Garage Heaters

[Greg Warren]

For those of you who have a heater for your garage gym, how many of you have insulated the exterior walls of your garage? Have you noticed a big difference? My garage door faces west, the north wall faces another house and doesn't get much wind, but the south wall is exposed and takes a lot of wind. I was thinking about insulating the walls this winter, but am unsure about what sort of ROI to expect savings-wise, or if just putting the heater in would be good enough.

[Christopher Morris]

I'm of the opinion that a good insulation job always pays off. My garage was already insulated and dry walled. I'm planning to insulate the inside of the garage door as my next project.

[Kristopher Shifler]

I'm in the middle of insulating/drywalling my garage in order to use it for my home gym. 400 sq ft garage, 12' ceilings. R13 in the walls and R38 in the crawl space above. The exterior walls are currently insulated, but the drywall is not hung yet. I've weather-stipped the back door to the garage and put insulating film on the windows, but haven't done anything to the actual garage door yet. Outside temp was 30° this morning, garage was 58°. I think that the insulation is really going to pay off.

To the OP - My garage was completely bare when I started this project so I ran a 240v/30amp line in order to install this - http://www.homedepot.com/p/Fahrenhea...UH54/202043073 .

It's sitting in my garage right now, I hope to install it in the next week or two after I hang the drywall. I'll let you know how it works when it's in. I'm hoping to keep the garage around 65° for workouts.

[Jason A Smith]

Originally Posted by Kristopher Shifler

I'm in the middle of insulating/drywalling my garage in order to use it for my home gym. 400 sq ft garage, 12' ceilings. R13 in the walls and R38 in the crawl space above. The exterior walls are currently insulated, but the drywall is not hung yet. I've weather-stipped the back door to the garage and put insulating film on the windows, but haven't done anything to the actual garage door yet. Outside temp was 30° this morning, garage was 58°. I think that the insulation is really going to pay off.

To the OP - My garage was completely bare when I started this project so I ran a 240v/30amp line in order to install this - http://www.homedepot.com/p/Fahrenhea...UH54/202043073 .

It's sitting in my garage right now, I hope to install it in the next week or two after I hang the drywall. I'll let you know how it works when it's in. I'm hoping to keep the garage around 65° for workouts.

That is almost exactly what I have done. 30 degrees would be balmy right now. It has been below 0 F here for a week or two. I can still get my garage up to about room temperature. The biggest issue I have is my wife parks on one side and every time she opens the garage door it lets all the heat out. I think I may rectify that this weekend by setting up a temporary wall. To block one side off completely

[Kristopher Shifler]

My garage is completely insulated now and the heater is installed. Outside temp was 30° F this morning, garage was 53° F without the heater turned on. Turned the heater on, thermostat on Low, and in 1 hour the temp was 63° F. The heater wasn't running after an hour, so I'm not sure exactly how long it took to warm up - something less than 1 hour.

One thing that I did at the last minute that I'm very happy I did - added the on/off switch. I can turn the heater off at night or any time it's not needed.

In the end I think this $261 electric heater is going to work very well to keep the insulated garage comfortable to workout in her in southern PA.

@Jason - We plan on still parking both cars in the garage, so I've started "efficient garage door use" talks with my wife.

[Jason Wilbarger]

I use a 30K BTU propane salamander in my 400+ sf garage and it works great. The only time I notice off gassing is when the tank begins to freeze up. To rectify that I just put the tank about 8-10' in front of the heater itself.

The heater works so well that I often turn it off mid workout because I get too hot.

[Kristopher Shifler]

Originally Posted by Kristopher Shifler

My garage is completely insulated now and the heater is installed. Outside temp was 30° F this morning, garage was 53° F without the heater turned on. Turned the heater on, thermostat on Low, and in 1 hour the temp was 63° F. The heater wasn't running after an hour, so I'm not sure exactly how long it took to warm up - something less than 1 hour.

One thing that I did at the last minute that I'm very happy I did - added the on/off switch. I can turn the heater off at night or any time it's not needed.

In the end I think this $261 electric heater is going to work very well to keep the insulated garage comfortable to workout in her in southern PA.

@Jason - We plan on still parking both cars in the garage, so I've started "efficient garage door use" talks with my wife.
Attachment 13678

Quick update: it's 1° here in southern PA this morning and this heater is keeping the 21'x22'x12' garage at 65° on the low setting.

[Matthew S Cooper]

I've never in my life worried about a chilly garage while I'm working out, but seeing how cold it gets in other parts of the country I can understand the need! Thank goodness it rarely drops below 30° here.

Got me thinking about summer and how I hate the 110° daytime highs (usually coinciding with my workout time). Guess I should research garage A/C or cooling units.