hvac guys help... heat for garage??
 

going to be looking into getting some kind of a heater in my garage seeing as my project is no where near done and the cold weather is on its way. My question is what would be the safest and most efficient way to heat my garage. By safest i mean that i will be working with chemicals such as paints, body fillers, primers thinners, etc.... and dont want a fire hazard. it is an over sized two car garage so its not to big. what would be the best type. keep in mind too that doing body work it would have be at least 60 plus degrees in there so the fillers and primers could dry correctly... thanks for any help cause im kind of lost with this stuff...

Are you able to run a gas line to it or stuck with electric heaters?

well would rather not have to plumb anything but it could be done if price was right and set up was right. also willing to get somthing that runs off kerosene or somthing along those lines... if it were safe

Anything kerosene will have open flame exposed to whatever vapors you're creating, so I don't know how safe that'd be.

the safest for working with chemicals would be hot water baseboard heater. anything else will be a fire hazard.
If an attached garage, you could possibly add a loop to an existing zone, otherwise run an additional zone, but both may require a furnace upgrade.

a commercial unit would be something to look into since they might have fire safe designs

I use a dual burner propane heater, but i warm up the garage prior to doing any paint work. then shut it all off and paint. I then let the temp slowly drop(good insulation) and when it gets really down or when i can, I open garage to vent it all, then reheat since the fumes have cleared.

yea kind of knew that any open flame design would be no good.. and base board is out of question because my house is gas forced hot air and my garage is detached and a good ways from the house anyway. not looking to spend thousands of dollars either on a big set up. what about electric infared type heaters. we had them in tech school and remember them working decent...anybody use them at all? im thinking my choices are goin to be to get some type of hanging gas furnace that has fan and everything all as one unit and get that plumbed in from gas guy.. or those electric infared heaters... gas option is going to cost more but will obviously work better and probably be more efficient and cheaper as far as energy use... im not going to be painting most likely but will definitly be priming... primer overspray is very minimal so chance of vapor fire is probably slim to none but dont wanna take chances if there is better options out there

is the garage insulated?

Electric infrared heating would work fine but you need enough coverage since they can be relatively "focused". I would recommend a good ventilation system for any method you go with to minimize your safety concerns. I'm doing a gas furnace for mine since my gas line runs through the garage.

yea brian your garage is attached to your house right? that would be ideal but is for me to run gas all the way to my garage is probably going to cost me. if i went with the infrared type id probably get like 2 of them rated at the square footage to try and cover more room because i know what you mean. and im not sure if its insulated cause it was sheet rocked before i moved in... the doors are cheapo and non insulated i know that...

Yes it's attached and I only mentioned it depending on your accessibility from the house to the garage. Infrared would be the best for a non insulated space.

yea thats what i was thinkning because a gas heater will be running all the time in a poor insulated space and would be running my gas bill up like crazy. hopfully i can find some good efficient infrared heaters that wont cost alot with the energy bill, but will heat everything good