Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Garage heating

Now that the demolishing of my old garage is underway, work will soon be started on building a new one attached to the house. This will be well insulated etc but my thoughts have now turned to heating.

My idea is to have a couple of radiators with regulators installed as part of the house central heating system so that they will come on as and when the house is heated.

Does anyone have this sort of heating arrangement in their garage and are there any negatives or preferred alternatives?

Cheers

Mine as an electrical wall heater that I never use. It came with the house.

I would think adding to the CH system is sensible but of vcourse you need to ensure the rads don't freeze. Garages tend to be colder draughty spaces.

My garage is quite some distance from the house, so no chance of extending the central heating. It is, however, very well insulated.

I bought a cheap 2Kw fan heater as a stop-gap until I thought of a better solution, but last winter I found that even on the coldest days it was perfectly ok to work in there after about 40 minutes - and that's a space 10m x 7m x2.5m. Very often I ran it only on the 1Kw setting, and turned it of after an hour or so, so I don't think i'll bother with anything fancier.

The central heating option could be a very good one, the only disadvantage I can think of is that your garage will be being heated even when you're not in there, so it might work out a bit more costly than it needs to. I guess it depends on how much time you see yourself spending in there.

A good quality dehumidifier has always worked for me. Cheap to run, pure water produced to use in the cars and all my equipment in the workshop/garage stays rust free.

Interesting info Tim as I have to come up with heating solutions too ready for later in the year , by that time garages will be done.

Yes, when I had single-skin garages, especially concrete, I found a dehumidifier was an absolute must, I used to run it pretty much all the time in the winter. But with 250mm walls with cavity insulation, there's not a trace of damp and my dehumidifier has been left in the old garage.

Double radiator from the main system for me.

Heating will encourage a higher wet content in the air, resulting in rust, hence the need for that dehumidifier.

Even without heating my dehumidifier can collect a litre a day.

My neighbour built a new house on the site of a former 1930s bungalow.
The garage is integral with the house, which has underfloor hot water heating.
The garage, which has access directly to the utility room, has cavity walls, insulated and the windows are double glazed.
Of course, the garage has its own zone on the under floor heating system.

Andy is into classic motor scooters and said, "any idiot can sit on a cold concrete floor...I'm too old to be that idiot!". Quite!

No heating in mine. Single skinned detached. Dehumidifier on all the time. No damp. Carpet tiles on the floor.
In emergencies I use a fan heater.