Dan DiBiase wrote:
> 1) There are no windows or doors in my garage other than
> the 2 garage doors and one door leading into the house.
Sounds like the typical modern suburban home, which
is what my last one was and what most people have around
here. The carry-around 220V heater is an almost universal
sight in the Canadian hobbyist garage. ;>
> 2) I probably shouldn't rule out electric; the only reason I
> mentioned that is because there is only one outlet and it's
> pretty well taken up! I DO need to add more outlets, though, and
> will plan to do that this winter as well.
It's a little harder now that yours is drywalled, but
that is what I did. I put a zillion outlets in the garage
on two circuits, and ran a seperate circuit for heater and
one for compressor.
Only took a few hours, $200 or so, and worked great. Before, I was
using a 120V heater, compressor, and tools on one
breaker. I had to keep turning stuff on and off to stop
from popping the circuit! Gotta grind, kill the heat. Ok,
grinding, damn, compressor kicked on, stop grinding until
it stops, etc.
> 3) The garage is 'finished' - that is, it's drywalled but I am not
> sure about insulated.
If it's drywalled, even the air gap behind the drywall
is a sort-of-decent insulation. I wouldn't go tearing
out the drywall or injecting foam or anything until you
try it for a winter.
To me, the most important point in your list of
requirements is the requirement that "it doesn't
have to be room temperature, just workable".
To me that makes all the difference in the world,
and is also the way I did my first garage. My 6000w
heater might take a week to get the temperature to
20C inside when it's -20C outside, or maybe it won't
do it at all, but for about $100 you can work in
the garage any day of the year for as long as you
feel like working.
In the coldest days I would wear a light jacket
and maybe use work gloves where I normally wouldn't,
but it doesn't really ruin the experience.
In my new garage I could probably work in a
speedo swimming suit on February 1st if I wanted
to, but I don't know if over the life of my garage
it would be worth the $2000 installation and the
weekend of setup that the previous owner probably
did on this garage for my massive natural gas heater.
> 4) And YES, I can fit a lift in there!
That's what I did!
--
Trevor Boicey, P. Eng.
Ottawa, Canada, tboicey@brit.ca
ICQ #17432933 http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/
"So Hungry... can't eat car..." - Homer
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