Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Garage Heating

In the process of building a garage extension and the finished garage will be well insulated and draft proofed with an insulated front roller door.

It will be 12mtrs long,6 mtrs wide and the front half will have headroom under the roof trusses of 2.4 mtrs and the back half 4 mtrs. Guess what is going in the back

Total heating load at 0C outside and 15C inside circa 4.5KW.

It will be what I call a feast and famine use. Some weeks you could be in there most days of a week in the winter but other weeks not in much at all the same in the spring and autumn. So it needs a system that heats up quickly and is controllable.

Therefore electric heating fits the bill, time clocks and thermostats unless someone can come up with something better.

The calor gas and oil non flued heaters basically produce a lot of dampness and lots of heat.

It is not suitable to extended the central heating to the garage.

So has anyone spent time insulating their garage and if so what type of heating are you using. Infra Red, convection or fan heaters.

Please only answer if you have done this and have the actual experience.

eddie

I heat mine with electric (oil filled) radiators. They work very well.... I also have a dehumidifier running 24/7 in the winter.

I had underfloor electric heating. Advantage is it removes any floor moisture disadvantage is its slow and incredibly expensive. Ive removed it now

I use an old fan heater.

An air-conditioning unit can be used for heating, dehumidification and cooling. The downside is noise and the price.
Harald

Eddie

Though my garage is smaller, I use electric greenhouse heaters.
They are small fan convectors and have a thermostatic control.
I have mine connected through a timer.
I can't comment on the running costs, firstly because I have not monitored them and secondly, because down here by the sea in Devon, it rarely gets very cold.
I was amazed at the variety and sophistication available from a local garden centre, and they benefit from having the very accurate thermostats, (required by the gardeners that usually buy them)

Bud
__________
2003 - 4/4

Good point about gardeners needing tight spec thermostats.

Thanks eddie

Electric oil filled rads and lots of insulation.
it is difficult to keep the mice out tho.

You also need accurate measuring equipment to monitor the humidity and temperature. No good if you spend lots of money and don't know if everything is working too specification.

I have PV panels on the roof which supplies enough power for heating even during the winter months. As it never snows in East Devon, it works out quite cheap.

Neil

Are you heating the garage so that you can work in there, or are you heating it so that your car does not go rusty? If it is the latter, then a de-humidifier will be a lot cheaper to run and be just as effective in preventing rust. According to the people who store long term vintage cars, 55% relative humidity is the optimum point for relatively little rust damage and good conditions for wood/leather etc. Remember that the worst condition is to drive a cold car into a warm garage: moisture then condenses on all the metal.

As far as mice are concerned, I have surprised myself by finding an electronic unit that actually appears to work. It is called a Pest Stop 2010: I have it set to "random". 20 feet away is a stable yard that has a lot of mice problems, so I can't work out if the unit works, or if they just prefer the food in the stable yard!

Oliver S.