Gas heater for garage?

My garage finishing project has quickly reached the point where I need to consider what kind of heater to install.

Initially I was thinking of simply running a gas line out of the house and putting in a "vent free" gas heater. I can easily add the necessary venting to make such a thing safe. But, some Google sleuthing indicates these heaters tend to cause a moisture problem.

Any experience to share? Or any other ideas that don't cost several hundred dollars?

My garage is 16' by 25' with 9' ceilings. Walls and ceiling are insulated and covered with 1/2" dry wall. It is attached to the house and has a concrete floor. In the past I've used an el-stinko kerosene heater, but would rather not from now on.

Thank you!

http://detroit.craigslist.org/mcb/for/5829550162.html

Look at vented gas unit heaters, the type that hangs from the ceiling in one corner of the garage. There are a variety of brands out there, Mr. Heater and Hot Dawg are a couple popular brands for home garages, Reznor and Modine are probably higher quality. They do cost several hundred dollars, though. You can sometimes find them on sale from Menards or other big box stores, or you may be able to find a decent used one on Craigslist.

Maybe this type of thing might be enough.....
http://annarbor.craigslist.org/hsh/5786898181.html

I have a Reznor garage heater in my shop, hanging from the ceiling in a corner.

A big advantage is the burners are fed air from the outside, not your shop, so nothing will go boom.

I also have an industrial ceiling fan blowing the heat back down and circulating the heat a bit better. This will be my first winter with it, and so far I'm quite enjoying it. The drywall mud is actually drying.

I had a ceiling hung NG Modine vented heater in my old house. I got it from a warehouse that was being demolished. It brought my 24'x24' garage up to room temperature in about 10 minutes. I sold it to MW when we moved. As far as I know it's still serving him well.

My current shop is heated with a well used forced air oil furnace. I have ductwork feeding both floors and each room that can be shut off if I'm only working in one area. I hate freezing my butt off in the shop.

Sorry I didn't finish my train of thought. My current oil furnace is not actually in my shop but is in an attached shed beside the shop.If you have the space outside you could do the same thing with a used NG direct vent furnace. The ductwork comes through the wall then branches out. In your shop you could probably get away with having a single duct just dump directly into your work space. This keeps the combustion/open flame out of your shop plus it frees up the floor space. As a bonus a furnace is likely going to be cheaper, quieter and more efficient than a ceiling hung unit heater. They pop up cheap on Craigslist.

The problem with the floor standing heater like you linked to on CL is the potential for mixing a standing pilot or burner flame and gas or solvent vapors. Fires are no fun especially in an attached garage. My opinion is that a few hundred dollars is well worth it for something that will be used a lot. A ceiling mounted gas heater is great. They'll heat up the garage in just a few minutes so you can keep it off or turned down very low most of the time. They're vented (make sure you get a vented one!) so it doesn't smell bad and it keeps the humidity low. They're perfect for your garage. Again - my opinions - but don't waste a bunch of your time with janky solutions trying to save a couple hundred bucks.

Wayslows solution of a furnace would be great too. That's what I have in my current garage, mounted up high so the burners aren't likely to catch ground hugging vapor.

dculberson is right.

Open flame pilot light in a garage that stores cars, fuel cans, lawn mowers, solvents, etc. is a bad idea.

If you really want cheap, this is the cheapest heating system I know:

(I'm not trying to be a smartass. I lived in a cold region for a very long time, and it's the only heater I had in my shop- worked very well)

Another thing, my Reznor doesn't keep a pilot light on. It lights the burner when it's turning on. There is no constant pilot light.

SkinnyG wrote: Another thing, my Reznor doesn't keep a pilot light on. It lights the burner when it's turning on. There is no constant pilot light.

OK, but if it's not a sealed combustion chamber, it's still an open flame that will ignite automatically whenever the thermostat calls for it.

Not good.

A unit with an open flame of any sort should be installed on an 18" high pedestal as a minimum.

I have a ceiling hung electric heater. Takes the chill off.

Aren't a lot of those high efficiency PVC exhaust pipe furnaces sealed, taking their combustion air in from the outside through another pipe?

Conde is burner tray needs to be 18" for residential and 8' for commercial garages at a minimum. Try and find a used warm air furnace for a house and just install that with or without duct work. Craigslist should have take outs for a couple hundred bucks. Vent combustion gases outside and your good. I have one of those wall mounted ones I took out of a hotel room that runs on propane in my garage, but I never use it. Too much metal in there to act as a heat sink to really get the place warm, so I just use a portable propane heater and carry it around to where I'm working and hook it to a grill tank. Makes the area I'm in toasty and I can set a coffee on top of it and it stays warm. If I spend a whole weekend out there, the garage eventually warms up and I have to throttle down the portable heater. One side of my garage gets full sun, and I'm bouncing around the idea of one of those home made solar collector heaters made from soda cans. Even if it helps keep the garage slightly warmer, that would be a good thing.

