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BobK207

wrote:
I have a garage that is 20' depth x 28' wide and the ceiling is 8'
high. The walls are block and the outside I had 3/4" insulation board
with furring strips and siding added on for aesthetics. I put 4 new 36"
x 36" double pane windows with argon in the garage as well. There are 2
on the east wall and 2 on the west wall. I had ceiling rafters and a
i-beam put up as there were only cables holding up the roof rafters.
After the ceiling rafters & I-beam were installed I placed R12 or R19
insulation with a covering of plastic over the insulation and ceiling
rafters. I then added 3/4" insulation board over that as one side is
shiny silver and helps with lighting,not only insulating the place
more. After all of this I noticed I got a humidity problem and the
humidity levels were near 80%. So I bought a whirlpool 70 pint
dehumidifier. I can get the humidity levels down to 48% but no lower.
This brings me to the new problem and finding a solution.
I live in the northeast of the usa & the weather is getting colder
especially at nights. I spend alot of time in the garage and I need
heat. At least to 65-69 degrees while Im in there. 55 when Im not.
I bought two charmglow propane wall hanging heaters that were 28,000
btu's & open blue flame only to find out that I cannot get them hooked
up if I house a vehicle in there. Which I do. So I had to return them.
Im looking for a vented propane wall hanging heater for this garage or
something that would help heat the place and keep the mositure down and
keep the temps mentioned above.
I also understand that adding a vent free type propane or gas heater
will add to my moisture problem. I was referred to use baseboard
heaters but Im concerned on how much it would cost being electric. I
probably would use the heat at 65-69 degrees 20hrs/7days a week from
October to May(about 7 months). I may turn the heat down to 55 degrees
for the night. I was told that electric heat would help the moisture
problem(which I would like to stop using the dehumidifier). They also
said with gas,propane,& oil prices of today, that electric heating
costs arent so bad and are a bit better nowadays. But Im still
concerned and still wonder how much heat they would throw off and what
the temperature would be using 1,2 or possibly 3 baseboard electric
heaters.
Anyone have any better advise for me?

In no particular order, just shooting from the hip

Yes.....add some white space & paragraphs to make you posts more
readable.

About the heat.....you need to do (or have done) some demand calcs for
your heating needs.

determine the source of your moisture problem

Just a WAG but the new windows probably have ~10x the R value of CMU
alone. CMU walls without insulation probably have an R less than 1.
My guess is that your walss with insulation have an R of about 6?

Make sure the moisture retarder on the insulation is in the correct
location....double layers of insulation should not have moisture
retarder in between.....onlly one moisture retarder per insulation
stack.

With your ceiling & wall insulation & windows installed the weak link
is now the garage door?

I'd figure you need something in the 30 Kbtu/hr range or about 8 kwatts
to heat when the temp outside is 0 deg F

Inorder to do the tradeoff gas vs electricity............

What is your incremental cost of electricity & oil or gas cost per
therm?

My bias is against electric heat IMO it is usually more expensive
unless you have cheap hydro power, Electric heat does avoid hte
venting / moisture problems but 8 kwatt is nearly a 50 amp draw

cheers
Bob