Garage heating and cooling

[Stephen B.]

Re: Garage heating and cooling

I have a motel heat pump for my 2-car detached garage, and it works pretty well.

[Clem Z.]

Re: Garage heating and cooling

My garage is 31' x 28'. Central Virginia is hot and humid in the summer and it does get to zero at times during the winter. My garage is a garage, it houses my 1973 Corvette and my son's '07 Mustang GT. For cooling I just have a single 10,000 Btu window unit. As a rule of thumb 12,000 Btu's will cool 600 sq ft of living space. When I turned the A/C unit on it took about 1 hour to take the heat out of the garage and another two hours to cool the garage to t-shirt temps. For heat, when I want it, I use a 23,000 Btu kerosene heater. I takes about a hour to warm the garage up to long sleeve work temps and in about 2 hours I am working in my t-shirt. By mid afternoon I turn the heater off and work until bedtime. The walls are insulated and the doors are metal with foam insulation and the doors are sealed to the walls with the rubber overlap strips.

Roger

remember gasoline fumes are heavy and travel along the floor so any open flame,like a kerosene heater should be at least 18 to 24 inches off of the floor. i have had two friends that lost love ones do to gasoline explosions.

[Gary C.]

Re: Garage heating and cooling

Also, risk is high for affixation is high. Recently two guys lost their lives at the Chickasha, OK swap meet with a kerosene heater inside their trailer. Send Scott Sinclair an e-mail he and some others in the northern climate use heater on posts or suspended from ceiling. Gary....

[Dick W.]

Re: Garage heating and cooling

remember gasoline fumes are heavy and travel along the floor so any open flame,like a kerosene heater should be at least 18 to 24 inches off of the floor. i have had two friends that lost love ones do to gasoline explosions.

Clem, in NC the building code requires flame producing applicances to be 7' above floor level.

[Joe R.]

Re: Garage heating and cooling

Maybe a ceiling mounted electric heater is the best option. Hopefully no flames (unless there is a serious problem!). Probably not as efficient as gas heat, but I don't have gas to the garage right now anyway. Here's a heater I am considering:

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...t_6970_595_595

It's a bit undersized for my application, but I can wear warm clothes to make up the difference. I don't think I want to wire up more than 240 V 30 A service.

Joe

[Joe R.]

Re: Garage heating and cooling

Joe:

As previously suggested, you need to insulate the garage. R-13 kraft-faced batts should be sufficient for the walls, but you could go to R-15 unfaced with polyethylene sheeting over it if you think it's it's worth it. You need at least R-30 in the ceiling but I usually go with R-41+ for the extra heat retention. Do not use a vapor barrier in the ceiling because it will cause condensation. I use steel garage doors with foam insulation on the back, and install gaskets around them. The greatest source of heat loss is from infiltration. For gaskets I use the plastic flap type trim material meant to seal the sides and top of garage doors. Your floor might already be insulated depending upon the age of your house and your local code, but it probably isn't. This is not as big a deal as you might think. Your ground temperature under the garage is higher than it is under unprotected ground and should be around 50-55 degrees. The slab will also act as a heat sink and absorb heat if you heat the garage. Concrete always feels cool because anything that's not warmer than body temperature will be cold to us. Don't forget your windows and access door. These should be insulated items also.

As far as humidity, seal your garage floor. You can use epoxys but they're expensive and you'll still have the possibility of lift even if you etch the heck out of the floor. I've used the water based sealers from the home center with great success. I've not had problems with lift and the humidity levels stay down in the shop. It takes at least 3 good coats.

If you have any brick or block revealed (from the inside) at the foundation, seal it with two coats of Dry-lock, and caulk or otherwise fill any holes.

My house came with an uninsulated/unheated garage, and I watched my beloved tools rust. I do not heat my shop, but I took the measures above when I built it and I've pretty much eliminated my rust problems.

I wish John hadn't posted the picture of his heater. Now I'm envious.

Paul

Paul,

Thanks for the insulation ideas. I will follow them to a "T." Can you please post some pictures of the garage door insulation?

