How to make cheap heating in the garage

It can be difficult to keep your garage warm during the winter, particularly if you’re trying to do it on a tight budget. Many homeowners struggle with wanting to use their garage space all year round for different uses, like a workshop, storage, or just shielding their car from inclement weather, without having to pay exorbitant energy costs. The secret is to find affordable heating solutions that can handle the job well without going over budget.

Thankfully, there are a number of low-cost options for heating your garage that don’t involve pricey installations or intricate adjustments. Enhancing insulation, for example, can drastically lower the required amount of heat and prolong the duration of the warm air inside. This lowers the price while also making your space more comfortable. Additional cost-effective choices include portable heaters, which can be an excellent choice for people who only occasionally use their garage because they heat up the space quickly and are reasonably priced.

It’s crucial to take your space’s size, design, and frequency of use into account when looking into the most affordable options for heating your garage. The most effective and sensible heating solution for your particular requirements can be significantly influenced by these variables. You can create a comfortable, warm garage environment without going over budget by taking into account a combination of insulation improvements and the right kind of heater. Now let’s get into some useful advice and methods for doing this.

It’s not necessary to spend a lot of money or effort to design a heating system that works well for your garage. If you only need to heat the space occasionally, using a portable electric heater is one efficient way to do it at a reasonable price. Foam boards or fiberglass batts can be used as insulation for the garage door and walls to help retain heat and lower energy bills. Furthermore, weather stripping around doors and windows can stop warm air from escaping and cold air from entering. Even in colder months, you can achieve cost-effective and efficient garage heating by following these steps.

The better to drown or the choice of energy carrier

Owners of garage buildings must select independent heating systems because, in 99 percent of cases, centralized heating networks or main gas were not summarized to garage buildings. You have four energy groups at your disposal to heat the garage:

  • various types of solid fuel – firewood, coal, briquettes, agricultural and other combustible waste;
  • diesel fuel, waste oil;
  • electricity;
  • liquefied gas.

Suggestions. When you start thinking about heating the garage for the winter, keep in mind this crucial trend: the more expensive the energy carrier, the more affordable and convenient it is to arrange heating. On the other hand, low-cost or free fuel in the form of trash and waste will require significant labor and financial outlays.

Burning of solid fuel

The least expensive fuel for heating is wood and other waste, which is sometimes even free. Another popular fuel source in the southern, less forested areas is small-scale agricultural and industrial waste.

As a point of reference. Grain crops are the source of small particles that make up agricultural waste. These consist of straw, broken stems, and other waste that has been crushed by a combine. Energy is incredibly affordable, with prices starting at $20 a ton.

Prepare to address the following problems if you choose to use solid fuel to heat the garage during the winter:

  • purchase or manufacturing of a furnace (ideally – boiler);
  • chimney installation;
  • storage of the stock of firewood, coal or waste;
  • labor costs for the workpiece, furnace and cleaning from soot.

Gainings: monetary gains and superior room heating; setbacks are mentioned above. Add the following time (0.5–1 hours) for warming up and kindling. Thus, the conclusion is that owners of garages and boxes who spend four or more hours a day there should consider using solid fuel for inexpensive heating.

Use of working out and diesel fuel

Using diesel fuel from a gas station to heat the box or garage is costly and highly unfavorable. An excellent choice is to use a portable heater, whose features are covered in a different article, to heat a small area of the room where work is being done.

Oil development is not the cheapest energy source, but it is a more cost-effective option. When the waste oils are available for a lower cost, this option should be carefully examined. What strengths and weaknesses are present here?

  1. For burning liquid fuel, homemade bourgeoles are used to work out various types. The safest – a stove – a dropper that can be ordered to the masters or make it yourself.
  2. You need a chimney.
  3. Oil containers take up less space than firewood. Usually they are placed in the basement.
  4. The development needs to be defended and filtered.
  5. Inevitable satellites of liquid -fuel heating are smell and dirt, although it is uncritical for the garage.
  6. Homemade stoves in waste oil are considered fire hazardous.

