The requirements of a garage heater are different than the heater used for indoor purposes. The main difference being that garages are normally bigger than other rooms of the house and they are not as well insulated as the rest of the house. The factors that need your consideration are: the size of the garage in terms of volume, the fuel to be used and the convenience of installation.
Garage heater may use electricity, propane or natural gas as a fuel. Comparatively, electric heaters are easy to install and economical to operate. In most of the cases electric heaters meant for garages work on single-phase supply, meaning that you may use your normal outlet in the garage for its operation. Many designs of electric garage heaters can be installed on the wall or ceiling by using mounting brackets, thus keeping the floor free for any other activity.
Small garages or other small places where heat is not of primary concern would do well with the installation of electric heaters. Though portable electric heaters are the most popular, you also get large wall, overhead and electric baseboard heaters too.
Another efficient way of heating garage is by use of propane heaters. This is also portable like an electric heater but is available in two models. Both the models use propane as fuel available in tanks that can be refilled. But, one model can be plugged into a regular 120V outlet. Such a model heats the air and forces it to spread over the room thus offering uniform and quicker heating. On the other hand, the model that can’t be plugged into your power source heats the area slowly. In any case, propane heaters require efficient ventilation and one should always follow the recommendations of the manufacturers.
Garage heater working on natural gas has its own advantages. They are useful in the case of power shortage, but they are not as portable as their electrical counterparts. In their case you need to have a gas line going up to the heater. Natural gas heaters may heat the room thru convection heat or thru radiated heat. The latter heats the occupants of the garage while convection heating means the air in the surroundings is heated, which in turn heats the occupants.
Having decided the energy source you would like to use, you have to determine the capacity of the heater needed to heat garage. The volume of your garage and by what level you would like to raise its temperature, determines the capacity of the heater. So, when you go shopping for one, you should have the length, width and height of the garage with you. Once you have these two parameters with you, the supplier should be able to tell you the wattage or BTU required for heating your garage.
Provision of heating arrangements in the garage is an excellent way of adding another useable room to your house. The most helpful point is that family members have some space to escape the main house and perform some useful activity or indulge in some hobby, making better use of winter months. In case you have a DIY enthusiast at home, some of the projects that would have to wait till spring, can be executed in this part of the year. Isn’t that prompting enough to have a propane, natural gas or electric garage heater?
