Garage heating options

[jhellwig]

I bought a house this summer on some land that has overgrown woods and lots of dead trees and poorly grown trees than need thinned out. The house has two gas fireplaces and furnace. I don't think I ready to be able to commit to managing an OWB. Maybe in a few years when my kids are able to take care of it when I am not able to due to work.

Short term I would like to heat the garage. It is insulated but not heated and I am to cheap to pay for propane when there is a bunch of firewood around. I am looking at either putting an old cast iron pot belly or something along those lines in the garage but am not crazy about having a chimney through my room. Also the insurance part. I like the idea of an outdoor forced air furnace but they are not too common around here and look like a crummy setup when I do see them around. I know I could get a used OWB and fill it with antifreeze but people still want 2k for a used Hardy and the like.

What would be a good option here? The OWB craze kinda died off but there are still a few dealers around.

 

[jellyroll]

Barrel stove kit. Just need a 55 gallon oil drum that is sealed from both ends.

 

[cookies]

Forced air heater to knock the cold out then one or two electric oil filled radiators to maintain warmth

 

[blades]

depending on your local - but most will require any type of heater in a garage to be up off the floor by a minimum of 4 ft or in some cases like my shop has to be hung from the ceiling. National and local codes come into play, also your ins co. various combustible fumes are heavier than air. accidentally launching your garage as a moon shot is generally frowned upon by multiple segments of society, not to mention your wallet.

 

[ericm979]

A lot of inspectors and insurance companies won't allow open flame heaters in garages that store vehicles or flammables.

Even if you can get it legally, it takes a while to heat up a garage/shop with a stove. Maybe ok if you're working in there all day but if you have kids you're probably popping in for a short time when you get a chance. A stove will eat up floor space.

You could install a cheap mini split and leave it on a low temp setting all the time. Mini splits don't heat up a space fast but they're cheap to run.

 

[Lightning Performance]

I bought a house this summer on some land that has overgrown woods and lots of dead trees and poorly grown trees than need thinned out. The house has two gas fireplaces and furnace. I don't think I ready to be able to commit to managing an OWB. Maybe in a few years when my kids are able to take care of it when I am not able to due to work.

Short term I would like to heat the garage. It is insulated but not heated and I am to cheap to pay for propane when there is a bunch of firewood around. I am looking at either putting an old cast iron pot belly or something along those lines in the garage but am not crazy about having a chimney through my room. Also the insurance part. I like the idea of an outdoor forced air furnace but they are not too common around here and look like a crummy setup when I do see them around. I know I could get a used OWB and fill it with antifreeze but people still want 2k for a used Hardy and the like.

What would be a good option here? The OWB craze kinda died off but there are still a few dealers around.

Put your stove in an outdoor box. Pipe the heat in. Cheap, fast to install and efficient to burn wood. Just add a little fan to the main feed and one for an in-line blower to move air. One pipe in one pipe out. No chimney needed just a short vent pipe above snow level. Coal stoves burn all night.
K.I.S.S.

 

[rancher2]

My first call would be to the insurance company and find out what they will allow. Over the last serval years I have installed a lot of 90 plus LP furnaces in garages and houses as wood stove have came out because of insurance company's not covering wood stoves.

 

[ElevatorGuy]

My tree buddy that solely heats his house with wood and has his pick of top firewood put a propane setup in his 50x60 garage. Wood takes too long for something not heated all the time.

 

[jhellwig]

My brain failed. I am an electrician that works for a pipeline and I completely blanked on not putting ignition sources near the floor in a garage. That is why we always put the wiring up higher when I did residential. Should have come to that realization on the insurance side of it. I even had a neighbor at my old house that burnt his house down lighting a wood stove in the garage due to a flash fire from flammables next to the stove.

I was leaning more twords the outdoor furnace option due to several reasons you guys mentioned. I would just put a propane fired heater but all this firewood sitting around makes me not want to pay for it. Once I get to doing solar around here I am going to put a mini split in the garage.

 

[bbxlr8]

Same boat here and explored it when I moved into my current PA house. Have a detached 40x40 and "TONS" of wood. No-go on the insurance. Have a wall-mount propane from the old place but have yet to install it. Gone with portable tube type to bring it up and larger MrHeater buddy one that is nice & quiet for all-day work

FWIW Heat the house mainly with a supplemental woodstove and use oil for backup only.

edit - recently visited the shop of an older gentleman who has been in the car resto business and he had a 55g burn barrel about the floor lever with a cross flow 55 gallon above it for extra heat exchange. Pretty ingenious actually

 

[Husky77]

I got a Chinese diesel heater, works great and only £100 sterling runs on cheap diesel and very effective.

 

[spuldup]

I know you said no propane but here is what I do. I have a propane unit heater (55Kbtu/h, 93% efficient) inside but it is ran from 20lb gas tanks. Heater vents horizontally through the wall. I keep it about 35-40F and turn it up when I'm working in there. I used 5 tanks last year. This way there is no big tank sitting outside.

Do note this is in a section of the garage where no hot work is ever conducted!

 

[moresnow]

Small ceramic electric heater on low 24/7. Runs about $30 a month. When I decide to tackle a lengthy project I fire up the wall mount LP. I have a 250 gal tank to supply the LP.
My insurance co. in NE Iowa said nooooo way to a woodstove in a garage.

 

[sean donato]

I'd be looking for a different insurance company.....

 

[Hulpio]

Short term? So lots of kW very fast.
Do they sell something like this anywhere?
It is very good heater. We installed one 2021 to our hunting cabin. It has like 80 sqm and that thing heats it up in 2 hours or less. Outside and inside temps normally around - 5C when someone comes like 6PM and sets it up. 10PM cabin is warm enough for t-shirt.
You would place this to a separate shed, blowers feeding air back from the garage and pushing heated air to garage. Piping so that first a couple of feet as individuals and then one. This because of the design. For those connecting pipes you could use cheap alu, rest just something heat resistant.
After a while you have nice red bed of coal, then take 3-4 dry and round logs. Throw those in, adjust draft and intake air to low. It will keep burning 5-8 hours.

 

[Pjohnson]

I'd be looking for a different insurance company.....

Its a National Fire Protection Association code no open flame in a garage. Don't think any insurance company is going to go against code.

 

[SS396driver]

I’m assuming it’s an attached garage . What type of heating do you have ? Is you furnace a forced hot air or baseboard heat. If it baseboard you can put a hanging heat exchanger in and then in the future hook it up to the outdoor boiler . Put one like this in at my moms house so her car is warm all winter .

 

[SS396driver]

It’s a National Fire Protection Association code no open flame in a garage. Don't think any insurance company is going to go against code.

Then why do they put propane/NG water heaters and furnaces in garages in new on slab construction . My daughter was looking at new homes this summer and a good number of them were this way . Maybe explosion proof units like we had at the body shop

 

[Pjohnson]

Then why do they put propane/NG water heaters and furnaces in garages in new on slab construction . My daughter was looking at new homes this summer and a good number of them were this way . Maybe explosion proof units like we had at the body shop

Were they raised up? There are some height above floor or sealed combustion chamber requirements. Im no expert on code just know a woodstove is no go

 

[SS396driver]

Found the answer it’s not permissible to install solid fuel heating appliances in a garage. The 6. Ft rule I read was to protect from vehicle impact nothing about fire . The homes we looked at had a small cement wall around the unit about two foot high