Garage heat

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I survived 1 and a 1/4 winters in very cold Korea with two kerosene heaters to heat my 1 bedroom apartment. No supplemental heat either except a Coleman white gas camp stove while fixing dinner. It was enough to make us feel comfortable, but we had to shut it off at night to avoid asphyxiation.
I’ve heard from many of fellow soldiers how cold Korea was.
 
I’ve heard from many of fellow soldiers how cold Korea was.
I lived in Alaska for 3 years before (as a kid), and I was never so cold in my life as Kunsan in the ROK! The winds blowing off the Yellow Sea were outrageous.
 
I got a used propane furnace from a mobile home. Its only 2' wide and about 6' tall. It heats my 16 x 24' garage to 70° in about 10 minutes. A 100lb bottle of gas lasts me 2 years. Just refilled my bottle yesterday, cost $70. Not bad, $35 a year.
 
I got a used propane furnace from a mobile home. Its only 2' wide and about 6' tall. It heats my 16 x 24' garage to 70° in about 10 minutes. A 100lb bottle of gas lasts me 2 years. Just refilled my bottle yesterday, cost $70. Not bad, $35 a year.
Must be insulated to r100. lol
 
Boy, it doesn't matter what kind of heat you have, radiant or heated air, with no insulation it's going to be a bugger to heat. 2 1/2 car garage? About 26' X 30' X 10' sidewalls? With no insulation and a cold climate, any of the on-line heating calculators come up with 700,000 to 800,000 BTU/hr heating demand for heated air. With good insulation this drops to about a tenth of that. You'll spend more money on heat than you would spend on insulation. If you are really limited on what you can do, IMHO the only reasonable way to go is radiant heat probably with one of the propane fired radiant heaters. Radiant heats objects, not the air, so as long as you are line of sight, it could be what you are looking for. Good luck, it's going to be a long winter!!
 
Boy, it doesn't matter what kind of heat you have, radiant or heated air, with no insulation it's going to be a bugger to heat. 2 1/2 car garage? About 26' X 30' X 10' sidewalls? With no insulation and a cold climate, any of the on-line heating calculators come up with 700,000 to 800,000 BTU/hr heating demand for heated air. With good insulation this drops to about a tenth of that. You'll spend more money on heat than you would spend on insulation. If you are really limited on what you can do, IMHO the only reasonable way to go is radiant heat probably with one of the propane fired radiant heaters. Radiant heats objects, not the air, so as long as you are line of sight, it could be what you are looking for. Good luck, it's going to be a long winter!!

YUP!!
 
"Trumped" only by a DOUBLE barrel stove!!

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/us-stove-wood-stove-barrel-add-on-kit

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Or a double barrel with "heat exchanger" and blower!!!

 
I highly endorse the 55 gal drum conversion. I had one in my shop, used twelve extra feet of stovepipe across the shop before exiting to the chimney. Three newspaper logs would burn for five hours and make is to hot I had to crack open two windows - - Oklahoma winter at 10 F degrees. The most amazing heater I had ever seen. And, the newspapers were free from three neighbors for the entire winter.
 
My garage is 22x24 front attached and the best upgrade was full insulation, vapor wrap and drywall.
After that it doesn't take much to maintain 10°C. I can work in that.
I use a hand me down electric fireplace to heat the garage.
 
I use the torpedo heater for the initial quick warm up, shut it down, then use the propane heater that attaches to the top of a grille tank and it will hold temp for several hours with outside temp. around 20 degrees.
 
2 pair of socks , long underwear , sweats , t-shirt , turtle neck , sweatshirt, hoody and coveralls.

Just like when I was a kid in MN . Nothing kept us inside . -20f .... No problem
 
lotta yall suggesting some type of wood burning heat, he in chitcago, where he sposed to find fire wood?????? probably cost to much but a gas fired boiler hooked to an in floor piping system works great in type environment your in! might still be plausible using right type heat exchanger... look into wel-mcclain boilers eden nc for better details....
 
lotta yall suggesting some type of wood burning heat, he in chitcago, where he sposed to find fire wood?????? probably cost to much but a gas fired boiler hooked to an in floor piping system works great in type environment your in! might still be plausible using right type heat exchanger... look into wel-mcclain boilers eden nc for better details....

And just what are you going to use for fuel? Thanks for spending the OP's money. "I'd assume" that if he has an un-insulated garage, he likely doesn't want to chisel up the slab to bury piping. Plus you have to protect a boiler from freezing, which means "running it at all times" in freezing weather. He already mentioned that getting gas to the garage would be expensive...................
 
