Heater placement

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65_valiant

65_valiant

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I'm having a guy come out tomorrow to see how much it would cost me to have him run an NG line out to my garage. Where would be the best place for the heater to mount? I was initially thinking of above the door at the back of this pic, but would that really be the best place? that is where the gas line will run, but what about to the left of the bench in the corner?

The garage is 20x25, uninsulated for now. I'll have that up here soon enough. Or does it really even matter?

 
I am assuming you are putting in a heater with a blower and not just an infrared (radiant) heater.. if so, the main thing is to direct the air downward and get plenty of air movement everywhere. If the guy running the gas line is an HVAC guy, he may be able to give you some suggestions or ideas of what he has done or seen. You might also look into an "attic" furnace that would sit up above and then run some ductwork up there... but much simpler probably just to put a single box type heater on one corner....
I"m not one to talk, I have a big wood stove and 3 ceiling fans to move air around.

Insulation will help too!
 
yah insulation and plastic its 3/4 of keeping the heat in and the price down between every stud then staple plastic over that and your good for peg board or what ever
 
What type of heater are you considering? Do you plan on sealing up your garage from air leaks? Insulation? Depending on your application, the recommendations will vary. Need more info...
 
LOL....heating a garage......here, in Oz, it is, where will I fit the a/c unit.
I have an a/c unit in my Assembly Room under the house ( highset house).
I got some tidying up to do......:)
 

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Cooling will come, probably not soon but it'll happen. Sealing for airleaks in a 40 yearold garahe won't happen. I'm not willing to spend that kind of time, nor effort and money, on that sort of thing. Insulation is coming soon, like this year soon. The heater ill probably use is a mr heater type unit. I need more research on it tho. I don't want a heater that is really loud like my forced air kerosene, but I understand that when you have a blower on a shop heater, there will be some noise. I just want to be able to conversate witjout hollerin. I've read there are areas that don't specifically need the vapor barrier. Why would that be? I'm in Wichita, Ks and will be using it, but I'm still curious as too why one would not use it.
 
Mr Heater makes several types of heaters. I assume you are talking about the radiant heater. If so, two things to consider. They give off water vapor. They give off poisonous gas, carbon monoxide. Therefore a little ventilation is necessary. Don't make your garage air tight!

This type of heater is popular and works well. Positioning it is important. Radiant heat is directional - and not affected by air movement. Depending on what the work you are planning on doing, you could position the heater to aim at the front of your car(engine bay) or at the work bench.

I have a pellet stove in my garage, but I also have a Mr Heater tank mount radiant heater. The tank mount heater can be moved around to where you want the heat; where you are working.
 
65_valiant said:
I was leaning more towards the regular NG hot air heater type. Radiant would be nice, but i'll be moving all about the garage and not sittin in any one place.
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Have your HVAC guy price a ceiling mounted gas fired unit heater. Put it in the corner opposite your biggest door. They're not too noisy and the new ones are 95 to 97% efficient. That small of an area would be easy and economical to heat after you insulate the ceiling.
 
I just had a garage heater installed last month and love it. It's a Reznor 45,000 BTU roof mount heater and it keeps the garage nice and toasty. My garage is 24'x24'x8' and I had to insulate it and poly it as well (I still have to finish the walls in OSB and replace the garage door, but that will come in time) You can see the angle the installers put it on and it seams to blow the heat around well.

The Reznor is the most efficient garage heater you can get. It's 86% efficient I believe? It's not loud either.

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Hemi, The efficiency isn't even something I thought about until I just happened to read that the mr. heater I was reading about was 81%.
75 sport, I may just do that. But my guess is that it's going to be more expensive than I'm going to want to spend.
 
Hemiorangeswinger said:
The Reznor is the most efficient garage heater you can get. It's 86% efficient I believe? It's not loud either.
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75Sport said:
Have your HVAC guy price a ceiling mounted gas fired unit heater. Put it in the corner opposite your biggest door. They're not too noisy and the new ones are 95 to 97% efficient. That small of an area would be easy and economical to heat after you insulate the ceiling.
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Another vote for a Reznor. Have had one in my shop for about 5yrs. and very happy with it. Installed just like Dan suggested.
 
65_valiant said:
Hemi, The efficiency isn't even something I thought about until I just happened to read that the mr. heater I was reading about was 81%.
75 sport, I may just do that. But my guess is that it's going to be more expensive than I'm going to want to spend.
Click to expand...

We have two Modine 93% units in our 5000 sf. shop with 14' ceilings that work very well in our heavily insulated building. They were initially almost double in cost of the other brands but in the 5 years we had them they more than paid for themselves. Dan
 
Reznor has always been pretty good stuff. Don't get a so called "90 percent plus" or what is known as "condensing." These units require more service in general, are more fussy with heat exhangers, and in a garage / shop, freezing is a concern, as the heater always has some condensed water in it.

What you want is like the northern unit you linked to, or the Reznor pictured above. These are in what is loosely called the "80 percent" class. This came about as efficiency improved some years ago, the older units were backwards -ly known as "70 percent class" You cannot even buy a 70 class anymore.

Codes change, but there used to be a code for those type ceiling hung unit heaters that required 8 ft clearance from BOTTOM of heater to floor. You cannot get that in your shop, but I've seen many of these installed that ignored the code. There is also, generally, in any code, variance if you can talk an inspector into it. If you can, I'd probably hang it right above the bench in the left side of your photo.
 
Lots of good info here, just wanna add, there is no 'single' best way to heat a given space. Sometimes radiant heat works better, sometimes a warm air heater works best. It depends on some variables, but if your garage has very much air leakage, a radiant heater rules. Warm air rises; moves up and out of your heated space. Radiant heat is not affected like that. (In fact airplane hangars are heated with radiant heaters. You could put in a couple dozen hot air type heaters and they would not even come close to the same results.) But if you took the effort to seal up those leaks and add insulation, you would probably be happy going that route. Hey man, whatever gets you out to the garage to twist some wrenches! Winters coming...
 
Install a Carbon Monoxide detector alarm in the garage also for your protection and if a gas leak ever happens (hopefully when not being used) you will have a warning instead of whenever you might get around to going to the garage again.
My dad in KS had an older NG heater w/fan in a 25 X 30 cinder block 2 car detached garage and placed it in a front corner angled diagonal to the opposite corner and warmed it in no time with no "hot" spots....equal temp everywhere after 2 warming cycles. 8)

If I ever have the opportunity to have a nice detached garage, I will also go with a similar NG heater as shown in link a few posts ago! For an attached garage, I would run a vent from the house HVAC along with a moveable radiant heater for backup....IF I stay in FL.
 
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