How to heat a garage ?

[jejton]

In my new house all the pets ( almost ) will be housed in the garage ( no fish - they are sold off ). The garage is pretty cold so I want to section off a corner where the animals are and somehow heat it. The tanks all have heat mats but I need to bring the ambient temperature up to the high 60's - low 70's. What is the safest and most economical way of doing this?

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

How far is your garage from your furnace?

2 ways you can do it. they make electrical baseboards that can be run or you can put another zone on your current heating system and have a thermostat out there. Also, the garage will have to have some great insulation. When the door opens the temperature will drop (or rise) very quickly. You need to account for that as well.

 

[qy7400]

There may not be one; most garage walls are not insulated well, the garage door will need to have good seals and be an insulated door as well. Otherwise you'll loose all the heat out the door. My preference would be a natural gas heater, not sure I'd trust kerosene or an electric space heater.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Kerosene and electric space heaters are a bad idea due to the fact that they may cause fires. Been there done that many a time. Can you section off a part of the garage as a small room? That would probably be your best bet. Also keep in mind that in the summer you will need to cool the area as well.

 

[jejton]

Someone suggested that I partition off part of the garage with the thick plastic they use in supermarkets ( dont know where to get that ) and then put an electric heater that mounts onto the wall and gets hard wired into the circuit box. Anyone hear of such a thing and know where I can get one? Winter is coming fast and my animals need some heat. I really dont want to start selling them off. The fish were hard enough.

 

[ClosetFishGeek]

My fish tank is in my garage. So I will give you my experience with what I dealt with. I started with a garage that was open joist no insulation with poor seals on my garage doors and my garage temp would fluctuate in the lower 50's most of the time and sometimes even colder when the outside temp was in the single digits. I insulated and sheetrocked my gargage and closed the excessive gaps of the garage doors and now the temp never falls below 65 no matter how cold it is outside. I am in the process of running some radiant heat as well. But prior to this I was using a small electric space heater. This would bring the room temp up to 73 which was perfect for me. It could easily bring it higher. In addition, being in a garage the safety issue is a lot easier to deal with. Just place the heater directly on the concrete away from any other items and you should be fine. I am not a huge fan of them but they work and if you use your head and not place anything flammable around them, under them or above them there shouldn't be any issues.

 

[jejton]

Thanks for the advice. At this point I am just going to start thinking about selling off the collection. It will be very depressing but I think heating the garage will just end up costing me too much money because I cannot start insulating the garage. I'm a renter and can't/won't start investing money into doing construction plus the garage is also used for storage so I need access from the outside doors. I'll have to start posting photos. If anyone is looking for some kingsnakes, cornsnake, ball python and some other reptiles, let me know.

 

[masterswimmer]

In the scheme of building a house, the insulation is the least expensive subcontractor to hire. Do it yourself and you'll find it's even cheaper than you thought. Honestly, you can insulate a very large area for $100. Maybe even ask the landlord if you insulate the garage (improving HIS property), will he reduce that amount from your rent the next month? Or maybe he'll apply 50% of your outlay towards rent. You never know unless you ask.

Russ

 

[ClosetFishGeek]

In the scheme of building a house, the insulation is the least expensive subcontractor to hire. Do it yourself and you'll find it's even cheaper than you thought. Honestly, you can insulate a very large area for $100. Maybe even ask the landlord if you insulate the garage (improving HIS property), will he reduce that amount from your rent the next month? Or maybe he'll apply 50% of your outlay towards rent. You never know unless you ask.

Russ

Russ that is a great Idea....Absolutely ask...

 

[greggnyce]

You can build a small area and use styrofoam insuallation and it will be fairly cheap. Those small space heaters can use alot of electricity also. I built a small area in a storage space that can be accessed from the outside of my house but is not insulated, I used the styrofoam insulation because it fits right in between the studs. In the colder months I used a large container, about ten gallons and used an aquarium heater to heat the water, this kept the room above 60 degrees all winter long and the it was alot cheaper than using a space heater. Some space heaters use over a 1000 watts, so be careful which one you choose, if you do.

 

[jejton]

Thanks for all the advice. Between my health problems, school and moving ( not to mention another court battle with the old landlord to get my security deposit back ) I simply do not have time to do all this. I am managing to squeeze a few of the animals into my office. I will see if simple heating bulbs can keep the snakes warm enough in the garage. If not, I will have to sell them and whatever else I cannot keep warm. The whole situation is depressing and this makes it even more as I am quite attached to my pets.