What's the most cost effective way to heat a garage?

[Steve C]

I've got one of these:

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/productdetail.jsp?xi=xi&ItemId=1613541215&ccitem=

works ok, an no fumes. I don't think it's very energy efficient though.

 

[IDave]

97% clean Wish I had a propane well in the backyard

Therein lies the rub, eh? Does anyone know how much it costs to heat with propane vs. diesel on a per BTU basis? I'm not sure what a 5 gallon propane tank weighs--they talked in terms of weight and not gallons on that web site, but I think propane is probably more expensive per BTU.

 

[Pskhaat]

The most economical over the long run is to build a waste oil heater: Use wast vegetable oil, used motor oil, etc etc.

Just one immediate link I found.

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_motherearth/me4.html

But there are a ton. Old girlfriend's dad heated his whole house with a used oil furnace. Loved me because I gave him all my used oil. Many industrial sites use waste oil heaters due to their cost effectiveness.

 

[Toyo FJ40]

Local Dodge dealer heats his servive bays with used motor oil. He gets it for free and charges a disposal fee for the used oil when they change oil. Kinda win win.

 

[IDave]

My local mechanic also does the used oil burner thing.

 

[CruisinGA]

Bailey, if it were even slightly cold where you are that wouldn't be worth a hill of beans!

mid 20's and windy is pretty fawkin cold in my Georgia book.

The garage door was open when we started, so garage was outside temp.

When his dad got home, after we had been working for about an hour, he opened the garage door, it suddenly got much colder, ie, the garage had noticably warmed up.

It works, goddamnit.

Hell its 600 pounds of steel, aluminum, iron, and water thats around 210 degrees.

Some Q=mC∆t and I could tell you exactly how much warmer it would get.

So

 

[toy60]

Those kero heaters are weak and smelly and dangerous.

10 years ago I would have agreed.
Technology is a wonderful thing.

I wouldnt have one burning while I was painting or cleaning the carby but if you are not using flamables than go for it.
Its cheep and kero is available from most gas stations and at 10,000 BTU it puts out a fair amount of heat. You could run 2 for a lot less than a prpane heater. Set correctly they dont smell and most have run dry and tipover protection thesedays.

As I said 10 years ago no now for a garage definatly I would give one a go.

 

[jlm43]

I agree with hatfieldcb.

Radiant heat is the berries, but it isn't the best solution for "sometimes" heat.
Put in the pex for someday. Put 2" of HD styrofoam under the slab, 6" of fiberglass batt in the walls, and all you can fit in the ceiling. Use insulated overhead doors and high quality windows.
Insulating it well is more critical then how you choose to heat it.
Gas unit heaters are cheap and will heat it up in a hurry.

I just did all of this for my new garage. Well, insulation and doors are not installed yet but the rest is done. I’m thinking the radiant will maintain the garage at 40 degrees or so and I’ll use a space heater of some sort for the project times.

But this leads to another topic. What’s the best way to heat the water for the radiant? I’ve always heard you need to spend another $4k or more and have a boiler installed. Lately I’ve been reading about using a simple 40 gallon gas fired water heater. They are quiet, relatively cheap, and very efficient.