Heat a Two Car Garage -- Quartz Heaters

[Rich Grise]

The big advantage of these radiators is that you can get warm without
heating the air or the contents of the garage. Compare the cost of
electricity with that of gas etc. but I suspect you will find that for an
un-insulated garage the quartz radiators are more efficient and safer. We
just had 2 boys die trying to refuel a generator in a garage - carbon
monoxide got them.

I know about radiative heaters - I've seen them with a catalytic element
that just glows red-hot and gives off infrared. I'm way, way too lazy to
look up the numbers, but one time I was in a survival situation (well,
kinda - I was camping out, and it got really really cold); I ripped the
handle off a little sieve, and heated it up on my little propane camp
stove - it turned red-hot, and I hung some aluminum foil behind it, and I
got just toasty-warm. ;-)

But it would be interesting to do a comparision of gas/electric radiative
heaters.

What do they use at those ski bunny joints up in the mountains, where
people have snowball fights in bikinis and stuff? ;-)

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Rich Grise]

Perhaps a little Googling helps here.

From <http://www.ecohousewares.com/faq/PortableElectricHeaters.html#pe2>
A Radiant Heater is the second type of technology where heat is emitted from
infrared radiation. Radiant heaters encompass metal-rod and *quartz* units.
The surface can range from a glowing panel of a gas heater, a concrete slab,
a bar radiator, or an open fire. This heat directly warms people and objects
in the room, rather than warming the air. Radiant heaters are not
recommended for a large space. They are also ideal for basements and garages
since they are good at spot heating.

[I guess they don't consider a garage a large space. Use of spot heating.]

Quartz Heaters use electric elements packed inside a quartz glass tube that
radiates heat to warm people and objects. These are best used for spot
heating. Sometimes they can be a fire hazard because they are fragile and
easily broken.

And these
<http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...-home--safely-11-06/overview/1106_heat_ov.htm>.
<http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PUBS/463.html>

I've even heard of microwave heating - where they take microwave oven
maggies but only run them at a few watts, and the microwaves warm up
about the first .1mm of your skin, where all of your sensory nerve
endings are.

Or, I could have hallucinated it. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Rich Grise]

They're best mounted up high. Useful for a church, say, used once a week for
a few hours but very large and hard to heat.

Up high? Ick! Then your head roasts while your feet freeze. I was in South
Korea in 1970 or so, and the winters are almost as bad as Minnesota. But
the Korean houses use a coal-fired heating system; there's a little coal
stove (it's kinda like "pressed coal" it's a perforated cylinder that they
slide down into the stove), and the coal stove has an air jacket, which
vents through ducts embedded in the floor.

It's awful nice to come in out of freezing weather, take your shoes off,
and sit on a floor that's at 75 degrees F (~24C). ;-)

They _do_ warn us about the hazard of CO, so don't worry in that regard.


Cheers!
Rich

 

[notbob]

But it would be interesting to do a comparision of gas/electric radiative
heaters.

I just bought a Reddy-Heater LP space heater (35K/btu). Love it! From
a too cold front room, 15 mins and I'm lounging in my skivvies. I had
a kerosene model (same brand) previously, but hated the smell. Radient
kerosene is ok once it comes up to speed, but a kero space heater is
always incomplete combustion and the fumes are atrocious. Looking at
a Reddy radiant and my forced air which are both the same btu rating,
they both consume the same fuel, 1.6lbs/hr. But, I'll bet mine warms
faster. OTOH, it requires electricity for the fan. I'll take the hit.

What do they use at those ski bunny joints up in the mountains, where
people have snowball fights in bikinis and stuff? ;-)

Hopefully, they use the bunnies to keep warm.

nb

 

[John]

I have an elderly neighbor who likes to work in his garage, and likes it
warm. He's had a kerosene heater and now a propane heater. He's not entirely
happy with the price of the fuel. If I were in his shoes, I wouldn't want to
driving back to the h/w store every few days or week to get more fuel. I
think he might be better off with electric. I checked at the local h/w
store, and they have a quart heater. Don't know much about them. Are they
more efficient than non-quarts. The h/w guy said he used two Holmes large
quartz headers (1875 watts) to keep his garage warm. Comments.

Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
(121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
Obz Site: 39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet

Among the safest heaters are the ceramic element electrics with a fan.
Nothing gets hot enough to glow red, so the case can be plastic
(totally insulated).

I look at heating a work area in the same way I look at lighting it -
if task lighting is appropriate, then so is task heating. Although
it's the traditional way of heating workapaces, there's little point
in heating a 20x20 space if your work area is 5x5 (less than 10% of
the total area).

I use a 1250/1500 watt fan forced ceramic unit to heat a small area
(just where I'm working) in a two-car garage. The thermometer on the
inside wall might rise to a temperature of 50F or so, but it's
appreciably warmer in the 5x5 space in which I'm actually working.
And remember not to sit on the concrete floor - two layers of
cardboard between your body and the floor will make a big difference
in your comfort level.

It probably helps that I've worked on reducing air infiltration in the
garage - replaced the rotting wood doors with insulated doors that
have weather stripping all around, put storm windows on the two
windows in the garage, etc.

I've used a kerosene heater for emergency heating (a piece of my Y2K
preparations that saw use in January of 2000, along with the Coleman
stove & lantern and a couple of oil lamps). I think the heater is in
the range of 22000-28000 BTU and uses about 2 gallons/day (waking
hours only) to keep 1000 sq.ft. bearable in below-freezing weather.
Heating with kerosene doesn't smell very good, but it's better than
being cold.

The price of fuel is VERY dependent on the supplier and the packaging.
If you can manage a 55 gallon drum (about 500lb when filled), then
I've seen 55 gallons of kerosene for $100. The local Home Depot has a
5 gallon can of kerosene for $34.95. The local Ace Hardware has
kerosene for $2.99/gallon if you provide the container. I don't think
that can is worth $20 ;-)

John

 

[Eeyore]

I have an elderly neighbor who likes to work in his garage, and likes it
warm. He's had a kerosene heater and now a propane heater. He's not entirely
happy with the price of the fuel. If I were in his shoes, I wouldn't want to
driving back to the h/w store every few days or week to get more fuel. I
think he might be better off with electric. I checked at the local h/w
store, and they have a quart heater. Don't know much about them. Are they
more efficient than non-quarts. The h/w guy said he used two Holmes large
quartz headers (1875 watts) to keep his garage warm. Comments.

Quartz element heaters don't warm the air itself much but instead you're heated
by a beam of mainly infra-red radiation ( nothing dangerous btw ! ).

So it's better at getting heat to a localised area as opposed to having to heat
up all the air in a room. It does potentially sound like agood idea and they
seem to be fairly inexpensive.

Graham