jskorz

Winter is coming & now that I am retired I'll be working in the garage more . Looking for suggestions for a electric fan style heater . The town I live in has very cheap electric rates so that is why I'm going that route . I have a rather large garage 22' x 40' .... 12' ceiling ....
Am NOT looking to hard wire & was looking for heater with a cord 120v that I can mount on opposite sides of the garage mounted on wall brackets .... I'll be happy keeping the garage @ 60 degrees .

THX in advance

Sugar Bear

I can't see any 120V heater keeping that much space in CT winters close to 60 degrees. IMO, you cannot pull enough current on a normal 120V circuit to accomplish your goal. Consider enclosing and heating a smaller area.

Good luck!!!

Yellowstatue

I use a 240V electric barn heater. Plugs into my hoist outlet. Curtain off one bay of a three bay. Cozy enough to take the chill out.

RetroRanger

i use a 240v dimplex heater from amazon. If its real cold i blast the propane tank heater for 20m or so first. Most times if the outside temp is ~30ish the electric is enough to easily get to 45° in about 20m in a 24x24 w 10' ceilings i wear insulated mechanics suit....60° is a lotta heat

Vintage Chief

Fully agree. That's ~9,600 cubic feet of open air space to heat ~55°F - or, in simpler terms, 880 square feet @ ~50,000 BTUs or ~20,000 Watts of electricity (two 25,000 BTU units running @ 10,000 Watts each). I don't know of any forced air electric heater capable of producing 25,000 BTUs (or 10,000 Watts) which run on 120V. They're all going to need hard-wired 240V. You might need to reconsider. And, I'm providing a 4" insulation factor on all walls & ceiling. Without a minimum of that amount of insulation 50,000 BTUs will struggle for CT, IMO.

oldcutlass

There are no electric 120v heaters available to heat your space. I investigated this a few years back and bought a kerosene heater. It works well and heats my 800ish sqft garage to work in comfortably.

otto72

I have r30 insulation in the attic space. r13 garage doors and walls. 2"solid foam under concrete (wish now I would have run a hydronic system in the floor) Like Retro Ranger use a 60k btu propane torpedo for 20m to a half hour then set an electric combo low/med/hi 3kw/4kw/5kw 240v to maintain the temp. @ roughly 0.12cents a kwh the high setting costs 0.60cents an hour to operate or about 5bucks for an eight hour period. One thing I found helpful is using ceiling fans to pull the cold air near the floor up to be heated and redistributed, some feel forcing the warm air down works however not so, heating the cool air is the best result. Like Norm has stated a 240v unit will be needed for the best result. It is only one more 2pole 30a breaker and some #10 wire. You could use a dryer receptacle and cord end if you did not want to hard wire it.

tkcutlass

https://www.modinehvac.com/products/...wer-vented-hd/
if propane is an option, my HD75 gets my 4 bay garage nice and toasty in 10-15 minutes even on the coldest days.

GCH

Many in Sweden use different sizes of this type , both to warm the house and garage :
( and AC hot summerdays ) The garage here is not finished yet with insulation but it
would be nice to have 15C / 60F all time under the winter months.

I not sure what you call them in the US , i was wisiting a friend who
had a Master diesel heater can not belive how sombody could work in that
exhaust from the heater. i,m glad that i didn´t purchased one myself.

VC455

That's a split system heat pump. The unit pictured above goes outside and the lower unit mounts high on the wall inside. It can heat or cool the inside space.

A two-ton unit would generate 24,000 Btu/h of heat. That's enough to eventually bring your garage to a livable temperature, but with cold walls and concrete the pickup time will be long. You'd need two splits to bring up the temperature in a reasonable time.

With low electrical cost, one split would work. But you would need an insulated garage door and would need to keep the space at, say 50°, minimum when you're not working there. That would minimize pickup time.

An upside is that the electrical consumption is about a third of what an electric heater would use. And you could keep your garage in the 60s on the hottest days.

Vintage Chief

Gary - Good advice. I'd mention the OP wants to install at least one or two units via 110V with no hard wiring. The OP will be hard-pressed to find a split or mini-split operating @ 24K BTU/hr running off 110V. Most 12K BTU/hr will require a 220V if I'm not mistaken? If so, the OP needs to understand the ramifications of the amp requirements (burden) placed on running these units running off 110V; and, as requested

Rather dicey.

VC455

Thanks for adding that, Norm.

GCH

What are the volt you using in US , 110V ? We have 230V to most things and 400V to electric radiators
warm water heaters , ovens and stuff like that.

VC455

We use 120 V (nominal) single phase for most everything. Heating, air conditioning, clothes dryers, water heaters, and all that require higher amperage use 240 V 2-phase. Nothing higher voltage in homes.

Industrial commonly uses 480 V 3-phase.

