Q for you guys with heated garages

[JohnMickish]

Ok, this year I insulated and rocked the attached garage. Huge difference already and plan to add heat this summer, so here are my questions.

1; Will the heater fan move enough air to dry the floor or will another fan be needed?

2; What do you do to keep the heater from running when the garage door is open? Do you have it on a delay timer? I am a little concerned about the time it takes my wife to shut the door after she pulls into the garage.

3; How do you keep ice from building up under the garage door?

4; The garage is 528 sq ft two stall garage. Is it better to use a smaller heater sized for 1-2 stall or a bigger heater designed for a 2-3 stall?

Any other advice you could give would be great. I plan to use a HotDawg heater, natural gas.

Thanks.

[delcecchi]

My daughter has heat in her garage. They are running it this year. It only takes a minute or two to drive in, cut off the car, and put the door down.

[JohnMickish]

Obviously you have never seen my wife pull into the garage. It's like this.

In the morning, open door start the car. Put on belt, get all situated, move purse around, check phone, let car warm up a bit then pull out.

When she gets home, open door and pull in. Leave car run, get purse and pick up what she shopped for today. Turn car off. Finish phone conversation. Gather work stuff walk to house door then shut garage door.

I'm not exaggerating that much.

[Jaspernuts]

Just installed heat this year, love it.

1. A fan helps a lot. Does not have to be a big fan, Im just using a 12 incher.

2. I run a thermostat. After your concrete has warmed up, the heater might turn on but it will not run long to bring it up to temp.

3. Never had a problem with ice.

4. Not sure. I have a triple so went with the the bigger Mr. Heater. I think its 80,000 btu. That hotdawg should be plenty good.

Dont worry about the heater running once and awhile. Mine only costs about 30 bucks a month to run it.

[wally diver 2]

I would put in a ceiling fan also to blow the air down. I would also up size the heater. It won't run as long as a smaller one would.

[delcecchi]

Obviously you have never seen my wife pull into the garage. It's like this.

In the morning, open door start the car. Put on belt, get all situated, move purse around, check phone, let car warm up a bit then pull out.

When she gets home, open door and pull in. Leave car run, get purse and pick up what she shopped for today. Turn car off. Finish phone conversation. Gather work stuff walk to house door then shut garage door.

I'm not exaggerating that much.

As my Drill Sargent used to say "sounds like you have a Personal Problem"

Perhaps your wife needs to understand how destructive her actions are in winter.

[Always Fishing]

1; My heater will dry out all three stalls over a couple days. The stall closest to the heater dries out every night but the farthest stall needs a couple days with no use. A ceiling fan would be ideal.

2; If I'm just driving the vehicles in and out I let the heater run. It takes a couple seconds/minute for the thermostat to register the drop in temp. so I wouldn't be too concerned about your wife's routine.

3; Squeegee, but ice is usually not a big deal.

4; I would get the smaller heater to prevent short cycling. The longer run time of the smaller heater will also help with drying the floors. I have a 45k btu in a 800 sq.ft garage and can easily get the temp to 75 when it's 10 degrees outside, but the garage is well insulated.

[Down Deep]

Obviously you have never seen my wife pull into the garage. It's like this.

In the morning, open door start the car. Put on belt, get all situated, move purse around, check phone, let car warm up a bit then pull out.

When she gets home, open door and pull in. Leave car run, get purse and pick up what she shopped for today. Turn car off. Finish phone conversation. Gather work stuff walk to house door then shut garage door.

I'm not exaggerating that much.

[10,000 Casts]

I have a 75k btu propane ceiling mount in a 24x36 2 story garage which has been off for the last month with the price of propane.. It's on a digital thermostat and I keep it at 40 and then when I want to work out there I turn it up to 60 and it gets to 60 in less than 30 mins. It doesn't dry the floor all the way but it helps, a fan would be nice but not needed. And I haven't had a problem with condensation or ice anywhere.

[leechlake]

I have a gigantic infra red radiant tube heater. I use to run it to keep things at about 50 but with electric seat warmers in the cars these days I only run the heater when we're butchering deer and for various other reasons.

Our garage is insulated and I noticed the past few weeks when it was -15 to -20 for overnight temps the temperature was 20-25 in the garage when I left in the morning, not a great temp for people but better for the vehicle. The garage obviously pulls heat from the house.