Note: The oil miracles depicted in the picture became especially well-known because of their affordability and simplicity. When fuel contains a small amount of water or antifreeze, they tend to shoot flames, which is why fires happen.

The benefits of using workout equipment include high heat transfer, rapid ignition and heating of garage boxes, and ease of use (adding oil is simpler than chopping and transporting firewood). In summary, liquid fuel is a good choice if the fuel is cheap or you don’t mind spending some time in the garage. The initial outlay is similar to that of wood heating.

It is important to take into account the diesel air heater variant of the factory-manufactured "Planar" type depicted in the picture when using diesel fuel. Up to 2 kW of heat transfer can be developed by the unit with a fuel consumption of 250 ml per hour. More potent heaters exist, rated at 3 and 4 kW with 0.37 and 0.5 l/h of diesel consumption, respectively. Cost: about 330 at. e.

Heating with electricity

Regarding initial investments, heating with electricity is the most cost-effective and cozy choice. However, you will be required to pay the full tariff while the garage is in operation. It makes no sense to have a two-zone counter because you will not be working in the garage at night.

We enumerate every benefit of electric heating:

  1. It is convenient and safe to heat with electricity. Dust, dirt and smells are absent, no need to carry firewood and barrels with combustible.
  2. On sale there is a wide selection of a variety of air type electric heaters: convectors, oil radiators, infrared panels and heat guns.
  3. You can make a water heating system with an electric boiler (if the power limit allows).
  4. The heating of the garage begins immediately after turning on the heater, a comfortable temperature for work is reached in just half an hour (again, when there is enough power).

There are just two drawbacks, but they are very significant: the cost of electricity and the restriction on power consumption that prevents the establishment of a reliable source of heat. For instance, if the management company’s contract specifies 3 kW, but the convector is only placed at 2 kW, the garage cannot be adequately heated during the winter.

As a point of reference. Despite the limitations, auto enthusiasts occasionally use homemade "goats" in boxes and thermal talents. The reason this cannot be done is that there is a risk of electrical fire in the wiring, neighboring voltage drops, and large fines or disconnections can be found if you check the electric networks.

There is a short-term stay option in the garage with electric heating. After arriving and turning on the heater, they completed the assigned task in one to two hours, turned off the heat, and left. You will be required to pay a substantial amount for the use of electricity if you have converted the space into a workshop where you spend working hours.

Gas heating

In the Russian Federation, where liquefied gas is relatively inexpensive at retail, residents find this method of heating the space for storing an automobile to be acceptable. The rally that the Ukrainians drown garages with will be too costly.

Gas cylinder autonomous heating is equally safe and cozy as electric heating. Furthermore, energy costs are lower in the Russian Federation. But there are several dangers here:

  • It is necessary to place a propane cylinder somewhere so that it does not interfere with work;
  • You will have to periodically carry the tank for refueling;
  • For the burning of propane, it is necessary to equip the factory manufacturing, it is strictly not recommended to make gas burners on your own;
  • It will take a chimney pipe to the street.

When operating expenses and logistical issues like heating and cylinder refueling are factored in, some of the benefits of the facilities will be obscured by unfavorable events.

This page compares the price of 1 kW of heat generated by different energy sources in Russia and Ukraine.

How to organize air heating

With this heating technique, the selected heat source heats the garage room directly through air. These units can all function as follows:

  • fuel bourgeois;
  • stove – dropper for working out;
  • electric heater – convector, oil radiator or heat gun;
  • Gas convector.

Note: We purposefully excluded direct-acting heat guns, gas infrared heaters, and Savo-style diesel stoves, which release combustion products into the room. Check through any review forum on cars to see if anyone is complaining about headaches and poor health as a result of breathing in exhaust fumes.

Installation of furnace on wood and testing

The most cost-effective method of heating is direct air heating in the garage using cheap fuel, such as firewood and various waste. However, it needs to be arranged carefully; otherwise, the heater will heat up one corner of the space while keeping the other cold. Since it is obvious that the stove cannot be placed in the center of the space, there is a need to find an alternative solution for the heat distribution problem.

