Garage heat- Natural gas options/vent or ventless?

[fortysixandtwo]

I’d like to have a heater installed in the garage, its a 3 car insulated attached to house. I have 11 ft ceilings and we have gas heat, the meter is behind the brick garage. The simulator takes up one stall so I don’t need to warm up the whole garage just that area to a decent level. We just moved in over the summer so I don’t know how well insulated its going to be. Winters here in Kentucky average 20’s to low 30.. but it goes into the single digits occasionally.
I’m trying to figure out what size btu will work with my space and if I need to go vented or ventless? Is this an hvac install or does a plumber run the gas lines? Those of you who went through this install if you don’t mind me asking what unit you picked out and what labor costs ended up if you hired someone.
Thanks!
John

[mthunt]

I’d like to have a heater installed in the garage, its a 3 car insulated attached to house. I have 11 ft ceilings and we have gas heat, the meter is behind the brick garage. The simulator takes up one stall so I don’t need to warm up the whole garage just that area to a decent level. We just moved in over the summer so I don’t know how well insulated its going to be. Winters here in Kentucky average 20’s to low 30.. but it goes into the single digits occasionally.
I’m trying to figure out what size btu will work with my space and if I need to go vented or ventless? Is this an hvac install or does a plumber run the gas lines? Those of you who went through this install if you don’t mind me asking what unit you picked out and what labor costs ended up if you hired someone.
Thanks!
John

You’ll need a gas guy to run the gas line but installing the heater is easy. I recommend the Hot Dawg Garage heater by moline. It’s perfect for that and comes in many sizes.

[fortysixandtwo]

I was just looking at hot dawg, I guess they’re at Home Depot?and mr heater which is at lowes

[wbond]

What about air? You may want to consider a mini split of you plan to use it throughout the year

[fortysixandtwo]

I’ll have to do more research on a mini split but a couple things since I moved in over the summer. The highest temp the garage got to was 82 degrees from what I remember so I just had direct fans and broke a little sweat while practicing. I figured i could survive our summers here unless it was a real humid day.

The garage is almost 1200 sq ft. I’m afraid what the electric bill would be to heat or cool some of that space compared to say tapping off our gas heat. So good heat is a must for me if it gets in the 40’s in the garage I’m not going out there!

It’s in the 30’s tonight and the garage is around 55 and I’m thinking I better get heat soon!

[wzjy47]

For what its worth, we're in Ohio and have a similar sized garage and have gotten by with a decent infrared space heater. It takes a few minutes to heat up and you probably won't want to wear shorts in January, but its enough to make it comfortable.

[Foreman33]

I just installed a natural gas direct vent heater in my garage for my sim build. I also have 11' ceilings but my garage is only 850 SF. I got the Reznor UDAP 60k BTU. There are plenty of calculators on the web to help you determine your size, but I'm guessing you'll need to be around 75k btu.

Here in MN vented natural gas seems like the way to go. It heats quickly and is relatively inexpensive to use. I've seen people drop tarps to section off a portion of the garage to save on gas usage. Even if you heat the whole garage it shouldn't take that much time to bring it up to 60 degrees.


A few things:

-My research suggested Reznor and Hot Dawg by Modine (~$800) were the best, but Mr. Heater is fine and cheaper ($475).

-Vent kit will cost $125 for a vertical vent through the roof or $300 for horizontal vent through the wall

-I don't have good color for you on cost to run a gas line. An HVAC person or plumber should be able to do this. I ran a line myself before I finished the basement so I didn't have to pay for this, but anecdotally I heard it could cost a couple grand if its a long, difficult run. If you have a gas line just on the other side of the garage it should be cheaper than that (no idea, maybe $500-1k?). You may be able to save some money if you run the line and let a pro hook it up. Home Depot 1/2" Home Flex is super easy to work with - I'd just leave the connections for a pro.

-I got a quote to hang, vent, and hook up my pre-run gas line (to the heater unit and to the gas source) - and that was $800-$1,000 for the labor.

-I ended up hanging and venting it myself and had an HVAC friend hook the gas line up for me. Hanging/venting were relatively easy. I'd never installed a vent through the roof before but Youtube University got me through it.

-I'm happy with the Reznor. I appreciate that it's relatively quiet.

