OT heat for garage room

Advice needed: I have an upstairs room in my attached garage. It measures 20x12 with an 8-foot ceiling (angled up from a 3-foot kneewall. The room is heavily insulated (12" ceiling, 8" walls, 8" floor). I'm thinking of heating the room for occasional winter-workshop use a few hours at a time. I'll need to bring the room temp up from an unheated temp often around 0 F. to a tolerable 55 F. or thereabouts. My two options are a wall-vented LP heater or a 220V electric heater. The LP heater would cost $1,200 to $1,800 installed by my regular propane supplier; it would always be on with a standing pilot. An electric heater I can wire and install myself for less than $500. I know electric heat in my area (southern Minnesota) isn't as cheap as LP per hour of use, but the initial price difference is pretty severe. I'd like LP, but that installation price is causing me pause. Which way would you go for occasional, not necessarily constant, heat? Any personal experience with this type of application? All advice appreciated.
 
I have a shop across the street. When I built it, I thought long and hard on it. I have natural gas, but decided to go with electric heat. I didn?t want to pay an initial upfront cost to run the line/meter and pay a monthly service fee, even though it is only used part of the year. So far the worst heating bill was about $135. But I only use the built-in thermostat on the unit, and it probably doesn?t go below 55 on the lowest setting, because it is never cold when I go in. I?m sure if I keep it 40-45 degrees when not in there, the bill would drop quite a bit. I?m in central Michigan with a 30x32 shop.
 
For occasional use, I would think electric will be the most economical.

It would take a long time to recoup the additional cost of propane.

When I added heat to my garage, I repurposed the electric heat unit from the house furnace when I upgraded the HVAC. Cut away the unnecessary cabinet to save space, hung it from the ceiling. The only cost was the wiring and a breaker.
 
rossow,

According to your numbers, ther is at minimum of initial cost that would measure about 700 dollars. That alone would be enough to heat things nicely, for a long time before the costs would even out (if).

D.
 
I've read the responses in favor of electric heat. Initial cost IS much less than the furnace, but if you let that room go down to zero or even 20 degrees, that electric heater just won't have the BTU's to make it comfortable until it's been on several hours. I have a horizontal gas furnace in my unheated garage/shop (26 X 38) that can warm it up to shirt-sleeves in 45 minutes. It's 100,000 BTU's and it's also over 50 years old, so it's not 'efficient' at all. How many BTU's are your electric heaters?
 
I built a "room" of similar size within my garage ( used to be a retail shop for the wife ) and I have two electric baseboard heaters ( a six & an eight footer ) that keeps it at 40 to 45 degrees through the winter for paint etc.
The cost is actually incidental.... And it took awhile to find a thermostat that goes that low.
 
My brother had a small oil heater in his shop. It looked like a small jet engine on wheels. They are designed for indoor use, but don't know if they are good for an enclosed room. Or you could put in a vent hole for the exhaust. Just a thought. Stan
 
I use a 1500w baseboard heater to take the chill off my 2 car attached garage if I want to work in it. Garage is 24x24x10. My garage rarely gets below 40F without the heat on. Garage is very well insulated, Anderson Windows, Insulated garage doors.

Baseboard heaters are cheap and require no maintenance.

I would spend my money on extra insulation and use baseboard heater.
 
There is another option for electric heating.
Had a church in eastern Ontario (cold in winter) that was used
on weekends. Six radiant glow bars in the ceiling would have you in shirtsleeves
within an hour. Felt the radiant heat almost instantly
An alternative to baseboard heating.
 
For occasional use it is handy to be able to heat the room quickly whenever you get the urge to use it. I'm guessing a room over an unheated attached garage only shares one warm wall with the house, and that may be a short wall. The other three walls, the ceiling and the floor are all cold, so that room will have a lot of heat loss for its 12 X 20 size. That large heat loss will make the room slower to heat to temperature.

