what kind of heating sources can be installed in a residential garage that is safe around cars (ie. gasoline)? i worked on the car all through the winter with just the heat coming from the car's motor/tranny to keep things above freezing, but there must be a more comfortable solution. any ideas?

 

heated concrete

 

buddy of mine has an old busted kerosene heater. It works great but you smell like kerosene after a few hours in the garage.

 

i like the electric heaters that are hung from the ceiling and look like big toasters. are these safe around cars (assuming i'm not doing a fuel filter change)? any idea where to get and costs?

 

The "Reddy Heater" things you get at Lowes' kick ***. They plug into a wall outlet and a propane tank like you use with a gas grill.

Several different models available with different BTU ratings. I've got the 30KBTU one and it serves me well in my average-size two car garage.

 

Baseboard heating...this is my garage look to the left of the tires and you will see the base board heating...that plus the huge halogen lights i have to light up place makes it almost too hot in there

 

We have one of those kerosene jet engine heaters. The good news is, they can heat up a large garage pretty nicely. The bad news is, the kerosene fumes are pretty pungent, and you will pretty much melt anything that is within say 2-3 feet in front of the nozzle. At least it's loud enough that it's pretty hard to walk in front of without noticing.

 

umm, does anyone know how to keep cool in a garage? its like 200 degrees in my garage... damn i hate florida

 

Large fans are key, especially during summer time to keep the bugs away!

 

My friend up in Boca has a small window A/C unit in his garage. It ain't huge, and he doesn't run it all the time but when you're working on the car... MAN is it sweet having a chilled garage to do it in as opposed to Florida's oppressive heat.

 

a wall mount electric heater that you can buy at lowes works well if you have a good power supply. Also if you have an attached garage any fumes from a kerosene or propane stand-alone are minimized. I have an old detached three bay so the power supply is crappy(forget electric). I did the whole kerosene and the those stand alone turbine propane jobs before scoring a old natural gas house heater. It was a year old and the owner wanted something more efficient. Convert to propane for $30 and it kicks ***. I get my 100 gallon (I think) tank filled once a year and I run it constantly in the winter. It was in a large two story house so my garage gets like Florida on the coldest day. Another great bang for your buck is a wood heater. I installed a couple in friends barns and no lie you will be sweating. Every fall we run around one weekend picking up pallets to use for wood. Wood stoves work great on uninsulated garages and barns because you want the air flow. We bought a huge cast iron stove at a garage sale for $50 and wood can be free is you know where to look.

My friend is a HVAC guys so he did the conversion and hooked up all the lines and duct work. Wood stove is a no brainer just make sure you give lots of room around you exhaust pipe and insulate well when you go through a wall.

Companies that install heaters are always throwing away older propane/natural gas units out.

Would love to do a circulating water system. Have most of the components just need the whole garage cleaned out to rip up the floor.

 

Propane heaters are great for residential all the way through bigger shops. you can point them where you want them and all. just watch your ***, after a few drinks, you back into one of those things, that **** hurts!