Thanks,
Joe

[Bruce C.]

Re: Garage heating and cooling

I was also about to throw in my two cent's worth regarding a heat pump.

When I built this house, I had the mechanical guys run two ducts from the upstairs central air unit and the upstairs gas furnace into the garage.

For the Vette garage that I'm about to build, I've decided on a heat pump for a couple of reasons: here in Memphis, on those 100+ days, I only need to bring it down to about 85 as conditioned air is dry and feels cool. With ceiling fans in the garage, dry moving air feels very comfortable.

In the winter, with outside temps rarely getting below 20, I only need it to be about 60 degrees in the garage. That temp keeps plastics and wire jackets from being too brittle to work on (I know, very anal.)and
the comfort level is fine with a long john shirt.

Thing is, they say natural gas is going to be more expensive than ever this winter, so an electric heat pump is more attractive for me than ever before.

Good luck, Joe. You've been given a lot to digest and all of it worth considering.

Let us know what you wind up doing.

[Clem Z.]

Re: Garage heating and cooling

Clem, in NC the building code requires flame producing applicances to be 7' above floor level.

where do you put you gas fired water heater or furnace ??? i know the condo in fla. has the gas fired water heater and furnace in the garage up on a platform 3' off of the floor

[Dick W.]

Re: Garage heating and cooling

You either suspend them from the ceiling or build a platform

[Clem Z.]

Re: Garage heating and cooling

You either suspend them from the ceiling or build a platform

does this apply only to commercial garages as i know most homes in the Carolina's have no basement to put the water heater or furnace 7 feet off of the floor.

[Dick W.]

Re: Garage heating and cooling

Clem, I have only dealt with the codes on commercial buildings. The NFPA fire codes also recommend (or did in the past) the 7'

[Todd L.]

Re: Garage heating and cooling

Could someone recommend a book or web site for garage plans? I am interested in building a 40 X 50 garage with an office and storage on the second deck. Information for radiant floor heat would help too. I live in Colorado and this will be my first winter, we'll see what it brings.

Todd

[Joel F.]

Re: Garage heating and cooling

Todd,

I am sure there are books out there, but for more immediate ideas check out

http://www.garagejournal.com/

Some crazy stuff in there.

Joel

[John H.]

Re: Garage heating and cooling

I would like to see some close ups of how some of you have sealed the garage doors with flaps and things described.

Tom -

I have two 1-1/2"-thick steel-foam-steel insulated 18' x 8' sectional doors with tubular seals between the sections, with pliable continuous vinyl lip seals on the outside across the top and down both sides, with large hollow-section rubber seals across the bottom. Photo below shows the configuration of the outside vinyl seals (vertical molding and seal lip in the center of the photo).

Between these door seals and R-26 in the walls and R-58 in the ceiling and insulation/moisture barrier under the epoxy floor (4' x 8' sheets of 5/8"-thick high-density closed-cell foam with heavy foil on both sides, laid on top of a 10-mil poly barrier before pouring the slab), the garage is easy to heat and cool and the floor is always warm and dry (and easy to keep clean).

[Paul J.]

Re: Garage heating and cooling

For some reason my pictures came out wrong so bear with me.

The second picture shows how the seal sets on the door. I'm painting the house but the dirt makes it easier to see. John's house is too clean, but you can see from his picture how well the seal blends in.

The next picture shows the seal from the inside (on the right). I put this in to show that the seal stands proud of the wall by about 1/4", although it's hard to see. This is so the seal lies tight against the door.

The next picture is the seal material. It is a hard polymer with a soft polymer flap heat welded to it. It nails on and is paintable. I've purchased this at my local builder's supply house and at Lowe's, which means that you should also be able to find it at Home Depot. I've found it in 8' and 10' lengths, but I would'nt be surprised if they sell 12' pieces also.

The first picture is the inside of my steel door. John has the really nice cored doors but it's colder where he lives. The foam on the back of the door goes under the bracing and has a nice vinyl coating on it. I will probably add another inch of foam glued directly onto the existing foam in the future.