Use our suggestions to build an efficient air-heating box or garage with a wood stove yourself:

  1. Order, buy or independently make an economical bourgeois, and not just an iron box with a pipe. Examples of furnaces with drawings, schemes and assembly instructions will be found in the appropriate publication.
  2. The area of the heat exchange surface of the walls of the heater must correspond to the dimensions of the room. The calculation is this: to throw logs with an interval of 3-4 hours and evenly warm the garage of 20 m², the area of the heating surface should be 1 m².
  3. Part of the body around the ashin is not taken into account (it heats up poorly). But the area of convective ribs welded to the walls outside is taken into account.
  4. Install the bourgeois in the selected place and be sure to organize the blowing of the case with any fan – domestic, for extracts or computer cooler. Due to the forced air movement, heat is more efficiently selected from the walls of the furnace and is more uniformly distributed by boxing.
  5. Before releasing on the street, lay the chimney horizontally along the wall, so it will give more heat to the room.
  6. Raise the chimney pipe to a height of 5 m, counting from the grate, and supply it with a gate to adjust the thrust. In the lower part, provide a condensate collection, attach the cap at your discretion.

Note: Our expert Vitaly Dashko’s practical experience was used to calculate the stove’s heat exchange surface area. The computation is accurate for garages that are no taller than three meters.

Handmade stove designs exist for air heating garages, workshops, and other outbuildings. Below is a diagram of a bourgeois circuit consisting of a gas cylinder and a separate heating chamber that the fan uses to force air upward. You can drive water and water through the heat exchanger if needed.

Suggestions. Do not discard the floor gas boiler in the house just because you replaced it. Take the old unit out of the garage, attach it to the chimney, and fill it with wood while using the cooler to bend the air into the empty water shirt (from the lower pipe). The oven doesn’t need to be cooked then.

Everything mentioned above is akin to the bourgeois in waste oil. The location of the fuel capacity that feeds the dropper is the only distinction. To prevent a fire, keep the tank away from the stove. The standard two-chamber miracle pipe can use up to two liters of working water in an hour and is fire hazard. Avoid using it. Make use of drip-burner models.

Placement of electric heaters

Selecting the appropriate heating electrical appliances based on power is the first step. Measure the area of the garage room and multiply the resultant quadrature by 0.1-0.15 kW if you wish to warm it. In other words, the 20 m² box will need 20 x 0.15 = 3 kW of thermal power, which is equivalent to electrical power and will be enough to maintain the air temperature.

Let’s now discuss the suggestions:

  1. If your work in the garage is periodic and short -term in nature, it is better to save and buy a portable heat core or infrared panel. It is located in the right place and only warms up part of the room. Thermal (it is also electrical) power of the device – 50% of the calculated.
  2. Try to use heaters equipped with a turbine or a fan to better and faster to distribute heat.
  3. A rational solution for convectors and other wall -mounted devices is to put several small heaters at different points instead of one large. Then the garage warms up evenly, and if necessary, half of the heater turns off.
  4. Do not follow the sellers trying to slip a more expensive device under the guise of an innovative and high -tech product. The efficiency of all electric heaters is the same and equal to 98–99%, the difference is in the method of heat transfer.

A variety of heating techniques can be mixed. It would be reasonable, for instance, to place an infrared panel that provides local heating over the workbench. Use a heat gun (which is more profitable) or a stove to warm the remaining garage space. Remember that the garage needs to be ventilated; it is essential when burning any kind of fuel.

Water heating system

It is important to realize that installing water heating makes sense if you frequently use the garage. If not, the expenses will not be justified because you will also need to purchase fuel and a heat source in addition to:

  • cast iron or steel batteries (as an option, cook from the pipes of the registry);
  • circulation pump;
  • expansion tank;
  • pipes on the highway;
  • non -freezing coolant – antifreeze.

As a point of reference. Because the garage room gets heated on occasion, plain water cannot be used to fill the system.

