I always liked wood heat. Thought about installing a double-wall insulated flue and then using my Kni-Co tent stove in the garage. A big ole cast iron pot belly stove even better. Why not?

Here's why: Check your homeowners insurance. Found out nobody wants to insure anything with a woodstove. Ain't happenin'. Can't really blame 'em. Maybe it's different depending on location, but. A "big buddy" takes the chill off. Installed with inline filter and 20 pound barbie tank.

 

That's a great idea, though I bet your power meter spins fast enough to saw wood! lol Have a Trane heatpump here. They work well down to about 20° or so. When it gets real cold below zero though, and windy it can't keep up and the heat strips come on quite a bit. The power bill gets nuked when that happens. Would work great I bet in the garage though once in a while.

 

I think I have the best solution, for me anyway. A 50,000 btu pellet stove three-bagger, and a variable speed reversible ceiling fan for air movement in my 24' x 40' shop/garage with an open span. standard ceiling insulation with 2" foil backed styro between the girts and faced with OSB. Last winter in the low 20's while a comfy 50° inside. I also have the 10' x 10' roll-up doors insulated.


50,000 btu pellet stove with outside fresh air intake, and 18" above the floor per code (gasoline vapors).

The shop fan:

 

Those torpedo heaters throw off heat but do take up considerable space and are fairly noisy. They also have the added benefit of potential fireworks when combined with paint.

The Reznor unit would make more sense, as would some version of this: https://madison.craigslist.org/app/d...381765743.html

You also could use the type of unit used in mobile homes as they are quite compact. I've worked in unheated garages that tried to get by with little space heaters - they still were unheated and unsuited to any sort of surface finish work.

 

When it's real cold, (about 3 weeks a year, here), I use this to heat a two car, uninsulated garage. The garage has a gable vent on either end, so the gas, along with some of the heat, escapes easily.


If it's above freezing and I just want to remove the chill, I use one of these.


For the purpose I intend, both work well.

 

They correct way is to have something with a heat exchange and a flue for the combustion products. Otherwise you are going to do some degree of asphixiation. The alternative is an electric heater. Bottom line, is convenience and cheap worth risking your life for? Do it right .

 

Abe,
I was in your situation at one point. I used a kerosene heater like in your picture and while it provided heat it was not enough and my wife would tell me i smelled like oil when i came back in. Most of that is probably the fumes left from the burning of kerosene and/or any small amount of chemicals in the air. I didn't feel it was very safe either so i stopped using it. I ended up buying two portable baseboard electric heaters (plug into a std outlet) and an electric ceramic heater. They worked pretty good but obviously they could not get the garage to a point that i could enjoy myself in the middle of winter. However they were very adequate near my bench. I ended up getting my hands on a very like new mobile home oil furnace that i put in the corner of my garage up on block (heat came out the bottom). I didn't use a tank but rather 5 gallon fuel cans that i filled at Sheetz with kerosene. The kerosene burned better and I was told it was probably setup for kerosene and/or a mix due to the tank being outside?? Either way that puppy worked like a champ but it did take room. So this year (about 2 months ago) since i have the luxury of having Nat Gas i put in an overhead 50,000 BTU Mr Heater. It was $400 and i did it myself (My son is HVAC certified). That thing works amazingly well. I ended up buying another one for my lower garage that i'm converting to a shop (insulation/etc) but i don't have gas down there so i'm going to run it on propane. It if was me i'd splurge and get one of them and run it on a 100 lb propane tank for your needs otherwise i think you easily try the plug in electric heaters and run them while you are out there. (or maybe go out about 1 hour before and turn them on to preheat a little). Maybe after a while you'll decide that you want to go bigger and then look at an overhead heater. What i like about them is they take no floor space. I also have a pellet stove at my cabin and they are awesome but sounds like you have little extra room for that.

BTW, i'm going to sell the trailer furnace (it's a miller and it's self priming). Ready to go and jut pug it into the wall and hook up a very cheap thermostat. Of course you need to run the vent pipe. Sound like it's too big for your needs but it would get it up to 80+ in there in no time!

 

Welcome to the world of heat pumps!

Later!
Mr. Ed

 

First off, I would insulate the garage. Walls and ceiling. Once insulated, it will be easier to keep warm and therefore you would require a smaller heater. I put drywall over all of the walls and in a few locations, I put pegboard over that for tools.

Since I was in the HVAC business, I added an ADP residential garage heater similar to this Hot Dawg by Modine. Both are residential models.

Hot Dawg® Power Vented (HD) | HVAC

These are direct vented through the wall and have a separate combustion chamber so that there is no chance of gas fumes infiltrating the combustion chamber. Better to be safe than sorry.

I have had mine for about 15 years and back then they offered a 15,000 Btu model which would have been sufficient for my 14' x 27' garage. Since I worked for a division of ADP, they were going to take it out of my paycheck in three easy payments. They contacted me to say that they had run out of 15k units and would I accept a 30k at the same price? Heck, yes. So now I can open the door between my two garages and get both up to the a nice toasty temperature in a matter of minutes.

The moral here is spend a few extra bucks and do it right.

Later!
Mr. Ed

 

I use this and it works great for the person in space limitations. My friend down the street heats his unfinished 2 car garage with it. The dual burner allows you to use two or just one at a time. I have used these for years.

 

This is what I use in a 10x14 insulated room in my shop. Natural gas ventless. I run a co/smoke detector. I like it because you can turn the flame off. I'd love to hear my shop with wood but with a fire you can't shut it off in an emergency.

 

When I built my garage/workshop addition a few years ago I added a gas fired unit with a blower similar to the one Mr. Ed described in his earlier post. It is mounted to the ceiling so it doesn't take up floor space and has a stack through the roof. It is controlled by a regular wall thermostat and it is great. You can insulate to improve efficiency later.

 

The easy solution is to move to a warmer climate and forget about cold weather !

 

Been there, done that Dave. I miss the changes of season and the snow.

 

Your bones aren’t as old as mine or as broken up as mine. Therefore you can have the snow. Give me fall and spring and a short hot summer.