11/30/14 12:39 PM

I really need to tackle some bike (& kayak too) repair/maintenance project. But the cold garage is not the most inviting space to work in.

I once stayed in a B&B in the winter. The house was old. So the owner supplemented the heating with a small space heater. It's basically a fan with heat element thing. But what makes it nice is the unit rotates. And you can set how wide it rotates. Put in the middle of the room, rotate 360, it warms up the room quickly. Put on the side and have it rotate 180, it's out of the way and keeps the area I was sitting nice and cozy. It's quite small so moving it around the room was easy. And it's so quiet I had to look at the green indicator light to tell if it's on or off. Yet it put out so much heat I left it on the lowest setting for a rather big bedroom!

I've been looking for something like that all of last year but nothing comes close. But I admit I didn't really know WHERE to look. I only saw space heater in Home Depot and at Costco. Neither had a huge selection to choose from.

(I don't care for heater with no fan. It makes a steep temperature gradient around the unit. Fine for sitting around at one single spot. Not so good when moving around a lot working on bikes & boats)

So, suggestion on where to look for better choices? Or specific modals you have good experience on would be welcomed too.

11/30/14 12:48 PM

It's going to depend a lot on how fast your garage loses heat, and where you can place the heater, but one thing that works pretty well is the traditional "milk house" heater. You don't need a garage heater to look good. You can find this or one like it at various places. It's un-beautiful, just a tin box with a heating element and a fan and a thermostatic switch. If your space is amenable to heating with an electric heater at all, it will probably do as well as anything, and it is durable and pretty much unbreakable.

A bit of googling will come up with various ones, and I imagine that Home Depot and Tractor Supply and the like will have something.

11/30/14 12:51 PM

I'd like one that rotates. Most of the ones I saw like you described are fixed at one direction. My past experience is they heat not as evenly as the kind that rotates.

The one I used in the B&B was also quite small. It's a slender cylinder that rotates on its base. It occurred to me it needn't be big to put out a lot of heat. All I need is one that throws out the heat evenly.

11/30/14 1:14 PM

In TN my shop was 12-28', no insulation and had open 12x8 vent in the tops of the gable walls. I used a round Kero heater. I learned it could cook me out of the shop, as you are working, moving, lifting, making your own heat. I would usually shut if off after 45 minutes as over 60^ started to get to warm to work for me.

Here I have a 220volt 4k Watt heater. Again, even though it can easily get the insulated 256SF area 65-70^, it is too warm to do what I do out there. Got that one at Wilco for #115.00 space bucks. Has a fan in it...

That space now has the two computrainers in it. Anything over 50^ is too much for working out on the bike due to lack of wind chill factor. Even with two fans now...

Last edited by Sparky on 11/30/14 6:04 PM; edited 1 time in total

11/30/14 3:28 PM

Could you get a fixed heater and a separate oscillating fan to distribute the warm air?

Also, keep in mind that electric resistance heater are the most expensive type to use and an adequately powerful, one will require 220V service. If you have a gas line to the garage and can properly vent the heater a gas fueled one would be less costly to run.

11/30/14 3:48 PM

We have a 110v 1500 watt ceramic that uses more electric than the 4k Watt 220 heater. Because 1500w is not enough and it just stays on. So right tool for the job.

I wire my own stuff, all my shop tools are 220, I even have two 220 timer circuits set up in the garage and house. The 4k watt is keeping the 256SF area in the shop over 50 [it was in the 20s no 39^ outside] only cycling on for less than a minute every 5-10 it seems like.

An simple plug and play is the best for me. But if you have to pay someone to put in the plug to play I guess that makes a diff.

OR does have about the cheapest Elec with all the hydro. Even cheaper than TN was...

What about a stand alone Infrared Heater? Probably need just a 15 or 20 amp 110v plug.

11/30/14 4:15 PM

1) plugs are there.

2) I don't care too too much about the operating cost. I'm not keeping the garage warm 24x7. It'll only run a few hours on the weekend. Winter here isn't all that cold most days. If the outside temperature is 40 and I'm heating the garage to 60 for a few hours, how much difference does it makes?

quote:

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Could you get a fixed heater and a separate oscillating fan to distribute the warm air?

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11/30/14 5:55 PM

Farm co-op, tracter supply, wilco etc. has less home owner oriented products.