SVreX wrote: dculberson is right. Open flame pilot light in a garage that stores cars, fuel cans, lawn mowers, solvents, etc. is a bad idea. If you really want cheap, this is the cheapest heating system I know: (I'm not trying to be a smartass. I lived in a cold region for a very long time, and it's the only heater I had in my shop- worked very well)

I use this method also, the only failure is picking up tools that are 20 degrees f. Gloves, yes, but often they have to come off.

Suplemental heat comes from a very large hot coffee with a about a shot of sambucca or jd cinnamon. Heat of the coffee keeps the booze from lowering body temp, booze dilates the blood vessels helping to keep hands warm. Caution, caffene goes right to work, best energy drink ever.

In reply to SVreX:

Not taken as a smart ass comment at all!

Great discussion actually. This topic is not as simple to solve as I thought it would be.

Electric did cross my mind too- but I wonder if running one would limit what else I can run in the garage at the same time. Maybe now is a good time to do some math on this one.

From what I have read of the ventless ones, they have (piezoelectric?) igniters, so no pilots. And an enclosed flame which is nice. But these features fall by the wayside if they are going to wreck all the drywall I hung.

The Reznor ceiling type ones are very slick, but way out of my budget. I figure I'll have about $200 to spend on whatever I end up with.

An oil type furnace I know nothing about. I'll do some reading on them.

In reply to tr8todd:

Please help me understand the code requirements. Are 18" and 8' clearances for the burner?

paranoid_android74 wrote: In reply to tr8todd: Please help me understand the code requirements. Are 18" and 8' clearances for the burner?

Yep.

Bottom of the burner tray, or in layman terms, where the fire is. Can get tricky if unit is mounted on its side instead of vertical. I just installed a unit in a garage a couple of months ago for a fellow car guy. He picked up a used warm air furnace from small house that was having a large addition installed. They needed a much larger unit. He got it for free. He built a small platform out of angle iron and set the thing up about 2' off the ground. I ran gas and did the flue venting for it out the side of the garage. Warm air just blew out the top and fresh cold air went in the side. Condensate drained by gravity out the side as well thanks to the thing being mounted up a couple of feet. No duct work at all. It was a 95% + efficient unit, so venting was with 2" PVC. Double check with your local gas codes to see if there are additional requirements in your town/county/state.

SVreX wrote:

A unit with an open flame of any sort should be installed on an 18" high pedestal as a minimum.

-

Um, duh on my part. This was explained twice. Sorry guys.

One more option is to get one of the ductless mini split (or similar hotel through wall ac units) that can run as a heat pump. While it won't get you much heat when it's below 10* or so out, how many days is that really going to be that you are going to want to work? Added benefit of getting you ac in the summer too.

Along the same line, a package heat pump, like you would see on a business roof, will usually have an electric heating element for the really cold days. Since the whole thing would mount outside all you need for ducting would be a supply and return from the garage. Mounted outside gives you the ability to run electrical to it buried in the yard to where your circuit panel is inside, which could be much easier than fishing new wires inside.

SVreX wrote:

SkinnyG wrote: Another thing, my Reznor doesn't keep a pilot light on. It lights the burner when it's turning on. There is no constant pilot light.

OK, but if it's not a sealed combustion chamber, it's still an open flame that will ignite automatically whenever the thermostat calls for it. Not good. A unit with an open flame of any sort should be installed on an 18" high pedestal as a minimum.

The burner gets its air from outside the building, and exhausts it back outside. It also hangs from the ceiling.

Not what the OP wants, though, but a good way to go.

A friend installed a used through-the-wall auxiliary heater in his shop, and loves it. Not sure how "safe" it is - it's mounted fairly low, just not sure ~how~ low.

Constant pilot lights are pretty much a think of the past. Certain things like propane fired gas log fireplace inserts are allowed to have them, but gas heating equipment all has the click or glow stick ignition and proving switches. One other thing to remember is you will need a CO detector.

Prior to having a heater, I've always told myself "the heat is in the tools," but paint doesn't seem to care. Or cure.

tr8todd wrote: Certain things like propane fired gas log fireplace inserts are allowed to have them, but gas heating equipment all has the click or glow stick ignition and proving switches.

This reminds me, make sure you mount the furnace in such a way that it's real easy to get at the service cover where all the sensors and whatnot are accessed, they need to be cleaned every now and then or it won't run. A thin layer of whatever the hell builds up on the probe in the flame is enough to keep it from running.