn cold my nips are puncturing the floor first! :eyecrazy: That and I'd like to be able to feel it if I slice a finger or 3 off. :o
 
I would recommend going with an infrared one. Something like you would find over at Grainger... ie part#1UCG8. You can move this one around so that you can keep in close. Also, it heats surfaces turning everthing into a radiator and not air that eventually rises to the ceiling.

If you want to stick to forced air, I would just go with a milk house style heater you can find anywhere. #3VU31.

The problem you are going to run into is that electric heat is VERY low when it comes to Btu's generated from power input unless you get into something that can carry some larger amps. To do that, as you probably already know, you will have to go 240V.

I would probably just go to Walmart and buy the biggest 1800 watt ceramic they have. That is about where you are going to max out at on a 120V circuit.

In case you want to get crazy with it, PM your bay dimensions, including ceiling height, and estimated R-factor for your walls and I can do a heat loss calculation for you. That will tell you exact Btu's needed to mainting a certain temperature.

- Mike
 
The forced air propane heater like john was speaking of in an insulated inviroment will not be that hard to feed. You can use it to warm things up at the start and then set the thermostat back so it just kicks on and off as needed.
 
boatman4021 said:
The forced air propane heater like john was speaking of in an insulated inviroment will not be that hard to feed. You can use it to warm things up at the start and then set the thermostat back so it just kicks on and off as needed.
Click to expand...


Yes, but when I get to the fiberglassing and painting stages I will want to keep the garage climate controlled ~70 degrees + overnight.

Having a portable heater to do that was a pipe dream... gonna prob have to bite the bullet and hang a nice one I'll be able to use for years to come. Shucks :thumb:
 
Might think about vapors,fumes and open flame heaters. I have the propane one and it works great. Heats up fast and then you can turn it off for a while. I just don't like the open flame in the garage when spraying or working with flammables. Thats when I use the electric radiator type heater. Good heat but takes a while to heat up.
 
Northern Tool has some nice wall mounted ones that you could even tap into your natural gas system (assuming you have that and not oil heat).
 
boatman4021 said:
The forced air propane heater like john was speaking of in an insulated inviroment will not be that hard to feed. You can use it to warm things up at the start and then set the thermostat back so it just kicks on and off as needed.
Click to expand...

They really don't use that much propane, I got it because my electric bill was killing me with the electric heater and it took forever to warm up, my garage was 20x26 insulated but just poly, no drywall, with the propane I could get it from -5* to 60 or 70 in 20 or 30 mins, then I would shut it off for a while, after that run it for 5 or 10 mins every hour and it's warm, I would say that if I spent 5 hours in the garage I would only have the heater on for an hour of that, I spend a lot of time in my garage and last winter I only went through 3 20lb tanks of propane, the one thing I don't like about it is it's pretty loud, it's nice to just turn up the thermostate on the Nat gas heater now:D

EDIT: I got side tracked and finished replying to this after about the last 5 posts, lol
 
If your going to do something permanent, why not put in a mini-split unit. For a garage the size you mentioned, the unit would run about $1,500. The install is simple if you know a little about HVAC. I would run the line set and power, than have a HVAC guy come out and fill it with refrigerant and braze or solder the lines for you. All said and done it might coat 2k and you would have AC in the summer to boot.

BTW... I can heat my carpentry shop (40x40 with 18' ceiling) with two of the units I originally suggested. To get the initial burst of heat I use a propane heater, but maintain the temperature with two radiator style heaters and a ceiling fan. (60-65 degrees when it is 20-30 outside)
 
Ramifications said:
If your going to do something permanent, why not put in a mini-split unit. For a garage the size you mentioned, the unit would run about $1,500. The install is simple if you know a little about HVAC. I would run the line set and power, than have a HVAC guy come out and fill it with refrigerant and braze or solder the lines for you. All said and done it might coat 2k and you would have AC in the summer to boot.

BTW... I can heat my carpentry shop (40x40 with 18' ceiling) with two of the units I originally suggested. To get the initial burst of heat I use a propane heater, but maintain the temperature with two radiator style heaters and a ceiling fan. (60-65 degrees when it is 20-30 outside)
Click to expand...

Not interested in putting $2K worth of HVAC into a house I might only be in 3-4 years... if this was my forever home, different story, but then it would be a 5+ car garage w/30' deep stalls!

Given what you said about heating your shop, I'm going to grab one of those heaters and see how much it helps.... worse case, I can use it inside when it's balls cold out. I only have a "standard" 3 car garage, and will have 1/2 of it tarped off as well to keep dust/etc contained + keep some heat contained. If not, I'll explore natural gas/electric heater options. :bigthumb:
 
Interesting thread. I know your looking for electric but, I got a propane tank mounted heater. I can heat my oversized 1 car up in 15 minutes and shut it down to almost nothing to keep the heat going. Its cheap to run and have had no issues out of it in the 10 years I have had it, other than the igniter not working anymore!

Also never had a issue with painting in the garage. I shut it off if spraying a large amount. Open the door when done for a minute. The warm air rushes the fumes out instantly! Shut the door back and fire it up.
 
+1 to what boatman said. I have one of those and one of the kerosene "jet" heaters. Since I got the tank mounted one the zero one just collects dust. No bad smell and no need for an electric connection means double win for propane.

John
 
Hey BK, multiply length of space to be heated by width, by height to get a shoot from the hip size of heater needed. Sounds like you have insulation and drywall. A 22 by 22 by 10 foot garage would need at least a 4800 watt heater. I have an electric heater that used to be ceiling mounted on a "U" bracket. It's about 2 foot square, puts out 11000 watts, has a integral thermostat and fan, and about 25 feet of cord. I usually hard wire it right into the electric panel in the garage and sit it on a 5 gallon paint bucket. Heats the garage in minutes,and you can move it wherever you want. Pulled it out of a commercial space at a stripmall remodel, the general contractor was going to throw it away. Probably pick one up at a garage sale or C.L. for nothing. New cost maybe 250 to 350. Sears type store has similar 5000 watt model for 260 bucks, short peice of cord and a breaker, and it's sunny Hawaii in the garage.
 
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I have one of these in my garage. It is in the back of the garage where I have 12 foot ceilings. Sure wish I would have used that thing 2 years ago.

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I want to get it hooked up to a thermostat and get a couple of ceiling fans back there to help circulate the heat, but time to do it is a problem.
 
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