I live in Cincinnati and have a 3 car garage that I want to heat so that I
can do some work over the winter. My garage is finished and insulated. I
am figuring that some of you have installed garage heaters and will have
some recommendations on the good and bad units out there. Those of you
living in Florida and Southern California are lucky enough not to have to
face this issue!!!

According to my limited research, it would appear that the chosen fuel for
my heater should be natural gas (NG), however, one other garage heater I
had seen was called a "pellet heater" and it burns wood pellets. If I
decide to go with an NG heater, there are two main types of NG heaters:
Convection (a flame heats the air and blows it into the room) and Radiant
(infra-red rays heat objects). I am leaning towards a radiant heater
because they appear to have the following positive benefits:

* Extremely efficient
* Easy to install (no intake air or exhaust gas vent plumbing)
* Low cost
* Few moving parts
* No noise
* Radiant heat feels warmer than convection heated air??

The main negative concern I have about a radiant heater is that they all
appear NOT use an outside air intake for their combustion needs.
Therefore, it is my understanding that these radiant heaters will consume
the oxygen in my closed garage, thus leaving behind carbon monoxide to
kill me. If I have to install a simple vent in my garage to allow in
fresh (i.e. COLD!!) air, then won’t this negate the effect of having a
super efficient heater?? There is nothing worse than a cold draft blowing
into the garage working against the heater. If this is the case, then
maybe I should consider a convection heater because they suck in outside
air for their combustion needs and vent exhaust gases out through a small
chimney. This way, I would have no fear of carbon monoxide poisoning
while working in my closed garage for several hours at a time. If there
is a radiant heater on the market that is able to be plumbed to suck in
outside air, this would seem to be the unit for me.

Now, if I am able to locate a radiant heater that uses outside air for its
combustion, does everyone agree that a radiant heater is better than a
convection heater?? Or, are their some other benefits to using a
convection heater that I am missing?? Of course, if absolutely all
radiant heaters use interior oxygen for their combustion, this single
factor will likely push me towards a convection heater. I suppose another
option could be the wood pellet heater that I mentioned above – anyone
tried one of these?? The two main brands of radiant heaters I have seen
are Solaronics and Enerco. Any feedback regarding Solaronics, Enerco or
other brands??

Another concern that I have is that garages tend to have flammable liquids
and vapors stored in them. Am I going to blow myself up??

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Jeff Lamb
Cincinnati, OH

 

You shouldn't need to worry about CO poisoning, only CO2 asphyxiation.

 

I see that Captain Toolbox (aka Tabor) has struck again with his useful insight!

Jeff, I use electric heat in my garage. It is fan forced hot air and I keep it pointed in the direction of my car, so I do not have to try to heat the whole garage, just me!

 

I am in the process of installing a heater for my 3 bay work shop in my house. I will be using LP radiant heat because it heats the objects in the room. I live in a rural area of New York so I use liquid propane for fuel. I thought of wood burning stoves but too much hassle in loading and cleaning afterwwards. About your concerns on oxygen usage, mostly all heaters use interior air to work. What they let out is carbon dioxide that is safer. Don't worry, your garage is not air tight, you won't die. You won't notice anything. Check out www.Northerntool.comfor some options on heaters. They have natural gas ones also. Good luck, there is nothing like working in 10 degree weather , your air compressor is slow and your fingers are numb.

 

AFAIK, the wood pellet heater has pretty much the same drawbacks as a regular woodstove: you have to build a fire; you have to wait for the heater to get warm before you get heat; you have to feed it (with a hopper, not as often); you have to haul out the ash (maybe not as often); you'll eventually need to clean the creosote out of the chimney. Both consume air, so require some source of outside (cold!) air, even if it's just leaks. And you can't just burn any old stick or limb... gotta buy the pellets.

Either can be a dangerous source of ignition if you spill gas.

In our milder climate, I'm planning to use a thru-the-wall heat pump w. electric back-up, since we don't have much day or evening weather below the heat pump's effeciency cut-off rating. Plus this'll give me A/C for the worst summer days... ... oh, yeah! Livin' large!

Jim, nine years with a woodstove as primary heat... cut, split, and hauled all of it myownself...

 

Thanks to everyone for the correction related to the carbon MONoxide vs. DIoxide. I am not very good with air pollutants.

I loved Lou951's response "you won't die. You won't notice anything." Instead of dying, do you mean that I will just peacefully go to sleep for the rest of eternity while not noticing anything!!! Just kidding.

In all seriousness, Lou, which radiant heater are you going to go with and what Btu/hour size rating for your 3 bay shop?? It sounds like the air gaps created by my garage door not sealing completely tight should give me enough ventilation to use one of these things. I agree that I really don't want to hassle with a wood burning stove.

Thanks again for everyone's feedback!!

Jeff

 

Jeff, I plan on using something w/ at least 40k BTU's as my work shop is 780 sq.ft. with 12 ft. clearance on the ceilings but with a 19ft. peak. I'm leaning towards using 2 heaters at 22k BTU's each, placed at opposite corners in my shop.
This should give me good coverage. I'll probably use Northern Tool's model #17363-C164 @ $299.99 each. This model has less restrictions on placement, some others require too much clearance between wall and ceilings. I'm still shopping for price though but so far that is a good one. What I meant by not noticing anything is that it doesn't have ill effects, it just heats the air and that's it, just like the heater in your house....wait I'm a little light headed...just kidding, good luck and let us know what you do.