Heating the workroom

[clockwork]

I work in my garage and it's been 10ish degrees out lately. Can any of you recommend a good portable heater I might use to warm it up? It's fairly smallish, about 14x8 or so.

[johnm160]

It depends on what you looking for. Are you considering electric or kerosene.
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=93043-79999-95C4&lpage=none These work really well but are a bit pricey.

Electric heaters take longer to work and you will pay for it in your electirc bill anyway.

Come to think of it, if you have a camping store by you this might be perfect  http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=86721&memberId=12500226&storeId=226&catalogId=40000000226&langId=-1

It's cheap and you connect it to your BBQ grill tank

[clockwork]

Nice. Thanks, Johnm. I notice on that second one they also have a double unit for $80. I may go for that.

[edge]

I use a small propane heater in the garage.  It definitely takes the chill out of the air.

Click here for amazon link.

[Loki]

I sometimes use a fan heater in my room to make it warmer in here fast.
It's pretty nice and didn't cost that much... like 15 euro or something

Not sure if it's any good in a garage tho.

[clockwork]

I bought a fan heater heater earlier. Doesn't work well in a garage being this cold.

[Cornchip]

Watch out for the propane and kerosene heaters in an enclosed space like a garage. Carbon Monoxide is a tasteless and odorless killer. Make sure the space is ventilated well if you go that route.

 Cornchip.

[clockwork]

That's a good point, Cornchip. With my small space I'd probably better stick with my little fan heater. It's not much but it takes a little of the bite out of the cold.

[Dervacumen]

Don't know what your garage is like, but have you ever thought of insulating it?  It costs a bunch but pays off in the long run.

[clockwork]

That's not a bad thought. It's already insulated on one side, and the other side has another garage (four in fact, I live in a condo), so it's not directly exposed to the outside. The attic over it is not insulated, though, so that may help a lot.

[SavannahLion]

Dump the fan heater, all it is is a forced convection heater. What they do is heat the air directly in front of the heater then circulate the air. The object (you) will remain cold until the air gets hot enough.

What you're probably looking for is a radiant heater, like what John linked to. If you do a bit of searching, you should find what you need.  Radiant heaters work more like the sun or oven where it heats up whatever it is directed at (you), but doesn't heat up the air around it. The hot air comes from residual heat from the hot objects (again you).

Or if you're like me, you can keep everything warm by running all your PC's 24/7

[leapinlew]

Or if you're like me, you can keep everything warm by running all your PC's 24/7

Now theres an idea. Put about 10 arcade games in there and leave'em on.

[clockwork]

I tried an electric radiant heater. That didn't work at all. The fan heater worked better. One of the propane or kerosene heaters I'm sure would work better, but I'm worried about inadequate ventilation. I'll try adding some insulation above the garage and see how that helps. Then I'll try the PC trick next.

Maybe I could just set up an arcade in my garage and when I want to do some woodworking, I have an arcade party.

[johnm160]

prop the garage door open a few inches, if there is a window on the other end, crack that open.

It keeps a reasonable air flow and the heater should still be able to keep up.

[TOK]

prop the garage door open a few inches, if there is a window on the other end, crack that open.

It keeps a reasonable air flow and the heater should still be able to keep up.

This works... I have a 110,000 BTU kero/electric heater (commonly called a torpedo heater).
I open the door, put the tail end of the heater out, and let the door rest back down on the heaters grab handle, which is about 18" off the ground. That gives it plenty of fresh air, and the heater is powerful enough to have the garage in the 70's within 10 minutes on a 20 degree day.

I also have a small electric-only heater on my workbench if I'm just going to be out there a few minutes. Its enough to keep your hands barely warm, thats about it. Propane or kero is the way to go if you really want to heat a big space fast.

[FrizzleFried]

I use a quality electric oil heater in my garage.  It has 3 settings...when i know I am going to be out there,  I set it to HIGH...when i am not going to be out there I set it to LOW...medium is rarely used.   The problem is that it takes a good 30 minutes to heat the air.  My "arcade" is in the garage and is a 10x20 space.   A single heater works OK and at high will warm the air about 30 degrees above ambient.  2 heaters work kickass and it will get to the 60's when it is 20 outside.    This summer I am going to insulate the area above, and in the walls...and I am going to look at garage door insulation options as well.

I have more troubles in the summer where it gets over 100f outside...my portible AC is prett y asstastic ...100 outside = about 85 inside...still too friggin hot.

[clockwork]

110,000 BTU? Whoa. I was thinking about getting something around 14k or 24k.

[TOK]

110,000 BTU? Whoa. I was thinking about getting something around 14k or 24k.

That would probably be fine for a one car garage sized room. When I got my heater, I had the garage and a Florida room that is becoming my gameroom. With the door from the garage to the Florida room open, it was an area larger than a two car garage to heat. Last year, I added a 3rd zone and baseboard heat in the gameroom to-be, so the heater is now a bit overkill. One benefit is that it heats the single garage up really fast. The main downside is that the fan is noisy on it.

If you have short spans of time to work, or have kids and just have to take time as you can get it, the nice thing about the large heater is that it will heat your workspace fast. The other cool thing is that if I'm working on a car in the driveway, the heater is powerful enough to hit you with warm some warm air outdoors from 20 feet away. 

This is the style of heater I'm talking about in case someone isn't familiar with them. I'm sure it doesn't make sense for everyone, but I've had mine for 4 years and I love it.

[SavannahLion]

This works... I have a 110,000 BTU kero/electric heater (commonly called a torpedo heater).
I open the door, put the tail end of the heater out, and let the door rest back down on the heaters grab handle, which is about 18" off the ground.

I thought about doing that before but I figure out how to keep my collection of pets inside or keep the menagerie outside. The dogs caught and killed a 15+" rat this weekend in my strawberry patch, not interested in having a rodent that size nosing around in my equipment. Maybe if I can hack together some kind of screen door or something for the garage.