-I'd recommend a wifi thermostat. There are some cheap ones out there and it's nice to be able to preheat the garage.

[richerod]

I too have a three car garage with 12' ceilings in NJ. . My simulator is in the middle bay with screen opposite center garage door. I just had two of these heaters installed yesterday. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1. Its 34 degrees here tonight and the garage is a toasty 70 degrees. We will see what this does to my electric bill and how these will work once temp drops into single digits.

[fortysixandtwo]

Thanks for the help and suggestions so far! I just measured the garage and its 40’8”x 25. 11 ft ceilings
So 1,000 sq ft. I don’t need to heat the whole thing, so I’m hoping an 80,000 btu would be enough. How far down from the ceiling would you mount it and direct the heat toward sim area?

[Foreman33]

Thanks for the help and suggestions so far! I just measured the garage and its 40’8”x 25. 11 ft ceilings
So 1,000 sq ft. I don’t need to heat the whole thing, so I’m hoping an 80,000 btu would be enough. How far down from the ceiling would you mount it and direct the heat toward sim area?

How do you plan on not heating the whole thing? Are you going to divide the room? 80k BTU is about the right size to heat the whole thing. You could put the thermostat close to the hitting area area if you're only worried about bringing that area to temp, but you're still going to end up heating most of the garage.

I mounted mine a couple inches off the ceiling because I needed the space below for my screen/enclosure. It points towards the hitting area.

[Foreman33]

Also - you can direct the vent up and down to "aim" the heat, so how high you mount shouldn't matter too much. Only up and down, not horizontally - at least with the units I looked it.

[Adkins]

Find a Fujistu elite dealer in your area. A mini split will be the best way to go. Very energy efficient. Many of their units provide more heating and cooling that what it states. I’ll be doing a ceiling cassette in my garage when I get my drywall finished. The mini split will be the quietest option out there. Do not buy a unit that is diy. The diy units are basically throw away units. A Fujistu elite dealer will be able to provide a 12 year parts and compressor warranty on the unit.

im near St. Louis so we have similar temps. I used to work for an hvac contractor for about 13 years and now I’m a territory manager for a supply house.

[fortysixandtwo]

A year later…

I just had a modine hot dawg 75K btu gas heater installed last week, just in time for the winter. I decided against a mini split since running fans and open doors was just fine for the last two summers. This thing gets the garage very warm and quick. My garage is insulated so it hasn’t been colder than 50 yet. I just turn it out before going out and in about 10 minutes it’s warm.
I highly recommend adding something like this to your garage, it will make being out there much more enjoyable..wish I wouldv’e done it last winter!

[GullLakeMi]

I did the same in Michigan. Added insulation overhead and insulated garage doors. Works great, efficient. Will never live without garage heat again.

[Hickory James]

30,000 BTU wall mounted ventless gas heater is all you need. I have one mounted in garage and heat whole house from ground up about 2300 sq ft. Also have ventless fireplace on ground floor for extra cozyness but when in 30's not needed but under 30 to zero it is coming on. 80,000 BTU is a propane variety that I have in garage as I don't have a gas line and it works great too but only gets 8 hours run time at 80,000 BTU which cost $21 per 20 lb tank. So go with a wall mounted hook up to your gas line and it will be great. BTW I also live in KY and have been using the ventless in house for 10 years as my primary source of all heat. But our crazy government has raised up gas so much since last year - I might have to switch to wood? Crazy governemnt we have now.
I was actually on news talking about my bill and they called me because I have been telling everyone about my 62% increase.
Here is link to HD ventless - https://www.homedepot.com/b/Heating-...20gas%20heater
Here is link to my TV talk LOL - https://www.wlky.com/article/think-t...6hApXqwO2RghMc

[mthunt]

2 of my buddies put in 240v heaters and swear by them.

[jasonreg]

Similar to the one in post #7 - I have this Lennox LF25 Garage Heater in a 4 car garage. It is -32 degrees C this am and I keep the garage at 10 degrees all winter long. Runs on Natural Gas but there are propane versions as well. Have had it for over 10 years now and running strong. Garage is insulated - minor bump in gas cost but oh so worth it!

Installation cost was reasonable though I already had Natural Gas plumbed into the Garage during construction. Running the gas line to the garage will be the largest expense depending on how far your main line is for the garage and how much access you have.