• Scam Alert. Members are reminded to NOT send money to buy anything. Don't buy things remote and have it shipped - go get it yourself, pay in person, and take your equipment with you. Scammers have burned people on this forum. Urgency, secrecy, excuses, selling for friend, newish members, FUD, are RED FLAGS. A video conference call is not adequate assurance. Face to face interactions are required. Please report suspicions to the forum admins. Stay Safe - anyone can get scammed.

Garage furnace

Janger, have you looked into getting the flame tuned on yours? Seems a bit excessive to have to a flame sensor soot up every year. Sounds like it's burning a bit rich.

The problem with tubes is they need more clearances than a unit heater. I looked into them, and really wanted to go with one for my small garage, but I'd be giving up too much valuable storage space up on the walls. They are a different kind of warm though. It's nice walking on a warm slab, and touching warm machine tools like that. When I finish the barn (which is starting to sound like when the leafs win the cup....) I will go with a radiant tube, as the space will be for woodworking and I don't want to blow dust around all the time.
 
Tom Kitta said:
First of all get a new guy to take a look at your heater - preferably a guy that is self employed - they have connections. I once called a guy from one of these larger companies to take a look at gas regulator. Instead the guy plead with the motor, broke it and then told me to get a new furnace. I had to complain a lot to get a full refund (or I would sue). I mean they did not help but BROKE it more.

Independent guy comes in, looks at the thing that is like 30 years old, says no problemo, gets a part in and charges less $$$.

In my garage I have a heater I think like 30,000 btu for 800 sq ft. Main issue is leaks through the doors. No windows. It adds maybe 20-30 CAD max to the bill per month during dead of winter. All walls are R20. Ceiling is like R30 but I need to make it R-50 at some point - maybe when I am doing the house. If I did it again I would pick smaller garage doors not 16ft. They key here is I keep garage at just 4C when I am not there and then at max 15C when I am there - the temp differential from 4C to outside is small - if it is say -4C outside its only 8C difference - very little energy is needed to deal with just 8C. Yes my garage is far better insulated then the house - the main culprit is the door and looks on the sides - door is insulated I think R9.

As for Mr. Heater, these brand new come on auctions regularly in Calgary for around $100 - NEW.

Note it is illegal for you to do any gas work unless you are licensed and if your insurance company ever found out it would give them a cool way to deny any claim.
Click to expand...
Good advice on getting a second opinion, that is exactly what I would do.

You can do your own gas work. I have installed all the lines and the heaters in my shop and garage. Just get a permit and have it inspected.

If you have the room I would definitely go with a radiant heater. I have one of those heaters like you are thinking of replacing in my garage, they are noisy and the heat is not very evenly distributed. When it comes time to replace it I will go with radiant.
 
As promised, here are some photos of my radiant heaters. The other one is identical.

20220222_093649.jpg
20220222_093637.jpg
 
Sorry, I forgot the most important thing. My thermostat is a two stage unit. But as delivered, the minimum temperature was only 55F degrees or so. I wanted 40F or so - just enough to keep the coldest spots above freezing so no canisters or water lines could rupture. I searched everywhere for a lower temp two stage thermostat. No dice.

Then I had a brain fart. It's just a bi-metal coil. By tilting the whole thermostat as shown, I could bias the minimum in the cold direction to my target temp of about 40F (actual air temp).

20220222_111529.jpg


I calibrated this with a battery powered hi/low recorded temp/humidity temp gauge. When I am working out there, I turn them up to 60 (actual air temp) or so. That's the double lines you see above the pointer. It doesn't take more than 15 minutes to warm up.
 
TorontoBuilder said:
I'm pretty sure that in AB owners can perform their own installations on gas furnaces etc. Your unit heater has existing gas line and vent that may be reused. Basically you only need to mount the tube to the ceiling, make gas and vent connections eh voila, heat
Click to expand...
Companies who sell wholesale gas furnaces in (Eg: Ecco Heating) in Calgary will not sell you a furnace unless you have a gas fitters ticket. ;( Nor can you pull a homeowner permit in Calgary
 
calgaryguy said:
Companies who sell wholesale gas furnaces in (Eg: Ecco Heating) in Calgary will not sell you a furnace unless you have a gas fitters ticket. ;( Nor can you pull a homeowner permit in Calgary
Click to expand...
personally on a change over I'd not even bother with a permit... but that is me and I have a gas fitter license.
true many wholesalers wont sell to homeowners because they dont want to harm the biz of their primary customer, the HVAC contractor. But then again, many will.

