Informational Guide

Best Way To Heat A Garage In Winter

In this guide, we will look at cheap ways to heat a garage. Once you are finished reading, you should know the best ways how to heat a garage in winter.

Whether you are working in your garage or you want to protect your vehicle better, it helps to know how to heat up a garage. In this guide, we will look at cheap ways to heat a garage and how to hang a garage heater. Once you are finished reading, you should know the best way to heat a garage in winter.

Why Bother Heating Your Garage?

Your vehicle, must-have tools, and other gear that are kept in your garage should be kept at a certain temperature to ensure maximum life and durability. If you can learn how to safely heat a garage, you will also receive other benefits, such as the following:

  • Increased comfort  
    you can warm the space and learn how to insulate a garage door from heat for year-round comfort.
  • Optimizes internal temperatures  
    the garage wall might connect to an interior wall, causing temperature fluctuations inside as well.
  • Prevents freezing  
    car batteries, fluids, and other gear should not be frozen.
  • Creates a year-round workspace  
    when you learn the best way to heat a garage workshop, you gain space to work all year.
  • Allow for renovation  
    if you are renovating the space into a living area, you will want heat in place

Which Areas Should Be Insulated For Maximum Efficiency?

Garage door

It’s simple to insulate your garage door with a variety of materials. Choose from reflective foil roll insulation, rigid foam board panes, or flexible batt insulation to keep the heat in.

garage door

Garage windows

A lot of air can seep through the windows, especially if they are only a single pane. To insulate garage windows, consider covering them with clear plastic at the start of the winter season.

Garage concrete floor

Learning how to heat a concrete garage floor will be very different from figuring out how to install in-floor heating in a garage. If there are holes or cracks in the cement foundation, you need to use foam insulation to seal it. Otherwise, cold air can seep through and affect the heating bill.

Garage walls

If the walls aren’t covered in drywall, you will need to insulate them. Learning how to hang a gas garage heater won’t do any good unless you add insulation or use spray foam first.

How Many BTUs Do You Need To Heat A Garage?

BTU stands for British thermal units. A single BTU is the amount of heat needed to increase the temperature of a pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. To learn how to calculate the BTU needed to heat a garage, follow these steps.

  1. 1
    Measure the width and length of your garage interior. Multiply the number of feet together, which gives you the square footage of the garage.
  2. 2
    Divide that number by 200.
  3. 3
    If there is enough insulation in the garage, you can multiply the new number by 6,000. If there’s not enough insulation, multiply it by 9,000 instead.
  4. 4
    This number is the amount of BTU output you want when learning how to heat a 2 car garage.

So, if you have a 600 well-insulated sqft garage, you will want an 18,000 BTU heater for optimal warmth.

Best Way To Heat A Garage: Cheapest & Most Efficient Ways

Which is the cheapest way of heating a garage and which is the most efficient for heating a garage? Read on to learn more.

Portable space heaters

You can learn how to heat a garage cheaply and simply with a space heater. All you need is an electrical power outlet to get started. While this is probably the cheapest way to heat a garage, it can take a while for the room to heat up. Additionally, you don’t want it to run unsupervised, as it becomes a fire hazard.

Combustion heaters

With a combustion heater, you use kerosene or propane as the fuel source. You can use this method even when the power is out or if you need to know how to heat a garage without electricity, but you must continue buying the fuel. Additionally, you might not like the odor and you should always have fresh air for ventilation.

In-Surface radiant heating

If you want to know how to heat a garage efficiently, consider adding lines into the flooring. Instead of heating the air, you heat the floor surface. While this is versatile and quiet, it can be much more expensive.

Convection heating

Air currents circulate through the convection unit to the heating element, where they get pushed out by the fan to heat the room. While this system is quiet and runs from a variety of power sources, it will not filter the air, so you are left with the dirt and dust.

Forced air heating

By blasting hot air into the garage, you can connect right into the existing system within your home, but you will need to also learn how to install a garage heater vent. This method isn’t that expensive, but it can be noisy and will require regular maintenance.

Ductless heating

Ductless heating works just like central air and heat but without the ductwork. It’s not only energy-efficient but also better for the environment. However, it can be more expensive and there will be filters to change.

Propane heating

Can you use a propane heater in a garage? Yes, but is it safe to heat a garage with propane? Not always. There is a risk of fire when heating the garage with propane, but it still remains an affordable option.

Electric ceiling panel heating

You can also add heat right into the ceiling panels of the garage for an attractive option. However, you will need a finished ceiling for this method, and it might take more time to heat this way.

Infrared heaters

Will an infrared heater heat a garage? Yes, but they work best in uninsulated garages because they warm objects, not air. You don’t need to do any maintenance to this type of heater, but it only works well in smaller spaces.

house

People Also Ask (FAQs)

What temperature should I heat my garage to?

To protect everything inside the garage, it’s important to maintain a temperature above the dew point. This number varies based on what part of the country you live in.

How can you heat a detached garage?

Heating a detached garage might require a little more effort, especially if there is no electricity. However, several of the methods shown, such as a portable propane heater, might work when used properly.

How cold will an unheated garage get?

You can expect the unheated garage to retain some warmth, but not enough to be as warm as your home. Depending on where you live, it might stay a few degrees warmer than the outside temperature.

Can you heat a garage without insulation?

Learning how to heat a garage without insulation might mean following some extra steps, but it can be done. Consider using infrared heating, which is an ideal method in this case.

Are electric garage heaters expensive to run?

In general, the electric garage heater will be more expensive than gas or infrared by a good amount. In fact, electricity is the most expensive of all of the options in most parts of the country.

Conclusion

You might not be able to figure out how to heat a garage for free, but it’s simple to learn how to mount a garage heater once you pick the method you want. Does a heated garage add value? Absolutely! Go ahead and warm up that garage before you sell your home or the next cold snap hits.

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