Using the heat requirement for the room (calculated in the preceding section), choose the radiators’ capacity or measure the length of the homemade register beneath the table:

The following is the calculation methodology. Using the steel pipe with DN 80 (Ø89 mm), we can determine from the table that 1.37 m² of heating area requires a length of 1 m. For instance, we divide the garage’s 20 m² quadrature into this figure: The total length of the heating part is 20 /1.37 = 14.6 m. We cook the drawing registers by distributing it among two to three heating devices.

The expansion tank holds the minimum volume, and the circulation pump draws the lowest pressure (4 m of the water pillar). Pipes (DN 15): polypropylene, steel, or metal-plastic. Next, install the radiators on the two walls that are opposite each other, and gather a basic closed-type two-pipe heating system that is connected to the heat source in accordance with the scheme:

In order to install hot water, you can apply:

  • a bourgeois on wood or working with a water circuit shown above in the diagram;
  • heat exchanger – a samovar plant installed on a chimney;
  • an electric heating element mounted in a vertical steel pipe, as shown in the diagram;
  • full -fledged electric boiler or solid fuel unit.

Suggestions. Remember to include a filter, mud, and ball taps to turn off the heat source and remove water from the system according to the schematic. Install an automated air vent at the top, and use Maevsky cranes to describe air on the batteries.

Why don’t we suggest installing an open system in the garage as a less complicated and expensive option? In addition to the cost of coolant, the reason is that antifreeze that evaporates from an exposed tank poses a health risk due to the toxicity of ethylene glycol.

Western European experience

You won’t find any wood and oil stoves in garages in Western Europe if you search for "garage heating" and look at images on English websites. then as the nearby drivers warm up:

  • electric portable heater;
  • infrared suspension heaters;
  • Air heating units (califfers).

We have already discussed the first two options above. The third method, which involves passing heated water through a radiator that is blasted by a strong axial fan, is likewise far from novel. The hot air unit should ideally be suspended from the ceiling and circulated throughout the space.

This option has the advantages of being small, having a fast heating rate, and having air conditioning during the summer (the radiator receives chilled water instead of heated).

One less: since the coolant needs to be heated in the boiler and delivered via pipes to the calories, there will be an increase in equipment expenses. However, if the garage is connected to a private residence, the issue can be resolved quickly by hooking the radiator up to the building’s water heating system.

Citation. An analog of a califfer made at home using an automobile radiator and any suitable fan is already being used by many garage artisans. To understand, watch the video:

Method Description
Insulate the garage Add insulation to walls, ceiling, and garage door to keep heat in and cold out.
Portable heaters Use portable electric heaters for a cost-effective way to heat the space only when needed.
Seal gaps Seal any gaps around windows and doors to prevent drafts and heat loss.
Solar air heaters Install a solar air heater on the garage"s exterior wall to utilize solar energy for heating without ongoing costs.

There are a number of affordable solutions to think about if you want to keep your garage warm without going over budget. Insulation is essential, to start. You can keep the warmth inside your garage and stop heat loss by insulating the walls and ceiling. This doesn’t have to be an expensive project because your neighborhood hardware store carries reasonably priced insulation materials.

Using a space heater in your garage is an additional low-cost heating option. Choose a heater that fits the size of your room and is energy-efficient. Electric heaters are frequently a more affordable option, particularly if you only need to heat the garage on rare occasions. To control the temperature and prevent energy waste when the garage is not in use, think about making an investment in a programmable thermostat.

Warming up your garage during the day can also be achieved by making the most of the natural light. To let sunlight in, make sure your windows are clear and spotless. In order to capture renewable energy and eventually reduce your heating expenses, you should also think about putting solar panels on the roof of your garage.

It’s crucial that you seal any gaps or drafts in your windows and garage door. Your heating efforts can be undermined by even tiny gaps that allow cold air to enter. Caulking and weatherstripping are low-cost but efficient ways to keep the cold out and the heat in.

Lastly, take into account alternate heating techniques like radiant floor heating or the use of a wood-burning stove. Even though these solutions might cost more up front, they can save you a lot of money on heating costs over time. Additionally, on chilly winter days, there’s nothing more comforting and welcoming than the warmth of a wood fire.

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