bought a heater for my garage

[04SE]

I bought a Comfort Zone CZ220 electric heater for my garage. I have about 380ish square feet and this thing should keep it around 50* for me with relative ease. It has H/M/L setting that are 5,000, 4,000 and 3,000 watt settings that produce 11,000 BTU, 14,000 BTU and 17,000 BTU. It also has a built in thermostat.

It is mounted/hung and just waiting for my uncle to come wire it directly to the panel.

I had really wanted a blue flame heater but didn't want a ventless heater and the smallest vented heater I could find was 50,000 BTU and $500. This electric heater was only $200 but I also found it for $100 so I will be swapping it out. Plus, this electric heater is much, much smaller than a gas heater.

Local electric rates are $0.106 per kw/h. So, it shouldn't hurt to bad to run it.

Edit: forgot to mention, the garage is fully insulated including the door so it should work out half way decent.

 

[Finz]

Which setting do you believe will maintain 50 degrees efficiently? Do you open/close the door often?

 

[Donald]

I bought one about that size last spring at Sears when it went on clearance.

The issue you may have is warming the garage up to start. It may take a few hours to get up there. You have 2 tons of steel to heat up.

My plan would be to heat up the garage with a propane torpedo heater firing at 85000 BTU for 15 or 20 minutes then keep it at temp with electric.

However my days in the garage may be numbered. My new bride is strongly suggesting I move my Bobcat 843 out so her car can go in.

 

[Rand]

I actually prefer unheated or 45-50F

if its too warm you just speed up the salt rot.

 

[HTSS_TR]

I need an electric heater for my garage too. Inside of the un-insulated garage the temp can be lower than 60F in winter nights. That is too cold to do anything in there.

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
I need an electric heater for my garage too. Inside of the un-insulated garage the temp can be lower than 60F in winter nights. That is too cold to do anything in there.




Insulate and vapour barrier the ceiling for the biggest effect.
Heat rises. Roofs are vented for airflow to move moisture. Stop the heat from getting up and into the space that meant to move air and you've won.

 

[datech]

I am stuck in an all electric apartment so I bought a portable AC/ heat pump.

It puts out 10000 btu using less power *(10A) than a regular 110v 1500 watt resistance heater (which only put out 5000 btu).

It works by extracting heat from the outside air (which needs to be in the upper 40s).

It really puts out a lot of hot air.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Wow - having rates that low would be awesome!

I'm right around $.30 here in NY

 

[fdcg27]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
I need an electric heater for my garage too. Inside of the un-insulated garage the temp can be lower than 60F in winter nights. That is too cold to do anything in there.


60F is a nice spring or fall day.
I might even have the top down.
Knock about fifty degrees off of that and throw in three or four inches of snow that fell wet at around 30F and then froze solid as it got colder and you'll have a better understanding of what cold means.
This is what we have at the moment.
Early cold and early accumulating snow.
Hate it.
Fortunately, we're flying to warmer climes next week.
We'll be sweating at 80F and enjoying every minute of it.

 

[04SE]

Originally Posted By: Finz
Which setting do you believe will maintain 50 degrees efficiently? Do you open/close the door often?


On the 5,000 watt setting I have the knob set between off and low at about the 9'oclock position and it is holding between 48* and 50*. We only open the door in the morning when we leave and at night when we return. When we get home at night the heater does not run right away. It takes about 10 minutes for it to come on and it runs for less than 20. About an hour later it will run for another 10-15 minutes. It seems to cycle every 2-3 hours for 10-15 minutes. Granted we have only been hitting the teens at night and thirties during the day but my insulation seems to be doing the job.