11/30/14 7:06 PM

Maybe you could google "oscillating space heater"

11/30/14 7:25 PM

In a garage, unless its a small attached one car (and even then) you're pissing in the wind with a 1500w electric heater. It'll warm your feet and not much else. Get the gasoline out, including the car, and get one of the single burner propane heaters that fit on top of a 25lb (bbq) tank. That will actually serve the purpose.

11/30/14 7:59 PM

Not standing on the cold concrete floor may help too.

I got a 4x8 heavy 7/8" thick rubber horse floor mat out on the concrete where I work on the bikes. Got that at Wilco... Also have one on the floor in the laundry area in front of the Washer/dryer. As it is not insulated and heated per say. [rear 1/2 of garage]

11/30/14 8:05 PM

Moving those mats is fun...don't ask me how I know (3 stalls...2 mats each).

11/30/14 8:09 PM

Yeah, they are dead weight! Not really car transportable either.

11/30/14 8:26 PM

It IS an attached 1 car garage. Not a particularly big one.

Thanks Dan, for the good suggestion. Found a few potentials. Will check them out next week.

11/30/14 8:36 PM

quote:

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We have a 110v 1500 watt ceramic that uses more electric than the 4k Watt 220 heater.

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11/30/14 8:50 PM

"Because 1500w is not enough and it just stays on"

;)


But doesn't the 220 balancing amps from both hot legs/sides as opposed to the 110v opposing ground have something to do with more efficiency or less actual KWH use?

The other question regarding April's garage no one asked is.. It there a ceiling ? Or can she see the rafters?

11/30/14 8:56 PM

April I would search Amazon for a circulation heater as they have most stuff on earth.

11/30/14 11:11 PM

quote:

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The other question regarding April's garage no one asked is.. It there a ceiling ? Or can she see the rafters?

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12/1/14 1:06 AM

If the furnace is forced air and in the garage, a passive closable vent/register in the plenum may be all you need. This is what I have in my garage, which I keep closed unless I need to take the edge off out there while working on bikes. No insulation out there, thus heating it all the time would be a waste of gas and money. Natural Gas I mean, which is how our furnace is fired.

12/1/14 10:02 AM

Consumer Reports recently tested space heaters. Their top recommendation for smaller heaters was the Vornado TVH500. However, it is not an oscillating fan. In fact, none of the top rated heaters oscillated although it's not clear if that feature actually represented a problem or if they simply did not include any in the test.

FWIW, based on that recommendation, we purchased the Vornado and have been very happy with it.

12/1/14 10:34 AM

I think the floor mat will help for comfort but unless you heat the place for hours I don't think it will keep your feet much if any warmer. Good boots is what you want for warmth, but the mat will hit ambient temperature like everything else and has a significant mass and won't warm up much in the short time you're heating your garage. It might warm up faster than a concrete slab but I don't think it will make a noticeable difference in the hour or two you're going to heat the place.

I was working in a much colder environment than you, in a partially insulated garage (ceiling, but not walls) and I used a forced propane heater which would heat the place up to the point where I could wear a t-shirt and be warm, but the cold floor and the tools for that matter all had such a thermal mass to the them that my feet would be cold and my fingers frozen (the air around the tool box would warm up in 20 minutes, the tools themselves stayed cold for much longer). So yeah, while you'll be able to take the chill off of the space you're working in, don't be surprised if your fingers and feet are still frozen. At least you're only dealing with Oregon winters, I was in frozen Alberta where the temps dropped to -15 Celcius (almost 0 Fahrenheit).

12/1/14 5:41 PM

Something like this?

12/1/14 6:33 PM

"I think the floor mat will help for comfort but unless you heat the place for hours I don't think it will keep your feet much if any warmer. "


I find the exact opposite to be the case myself.

12/1/14 7:56 PM

quote:

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But doesn't the 220 balancing amps from both hot legs/sides as opposed to the 110v opposing ground have something to do with more efficiency or less actual KWH use?

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12/1/14 8:16 PM

they supply 240 to your house which is then split into 120 for most circuits.


Of course, when I run 220 out of my box I have one line from each of the supplied 110 lines coming in.

But I thought I read that not balancing to ground with equal load on both of the 110 supplied sides uses less KWH somehow...

EDIT: just time then, according to some googling. 220 heats faster and shut off sooner. Less total time on, which I defiantly can say happens with my 220 4k V unit over the 110 V 1500 watt heater here.