And just what are you going to use for fuel? Thanks for spending the OP's money. "I'd assume" that if he has an un-insulated garage, he likely doesn't want to chisel up the slab to bury piping. Plus you have to protect a boiler from freezing, which means "running it at all times" in freezing weather. He already mentioned that getting gas to the garage would be expensive...................
read "probably cost to much" and "gas fired" and "might still be plausible using right type heat exchanger..." and your welcome to research wel-mcclain boilers to, thay ant all that expensive less ya heating a high rise apartment building on lake shore drive!! ant spent his money, an pointed out where cost would be over bearing!
 
read "probably cost to much" and "gas fired" and "might still be plausible using right type heat exchanger..." and your welcome to research wel-mcclain boilers to, thay ant all that expensive less ya heating a high rise apartment building on lake shore drive!! ant spent his money, an pointed out where cost would be over bearing!
A heated floor would be the cat's meow. Where I'm at, no matter if it's electric or would or gas, it's always cold down by the floor. But like Mbaird said dress in layers and you don't need much heat.
 
A heated floor would be the cat's meow. Where I'm at, no matter if it's electric or would or gas, it's always cold down by the floor. But like Mbaird said dress in layers and you don't need much heat.
use to see these type in floor system up in MN,SD, an ND on potato farms in the in ground bunkers to keep the spuds from freezing and lot of there shops as well! works great when battling long term zub zero conditions!
 
use to see these type in floor system up in MN,SD, an ND on potato farms in the in ground bunkers to keep the spuds from freezing and lot of there shops as well! works great when battling long term zub zero conditions!

Heated floors are not uncommon in ND, here's the one I put in my shop when I remodeled it.

Floor Heat - 4.JPG
 
I'm in the Chicago suburbs too. Didn't want to worry about open flames in the garage and wasn't planning on running all the time. I decided that the few times I'd be out there, I'd pay for the electric. Still haven't installed the heater or insulation. Decide what you want to do in terms of codes, permits, etc. and nosy neighbors. Ended up upgrading the service to the garage to 240V 50A (had the wire). Compressor, lights, welder, no problem. Probably can't run all of it at the same time when I install the heater unless I turn things off when not using them.

The way I read the NEC code, with RIGID pipe (not direct burial, not PVC, not regular conduit), you can get away with 6 inches of burial. Might even check to what size pipe may even be run out there already and pull new wires. I tried too but someone used and elbow instead of a sweep bend and couldn't get the wire #8 I wanted to run through it.

Separate building separate the ground and neutral and drive a ground bar. Wasn't too bad to dig the 50 ft to my detached and I'm way out of shape. Run as large of pipe that you can afford work have tools to work with. You an always pull heavier wire later. I ran 1" pipe because I had that size masonry bit and pipe dies. I think I can run 3 #3s for 100A according to the conduit fill charts. If uncomfortable with electric, talk to the electrician about maybe you digging the trench, that's the labor intense part.

Just reread your post. You mentioned fuses. Might want to check you service panel/drop too. When I bought the place 10 years ago it was still a 60A fuse panel that was already out of room and a few questionable practices. Insurance company wanted it upgraded before they wrote it the policy.
 
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I have a Kero-Sun 23.000 BTU Kerosene heater
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in my carport / work shop. A 2 car, open carport. I have it closed of with a tarp hung like a curtain. The heater keeps the space comfortable. No fumes. If you have trouble with allergies or you think you have fumes, you can burn pure mineral sprits. More expensive than Kerosene, but burns real clean. I used to sell kerosene heaters in, of all places, Miami Florida for a hardware store. "The Aladdin Blue Flame." The store owner always recommended Mineral Sprits.
 
For radiant floor heating, is it better to go with electric, or hot water?

Depends on the cost of "fuel." Get with your local utilitites/ LPG and fuel oil suppliers who can give you cost per BTU or per unit measure of fuel. Then figure BTU. Bear in mind that

Electric is essentially 100% efficient except for WHAT BETTER BE a very small amount lost in wiring, and of course building losses, which would be same as for any fuel. But do not confuse heating appliance efficiency with fuel cost/ BTU

LPG/ NAT gas can be as high as "in the 90's % AFUE. Oil is somewhat lower I have not kept up with current oil burner efficiency. Guessing 80% But as you get higher and higher burner efficiency, they are all more "tweeky" and can have high maintenance problems. "For me" an 80%+ unit is "bang for buck"

"The old crap" I used to maintain that was still around in the 80-s--90's was termed "70%" and the 80+% stuff had come out and doing well. 90+% (condensing furnaces) MANY had long term maintenance problems. Before the demise of Lennox Pulse furnaces, they could achieve 97% AFUE in some cases. The vent gases (through PVC pipe) were colder than the output air from the plenum. Also avoid 90%/ condensing furnaces in areas ---like a garage---where freezing is an issue.

I doubt like 'ell that electric is relatively cheap in that area. We, here, in the N end of Idaho, have one of the cheaper electric rates, with lots of hydro power on tap
 
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