I would not get the heater I got again. I guess its the cat's meow if you run long term because it heats objects like the sun does. It takes way longer to get warm than a forced air furnace and the only air flow is from the ceiling fan I put in. I'd get something that moves air to dry things out.

[Powerstroke]

No timer here, just a regular thermostat. Sounds like a little education is in order if your wife takes too long to shut the door. No timer is gonna help that. The room will just get colder with the door open, whether the furnace is running or not.

If she doesn't like being more diligant about the door, maybe she would like parking outside where there isn't a time crunch. Of course I'm only partially kidding because I can only imagine how that conversation might go in my house, but my wife understands that she's wasting her heat when she leaves the door open.

I have a ceiling fan in the garage for extra airflow, but my furnace keep the floor pretty dry. I do get ice on the door seals, but I try to clean them off regularly. Fairly easy to maintain, but it sucks if its -20 about you get a little ridge formed.

[Tom7227]

Maybe it would help if you showed her the heating bill and asked her to pay it a couple of times.

[Hoey]

All really good comments here. I have a heated shed at the cabin, insulated, poly under the interior sheathing, tyvek under the siding, etc... so it is tight.

One problem I had was the moisture, seeing comments regarding this here.

Solved with a 80 to 100 cfm bath fan (mounted in the ceiling) tied to a timer switch (5 mins/hr) to remove some of the saturated air periodically. This really made a difference, even with the in and out of doors.

When anything is wet in the space, that means the air has limited capacity to hold/absorb additional moisture. Removing some air with a fan is a good solution. On really cold days, if you have frost building up on the garage door hardware, walls, exterior door knobs, that is a sign of excessive moisture.

Also a floor drain/trap is recommended, since the slop from the cars will need to run somewhere. Or a wetvac works too.

[reddog]

As long as your wife doesnt leave the door open long enough to cool the mass, leaving it open long enough to exchange the air, will actualy do you a favor, like Hoey indicated above.

When the air reaches a saturation point, it doesnt matter how hot you have it, or how many fans, its not gonna take the water off the floor. Yes, hot air holds more moisture/water vapor, but typically in a garage setting, its not gonna be that hot.. Theres a couple reasons. The floor is colder, and it is probably the second or third condensing surface, with the garage door (glass)probably being the first (coldest) and anything metallic on the outside wall being the second. Cold attracts moisture. Technically adding air movement removes moisture on the floor because it is warming the surface temp of the slab.

Cold dry air heats up faster than trying to keep warm moist air warm. Let her leave the door open for a few minutes, and watch that big gaseous cloud of fog roll out of the doors. Close the doors with a new batch of cool, dry air, and that allows more dehumidification in the room, which means a dryer floor. As long as you dont cool the mass, leaving the door open for a bit longer, wont really hurt anything.

A warm floor is the reason infloor hydronic heat is so effective. Cieling radiant, is next, because it warms surfaces(like mentioned above). but, in order to be effective, it needs to have a stabil thermostat setting..

Chose your battles, but make sure you have enough ammunition.

[Scott K]

I agree, the few minutes she leaves it open wont hurt anything. I normally just leave my pilot light on, and it keeps it about 20 degrees or more warmer then it is outside. Then if I am working out there, I turn it up to 65, and it heats up quick. If I am working out there a lot, I just turn it back down to 45 at night. It doesnt kick on much after everything in the garage is alright warm. I also run a ceiling fan all winter. It keeps the floor pretty dry. My kids are a lot worse then your wife, at least she closes the door. Mine has been left open for hours, and my bill doesnt go up much.

[Genofish]

+1 with Scott K, I also wired in a toggle switch on thermostate to keep furnance from turning on while door is open and when I dont want the furnance on as my thermostate only went down to 50f

[loosegoose]

I have a 24' X 28' two stall insulated and rocked with a 45k BTU hot dawg heater. Have had it for years and the heater has been rock solid. It's recommended that you don't over size the heater for the space that you're heating. More for reasons of the heater not running long enough to bring it up to heat and evaporate condensation within the heater. I don't have a floor drain but sure wish I did for the winter time. Squeegee a lot and run a ceiling fan to help eliminate the moisture problem and ice under the doors. I keep mine at about 40 degrees all the time and I figure it costs me about $20-$30/month for natural gas. Your wife will love crawling into a warm vehicle every morning and shouldn't have to sit and let her car idle before backing out in the morning.