for this job you can hire a gas fitter for a couple hours just to make the gas and vent connections
 
TorontoBuilder said:
personally on a change over I'd not even bother with a permit... but that is me and I have a gas fitter license.
true many wholesalers wont sell to homeowners because they dont want to harm the biz of their primary customer, the HVAC contractor. But then again, many will.

for this job you can hire a gas fitter for a couple hours just to make the gas and vent connections
Click to expand...
The market here is locked down for sales to homeowners. I, and several people I know, have tried to find a local supplier for furnaces for years. In fact a friend needed a secondary heat exchanger for his furnace and 'abused' a buddy of his with a gas ticket to order it for him from a supplier. When my friend turned up at the supplier he said 'pickup for XYZ plumbing' and the staff there refused to give it to him.

Gas fitters in YYC, unless you know someone personally, want the $$$'s markup on selling you the furnace/heater. Its near impossible to find someone to do a permitted connection if you supply your own equipment.
 
calgaryguy said:
The market here is locked down for sales to homeowners. I, and several people I know, have tried to find a local supplier for furnaces for years. In fact a friend needed a secondary heat exchanger for his furnace and 'abused' a buddy of his with a gas ticket to order it for him from a supplier. When my friend turned up at the supplier he said 'pickup for XYZ plumbing' and the staff there refused to give it to him.

Gas fitters in YYC, unless you know someone personally, want the $$$'s markup on selling you the furnace/heater. Its near impossible to find someone to do a permitted connection if you supply your own equipment.
Click to expand...

Wow... that is sad.

I've installed dozens of furnaces, air conditioners, and fireplaces for friends and their friends for the simple cost of a BBQ meal.
 
TorontoBuilder said:
jesus, you have a mezzanine? Talk about potential man cave
Click to expand...

No way. Too hot up there in the summer. Besides, you need to see what is under the mezzanine........

The room was originally built as an air-conditioned/heated hot rod workshop and kitchen. I've turned it into an office/kitchen/break room. Much better man cave potential than the mezzanine.

My electronics workshop and a storage area are up on the mezzanine. Nice place to fly r/c helicopters from too.
 
I bought both my own house furnace and my garage furnace just fine. installed both myself. long story, but it can be done.

I do the same 'hack' as @Susquatch does. works great down to +3 C
 
Susquatch said:
Sorry, I forgot the most important thing. My thermostat is a two stage unit. But as delivered, the minimum temperature was only 55F degrees or so. I wanted 40F or so - just enough to keep the coldest spots above freezing so no canisters or water lines could rupture. I searched everywhere for a lower temp two stage thermostat. No dice.

Then I had a brain fart. It's just a bi-metal coil. By tilting the whole thermostat as shown, I could bias the minimum in the cold direction to my target temp of about 40F (actual air temp).

View attachment 21274

I calibrated this with a battery powered hi/low recorded temp/humidity temp gauge. When I am working out there, I turn them up to 60 (actual air temp) or so. That's the double lines you see above the pointer. It doesn't take more than 15 minutes to warm up.
Click to expand...
I use these temperature controllers and they work great. https://www.amazon.ca/Inkbird-All-P...ocphy=9001283&hvtargid=pla-572101279381&psc=1 they can be bought 120V or 24V.
 
Hacker said:
I use these temperature controllers and they work great. https://www.amazon.ca/Inkbird-All-P...ocphy=9001283&hvtargid=pla-572101279381&psc=1 they can be bought 120V or 24V.
Click to expand...
I use inkbird controllers for many projects I have about 6 of them. I have their PID brewing controller as well, and their 6 channel bbq grill monitor.

But they're not ideal for hvac heating, because they lack either an analogue heat anticipator "heater" adjustment or a software algorithm that does the same thing... resulting in temperature overshoot compared to a proper stat
 
Hacker said:
That is true. I don't think that would be an issue for infloor heating and tube heaters in a shop.
Click to expand...
It depends on mass. If you overshoot on a large mass concrete floor it makes a huge difference. If you overshoot on 10 feet of radiant pipe not so much.

if you have 24' of pipe it can lessen the comfort. In my business I like to provide a comfort and performance guarantee
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top