GCH

Ok thanks for info , all ordinary homes / houses here have incoming 400V 3 phase with 3x16A fuse and then splitted down to
230V single phase for lamps , tv , computers

akspeedy

I use a 7.5 KW hanging electric heater in my 30x30 with 10 ft ceilings it is 240V, but it will heat my shop to wherever i set it no problems, my walls and ceiling are finished. Nebraska winters can get cold, have had no issues, my wife doesnt even notice on the electric bill, I maintain 60 degrees and turn it up when I got out to work.

jskorz

Thanks for all the replies / suggestions ... yes I have used a kerosene & propane salamanders , they do a great job warming up my garage . But they eat up the Oxygen in the air , and if spending alot of time out there don't think that would be the best for me healthwise ....
Think my approach will be warming the garage initially with a propane salamander and continue warming the area with a couple of 240v heaters , I do have a 240 plug for a welder .... going to contact a electrician for a quote.

Thanks to all for your input

tt455

I have a 50,000 btu modine propane heater in a 20 x 30 garage that works great. Picture was taken when the garage was first built. I also use a dr infrared heater sometimes, just a lot easier and works really well up to 600 sq ft, it is 240 though.

jskorz

Thanks for everyone's input , I bought a Newair 656 240 electric garage heater (plug in - I already have a Mig welder outlet) . Plan on getting a 120v forced air garage also . I will warm the garage with a propane salamander I already have and shut it down and see if I can keep the garage at a reasonable temp , using the salamander as needed ...
I did call an electrician for a quote to install a electric heater - quoted me $1500 forget that.

Thanks again

RetroRanger

That new air is similar to my dimplex, the NA is 19k btus the dimplex is 13.5k btus.

i do the same if its cold, blast the propane for 20m then run the electric.

it helps alot if your space is insulated.

matt69olds

Vintage Chief

Matt -

You may have missed the statement:

no1oldsfan

Man that looks it would heat up a garage perfect. Great thread. I love information.

matt69olds

I did miss that.

I’m guessing it didn’t take long to fill, probably less time than it took for you to wish you built a bigger garage!!

Burd

I have a Kozy gas in wall heater, w/ added fan. Works awesome. I’d be Leary of the elec types. Those are the types which usually cases a fire.


Pics won’t upload. It stops at 50%. 🤔

Kennybill

My main bay with a 2 post lift is 12' high, 32'x24' insulated. 12'x32' bay on each side, the NW bay is insulated, the other side bay is not. I use the same electric heater as tt455 has. I have a kerosene Torpedo, a propane torpedo, three of the kerosene round heaters, I never use them unless I'm doing something in the side bays. I don't like the fumes. That little electric heater does the job, it even has a temperature regulator so it cycles. The insulation is the main help, then the side bays I think help also. I wrapped the building in Trevac? and no windows.That heater is 10 years old. I bought it at a Northern Store in Charlotte for $99. Btw I have 4 insulated garage doors, the lift bay is 10 high, 11 wide.

otto72

If you can get yourself a 42 or 52" ceiling fan and draw (run counterclockwise) that cool cold air off the floor to be warmed it helps a lot especially when working low in the garage near the floor.
I have 4 4x4 widows 2 are south / southwest facing the experiment for me this winter is to make a couple of these for some natural solar convection.

classicmuscle442

Length x width x height x 4. So heat loss of an insulated building 20' x 40' x 12' is 42,000 btu's. This is an average loss, depending on outdoor temperature and your desired indoor temperature which your shooting for 60 degrees at four foot off of the floor. Un-insulated floor adds to heat loss and the recovery time to get to desired temperature. To heat this volume in a reasonable amount of time with electricity at 220 volts would not be cost effective, let alone with 115. If you can section an area off like mentioned above, depending on outdoor temperature and insulation level you would need an electric furnace with 25 KW with 220 power supply to take care of 10' x 20' work area. Electric heat has very little temperature rise, nothing like a gas or oil furnace which can have a temp rise of 100 to 120 degrees. Hope this helps give you a rough idea, a gas furnace can recover temperature quickly but oil has an even higher temperature output and a quicker recovery time. Like suggested above if your pouring cement slab run some pex in it and insulate under the pex. There are online calculators the give spacing for the pex and it is cheap to install before pouring the floor. Can use a hot water heater to heat the floor and building if it is done correctly.

OLDSter Ralph

Keith, those can be fun to play with. You may want to check out "flat plate collectors". They use a thin sheetmetal "plate" suspended between the translucent opening and the backer panel. Air flows from the bottom, around both sides from bottom and exits at the top. VHT black header paint works well for painting the front side of the collector plate. Thinner sheetmetal gives up the heat more easily and having air flow on both sides helps.

BOGAN

https://king-electric.com/products/r...arage-heaters/


I've had the best luck with these, and get great pricing on them