Shop Heater Size / Type

D

D45

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What options are out there for clean burning garage heaters?

Prefer wall or ceiling mounted

The floor kerosene torpedo heater isn't cutting it anymore and is taking up valuable space

Propane..... natural gas.....electric..... radiant.......forced air?

My third car garage is my shop, with front and rear 8' garage doors......currently not insulated but that will change this winter

The area is 1,000 square feet

Yes will only be used as needed, obviously only during the fall and winter months

NG sounds like it will be my best bet .....I don't even want to know how expensive it would be for an electrical based heater

My shop is basically the third car garage, that is attached to the 2 car garage.... both separated by a common walk. The 2 car is then attached to the side of the house.

The previous owner lengthened the third car garage and added another garage door for a tractor.

What size BTU heater should I be looking at?
 
I would say a wall mount ventless would do it. NG would be your cheapest. Right now, Propane and electric are about a wash. What do you mean the floor kerosene torpedo heater isn't cutting it? Will it not keep it warm, of just too much a pain/obstacle?
 
zstroken said:
What do you mean the floor kerosene torpedo heater isn't cutting it? Will it not keep it warm, of just too much a pain/obstacle?
Click to expand...

The floor mounted torpedo heater was fine for working in my old 2 car garage....but in the new house, with the much larger garage, I just feel it will take too long to heat up and I am tired of having fuel on hand to feed it

Plus, I am also tired of it taking up floor space when being used and having to run an electrical cord to power it up
 
I always thought torpedos were a very fast way to heat an area. If you want to turn it on and off your going to need something with a blower. If you don't mind just letting it maintain a relatively constant temp, then the ventless units would work well. Of course you need to consider if your doing lots of work with flammable solvents, then you need to take into consideration anything that exceeds the minimum ignition temperature of the flammables you intend to use. I have a pellet stove in my 30x36 insulated shop. I put a thermostat on it, and it does a fine job of keeping the building in the upper 45-50 degree range. I would guess it costs me about $1.25 a day to heat the place. We currently don't have NG available, but when we do, I plan to pick up a ventless NG unit(maybe 2) and use those in the building.
 
I have electric or propane as my options so I went electric with a Dayton Electric heater. My garage is 900 sqft. The heater puts out 17100 BTU on high.

With the outside temp at 20F, it runs about 10 minutes per hour to keep it at 50F inside. Before I go out to work, I turn it up to 68F and it takes about 20-25 minutes to get there from 50F.

It sounds like I should have gone wood pellet because this thing takes up to $3/day if it's -5F outside.
 
I guess my torpedo has served me well, but the problem with the current one I have:

-Smaller BTU rating
-LOUD
-Electrical cord laying around
-Takes up floor space
-Fumes from the kerosene
 
Natural gas is by far the cheapest for actual fuel costs. Also with the heat loss and need to recover quickly such as when the roll up is opened I would go with at least 40,000 btu's. Wall mounted open combustion chambered heaters are a death trap in a garage. I have seen a spilled quart of gas turn the entire shop floor into a fireball when the heater ignited. Ceiling mounted heater such as a Hot Dawg separated combustion chamber unit is the best and by far the safest option you have. Gas boiler fired sub floor heat is best in new construction applications.
 
NG prices are dirt cheap right now for sure

What do you mean by open combustion chambered heaters?
 
Ones that draw the combustion air from the area they heat. Sealed combustion chambers use 2 pipes or a pipe inside a pipe arrangement to draw the combustion air from outside the building. One vents flue gases out, one draws combustion air in. You could not give me a true ventless heater to use anywhere indoors. Ever. I have seen a 17k btu gas fireplace set off Co detectors within 5 minutes of use in a 2000 sq. ft house.
 
Vent free are bad news. Any time you see a heating unit have a oxygen depletion sensor run away. Radiant work well if you have enough ceiling height. Under 12-15' ceilings and you get hotspots and poor efficiency.
 
SINNER said:
Vent free are bad news. Any time you see a heating unit have a oxygen depletion sensor run away. Radiant work well if you have enough ceiling height. Under 12-15' ceilings and you get hotspots and poor efficiency.
Click to expand...

Ah ok.......I think the ceiling joints in my shop are right at 12 feet
 
Modine Hot Dawg Garage Heater HD & HDS

The HDS45 is the best one for your application. If you can't afford the closed combustion one the HD45 would be my choice. I have installed more garage heaters than I care to remember and Modine are by far the best made ones I have ever installed.
 
I use a propane BigMaxx to get the shop up to temp, (65), shut it off and maintain with a small woodstove.

It's cheap if you get wood for free. Is your shop insulated? If I shut the heat down at 80 it won't go below 65 for atleast 24hrs.
 
Do you know how much propane the BigMaxx burns?

What size BigMaxx do you run?
 
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