HELP: Garage Heater Recommendation
 

Hello all,

I'm hoping some knowledgable heating experts might be able to help me
out here.

We're in the process of building a new house, and have an attached
garage. The garage size is 26x24, and has a ceiling height of 11'6".
The way the garage is positioned within the house, two of the walls
are shared internal walls, and two are external (cold) walls. The
external walls are 2x6 construction, are are R19 insulated. Above the
garage is a bonus room which is finished, and has R33 insulation above
the garage ceiling. And the garage door itself is very well
insulated.

Basically, I'm looking for a recommendation on a good heater for this
garage space, since I will be setting up a small workbench area, and
would prefer to work in the warmth rather than the fridgid cold :)

My plumber originally suggested a thermostatically controlled space
heater from Rinnai - the 606TRAII. Here's the link:
http://www.rinnaina.com/products/hea...E606ATRAII.asp

However, after speaking to the sales people where they sell this
heater locally, they talked him out of this model saying it wouldn't
be sufficient for this space. Now his recommendation is to setup a
small furnace unit, and run duct work overhead blowing heat down into
the garage. While I'm sure this second method will work just great,
it's way overkill for what I'm looking to do with this garage.

My original thought was to go with a simple brick heater, but my
contractor talked me out of this saying it would burn up way more gas
than I wanted, since it is NOT thermostatically controlled. So now
I'm back to square one.

My budget on this is preferrably around $600 or under. If anyone can
make a suggestion that would fall into this category, I would greatly
appreciate it!

Kevin G.

Kevin G wrote:
We're in the process of building a new house, and have an attached
garage. The garage size is 26x24, and has a ceiling height of 11'6".
The way the garage is positioned within the house, two of the walls
are shared internal walls, and two are external (cold) walls. The
external walls are 2x6 construction, are are R19 insulated. Above the
garage is a bonus room which is finished, and has R33 insulation above
the garage ceiling. And the garage door itself is very well
insulated.

What does the heat loss calculation say you need in BTU?

Travis Jordan wrote:
Kevin G wrote:
We're in the process of building a new house, and have an attached
garage. The garage size is 26x24, and has a ceiling height of
11'6". The way the garage is positioned within the house, two of
the walls are shared internal walls, and two are external (cold)
walls. The external walls are 2x6 construction, are are R19
insulated. Above the garage is a bonus room which is finished, and
has R33 insulation above the garage ceiling. And the garage door
itself is very well insulated.

What does the heat loss calculation say you need in BTU?

25K BTU -
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...5606&R=2560 6
30K BTU -
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...83&R=10 29783
40K BTU -
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...0858&R=2085 8
45K BTU -
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...&R= 200307937

Well, you get the idea.

On Wed, 02 Feb 2005 22:05:16 GMT, "Travis Jordan"
wrote:

Kevin G wrote:
We're in the process of building a new house, and have an attached
garage. The garage size is 26x24, and has a ceiling height of 11'6".
The way the garage is positioned within the house, two of the walls
are shared internal walls, and two are external (cold) walls. The
external walls are 2x6 construction, are are R19 insulated. Above the
garage is a bonus room which is finished, and has R33 insulation above
the garage ceiling. And the garage door itself is very well
insulated.

What does the heat loss calculation say you need in BTU?


Hi Travis,

Thanks a bunch for the quick reply! Honestly, I don't have an answer
to your question... that's getting a little more technical than I'm
equipped to handle :) I'm guessing there is a formula to be used when
calculating heat loss? The problem is, I don't know if I would
adequately be able to plug variables into a formula because there are
a few windows in the garage, an interior door, etc.. This would
probably be something I would have to pass along to my contractor.

Any suggestions on figuring this out?

Kevin

Kevin G wrote:
I'm guessing there is a formula to be used when
calculating heat loss? The problem is, I don't know if I would
adequately be able to plug variables into a formula because there are
a few windows in the garage, an interior door, etc.. This would
probably be something I would have to pass along to my contractor.

Any suggestions on figuring this out?

It is relatively trivial to run a quick "Manual J" calculation for your
purpose.

Here's an online calculator that will probably get you close enough.
You can also Google on "Manual J" for more technical details and other
calculators.

http://www.mrhvac.com/index.html?htt...nualjshort.htm

Travis Jordan wrote:
Kevin G wrote:
I'm guessing there is a formula to be used when

I ran your numbers through the calculator (assuming no windows but
including a 24 x 8 metal R-5 door) and came up with a heat loss of about
6600 BTU / 10 degrees. So if you want the inside temperature to be 70
and the outdoor temp is zero, you would need 46K BTU. Run the numbers
for yourself and see what you get.