Check the BTU output of both types of heat. Does the electric heater put out as many BTUs as the LP heater, or will you need to turn on the electric heat a full day or two before you want to use the room? Baseboard heaters are sized to run nearly 100 percent of the time at the highest heat rise. Forced air units are sized to run about 25 percent of the time under the same conditions, so forced air will normally heat a room faster.

In this day and age, I would want an electronic pilot on any gas heater except maybe a water heater.
 
If it were me I would check out a direct vent wall furnace. I put one in my 24X24 shop and it does a great job. Our winters are fairly cold. During the winter I keep the temp at 55 when I'm not in the shop and boost it up to 65 when I am. My shop is fully insulated. I especially like it because all flames are enclosed and not exposed to anything in the shop. It draws from and vents to the outside. It runs on propane and is fairly economical to operate. I ordered it directly from Williams and installed in myself. Very simple to do. I trenched the ditch for the gas line and the LP company installed the tank and line. Your county will probably require a permit. Check the link below. Hope this helps.
Heater
 
I think your 220V electric heater will do a great job heating that room. Well insulated, not overly large. My SON heats his 20x24 garage with 9 ft ceilings with the same heatwr. He insulated his garage door, and 3-4 inches of kraft faced fiberglass in all external wall, really nothing in the ceiling yet.

The other factor nobody has mentioned is what happens if something with flammable vapors is used in your work room? Maybe find the roof a block or two away?

And electric heat gives off NO CO2, Don't have to worry about somebody finding you passed out or dead because of CO2 poisoning

Yep, I'm a BIG fan of electric heat in a work room in your situation.
 
I bought and installed myself a Mr. Heater big max vented heater when they first came out. It was a good price and has been a good heater.
 

I am in NH. I heat a much larger space than you plan on for peanuts and it is 50 degrees when I go out there. It comes up to 60 degrees quickly. I have a 40x50x17 ft shop building. I have an insulated inner room where I do most of my work in the winter that is 16x22x10. I heat it with propane for $450.00/year.
 
Of your two options, I would say that the electric will serve you the best. Look at the pro and con items.

Pro:
Heavily insulated means that heating expenses will be relatively small.
Initial cost for electric is less.
Safety factor is better for the electric. Less risk with flammables, less possibility of CO2 buildup, less fire hazard when left unattended for periods of time.
Cost per 1000 BTUs is less with propane.

Con:
Propane is high initial cost.
Potential ignition of flammable vapors with propane.
If equipped with pilot light, propane will be consuming gas all of the time. Electric will not.
Cost per 1000BTUs is less for propane.

Overall, even though I would personally prefer the propane, I would go with the electric. No maintenance, operates on demand only, and is overall safer if you work with any kind of flammable vapors. Since the room is heavily insulated, it may take a very long time for the propane to actually save you any money in heating expense.
 
I have a reasonably (not as great as the house) insulated shop of similar (maybe a bit larger) size that I occasionally use and heat with a 15k BTU 220v portable electric forced air heater. It never seems to get below 34 deg when not heated and I turn the heater on and within an hour it usually gets to 65 deg. Been working out great for me. Think it was around $100 on Ebay.
 
My son-in-law put a motel type heater/air conditioner in his upstairs finished garage. Works very good.
 
I created a 17 x 17 room in garage for wifes sewing room/ Heat & cool with 9500 btu 110v window unit .. Does excellent job. Live WCIL
 
What ever you use, I would keep the temp in the 40 range all the time and turn up when occupied. Heating from 0* to 55 is going to take some time. I keep my 24 x 40 shop at 45* in the winter and it gets turned up when occupied. Keeping my shop and 1200sqft house heated with natural gas is only costing me $700 a year in SE MI, and that includes gas water heater and dryer. The shop goes from 45 to 60 in less than an hour and the unit only runs a couple of time in 8 hrs. after warm. My shop only has 4" insul. walls and ceiling.
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