Mark,
just this year I installed heat in the garage... it's a 24x24 wooden
building... it is well insulated (4" in walls... 8" in ceiling) and sealed
with 1/4" plywood and ceiling... cement floor 4 windows, 1 man door and a
9' roll up door... 8' ceilings
I got a good deal on a 50K Reznor ceiling hung natural gas unit...
mounted in in one corner (almost a mistake) and put the thermostat in the
opposite corner. Set it on 60 degrees (the lowest setting) and let her
rip... Best thing I ever did in that garage !! It hardly ever runs in
our low 30's winters and keeps everything nice and toasty... tools are
warm... floors are tolerable. its a pleasure to work out there now... The
only noise is the fan gently blowing and conversations are easy... Not like
with the kerosene torpedo heaters roaring away and smelling up everything.
My only mistake mentioned above was mounting the unit too close in the
corner... I had some gas valve problems and it was a bear to work on... had
to use a mirror. The unit is about 3' long 30" high and 15" wide and is
vented... the double wall pipe up thru the ceiling is no big thing and
easy enough to do... (pay attention to your ceiling joist and roof rafter
locations when mounting the heater !!!...don't ask how I know.
I ran a 1/2 wrapped black pipe from the house to the garage (65') with a
ball valve on each end... trust me.... do that part. Digging the trench
was the hardest part with chert backfill to dig out and remove... buried
the pipe in a sand base with 2" of sand cover followed with topsoil... It
ran right at the edge of the driveway and flower beds... If you use black
pipe, wrap it to protect it... it will rust quickly underground.. soft
copper will also work fine... just protect it from tubing seeking shovels
I would also recommend putting your gas regulator at the head end of the
run instead of inches from the heater as I did... the mechanical valves
can't react fast enough when the heater starts up and you can get some
"WHOOSH" (hard to explain) type lighting ... kinda like a little explosion
in the heater.. the problem being , when the gas valve opens the regulator
can react fast enough and the chamber fills a little too much with gas
before it lights... hence the 'whoosh'...
I think you'll be happy with the nat gas unit... I can't really see it on
my gas bill... I'm sure if we had worse winters it would show up... but it
would still be worth it... A warm 3/8 ratchet feels nice...
later
John
there is no limit to how bad things can get !
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