......in the garage - my first time ever after working on cars in the northeast for the past 30+ years. late this past summer, a buddy asks if I want to buy a brand new hot dawg shop heater - i reminded him I had just bought a new project and there were no funds for that - He proceedes to tell me a story about someone he knew that ordered the wrong heater (too small) and it was just sitting uninsalled and brand new in their shop - then he told me the price......lets just say it had been cut in half three times - i reached into my pocket and payed him right then and there (a really good friend) I got it mounted - slit my hand open venting it (to the tune of 8 stitches), wired it up and had a friend of a friend (a licensed plummer) hook up the gas (the most expensive part of the job, luckily only a 15' run though) just really excited and hope to get a lot done over the winter
When I lived up in Mass the wife gave me a shop heater for Christmas one year after we moved into our new house. It was an 85000 BTU wall unit. I could put that thing on and in about 15 minutes I could work out in the 24 x 30 garage in my tee shirt! Was awesome!
Nothing better than working in a warm garage and going out side to find out it’s 10 degrees and snowing out. And you had no idea
That is great, I remember laying outside on the ground with snow around the car,,,swapping the tranny out or replacing the clutch. That was a long time ago,,,and even though it was in gravels,,,I did have a pair of insulated coveralls on. It is amazing what a young man can endure. If I had to do that now,,,it would kill me dead,,,,Lol ! Tommy
I installed a 2 ton heat pump in the shop about 18 months ago I think. Best tool I ever bought both summer and winter!
yeah I put in an 18000 btu mini split this year, keep the garage at 62 so far this winter. Perfect work temp.
Heat in the winter is a wonderful thing, until the gas bill comes. As long as you don't try to keep it real warm, the gas bill isn't usually too bad. I keep the thermostat in my shop set at 60 at night and bump it to 64 during the day (I work in the shop during the day.) I find 64 to be a good work in a sweatshirt temp and doesn't get too warm when you are actually doing something. If its real cold outside (below 0) or the wind is coming out of the south (my garage door faces south) the furnace runs a lot. Retirement presents a different mood. If its cold, or the wind is blowing out of the south, I'll just stay in the house. You turn into a wimp as you get older, the cold bothers you a lot more. Gene
I have the same heater in my shop. It really kicks ass! I turn it up to around 65 degrees when I am out there working, and down to 35 degrees when I am not. Heats the whole shop quickly and doesn't stink...
I was just happy for a long time to have a garage that I could hide in when it got cold, no room to pull a car into it.. I recall doing a water pump in my OT Chevy wagon, just the nose stuck in the garage and sleet and snow all around me... Now I have space, tight but doable. Need to get a better heater for sure!
Heat? In the garage? 30 degrees???? That's why I live in California, but the price for me is the people in Sacramento,,,,,
If you mount the thermostat at a bit of an angle, you can set the temperature a bit lower than the minimum setting to keep the cost down. Sent from my SM-T350 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I have a wood furnace in my garage. Got it for free. Spent a bit to get the correct chimney pipe, spenat an afternoon installing it. It's great once it gets going!
i built a new shop two years ago. Insulated the hell out of it. Then, bought a hanging heater. I didn't go the conventional gas heater route, i went with 220v electric. Everyone said electric is really expensive. While it did raise the bill a little in the dead of winter, it wasn't the horror story everyone said it would be. A few more $$ is not hard to cough up, when you can look out the window, watch it snow, & still be able to get something done-even on the late model
My thermostat in the shop can be turned down to 45, but I have a lot of steel in this former welding shop. I've discovered that if all that steel gets cold, the shop feels cold, even if the air temp might say its warmer. Probably a nice radiant heat to warm up the steel would have been a good investment 10 years ago (but my ceiling is too low), now that I've retired, that isn't feasible. At some point (maybe by next winter), much of this steel sitting here will be gone, then I can probably turn down the heat without making the shop feel cold. This 24' x 30' shop has had the heat in it since I move here 16 years ago. I have no idea how much the shop heat is effecting the home heating bill. Between the shop and the almost 1900 sq ft house, the gas bill runs about $1,000 a year. The shop made about 1/3 of the gas bill (and 1/3 of the other utilities) a tax write off, that just ended this year. Gene
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