Heating a detached garage - Forced air v. Infrared v. Hydronic slab

[pheoxs]

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Considering near every commercial building uses ceiling mounted gas heaters, my bias is to say that’s the most practical answer. To repair worst case Ontario you replace the unit.

Ny heart want to say in slab because it seems cool, but I don’t have a good reason as to why. Admittedly if anything ever went even mildly wrong it seems like it would potentially be a nightmare to fix.

I worry about the effect of infrared heating on a car (basically heating the cars paint which transmits heat to air) which may be overblown in my mind, but I gues those could work if the goal is to just melt snow off cars and not heat the air in the garage to temp.

Forced air gas heater really does seem like the easy answer.

I think most commercial buildings do that so there's little to no hvac runs in the walls which makes redevelopment easier when businesses take over. Less to rebuild if you knock down walls.

[JustinL]

I use an Superior Radiant Products IR heater and a fan mounted to the ceiling. The fan cycles every 1/2 hour to blow the warm air off the ceiling and that seems to work pretty well. It is loud when it's running for sure, I can hear it from the bonus room above when it fires up.

[never]

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My shop was built with radiant in the floor but I have no idea where the lines were ran as it was done before I bought the house and the hoist thing is a concern too. I would most likely end up punching a hole through a line if I installed one.

Only if you're planning on a 2-post hoist...if you're going with 4-post hoists then you don't have to worry (well, as long as you have quality hoists).

[firebane]

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Only if you're planning on a 2-post hoist...if you're going with 4-post hoists then you don't have to worry (well, as long as you have quality hoists).

My shop isn't that big lol

[Mitsu3000gt]

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My shop was built with radiant in the floor but I have no idea where the lines were ran as it was done before I bought the house and the hoist thing is a concern too. I would most likely end up punching a hole through a line if I installed one.

I agree on the 5000-6000w heater route.

You should be able to just point an IR camera at the floor and the lines will light up. I used one to look a the in-floor heating in my basement and it extremely easy to see.

[firebane]

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You should be able to just point an IR camera at the floor and the lines will light up. I used one to look a the in-floor heating in my basement and it extremely easy to see.

Hmm good idea! Project for warmer days.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Hmm good idea! Project for warmer days.

I was pretty surprised at how clearly it showed where things were through carpet, underlay, and concrete. This isn't my photo but it looked exactly like this:

[revelations]

The floor heat must be very nice for those under their cars in the winter. I've had to resort to a ceramic heater nearby in some cases .

[blownz]

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I don't have any of these. My parents detached has in-slab heating and my dad loves it. Operating cost is relatively low, but more importantly heat retention/recovery is very quick. Can have the OH door open in -20, and within just a couple minutes of closing it the garage is back up to temp. Downside is if your garage is built tight, humidity could be a problem (it is for my parents, they keep a window cracked on the garage during winter).

That is typically the worst part of in-slab heat - when the garage door is open all the warm air disappears and it takes forever to reheat. I know two people that built with in-slab heat in their garages and both ended up adding a forced air heater after. I guess both would be ideal but doesn't seem worth the cost.

For the record, I have forced air gas heater. IR was too big and wouldn't work with how my ceiling and door to the house worked.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

You guys have in-floor heat in a detached garage? What's your boiler arrangement look like, just run off the main one in the house?

[Buster]

I have in floor in my garage. So far it's been great. I set it at 9.

[firebane]

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You guys have in-floor heat in a detached garage? What's your boiler arrangement look like, just run off the main one in the house?

Mine was never setup and just the pex left out at the wall. I have looked at various ways but it would be more costly to set it up than put in a 5000w heater.

They also didn't mark the lines so I have to figure that out too.

[Buster]

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I would do in-floor heating, but it'd have the spots marked/drilled for the future hoist so I could install that later without raising damage to the heating lines.

I currently also have the 5kW electric heater and it works great. Recently added de-humidifier to mitigate that issue and it's working fine. Ceiling fan may be next.

What dehumidifier did you get?

My garage is 1000 sq ft, so I'm not sure if it's important or not.

The biggest advantage of in floor in my view is the recovery time, the fact that it's silent is a bonus as well. Once the slab is up to temp, I think it's pretty efficient, too?

[Darell_n]

Under slab leaks seem to be inevitable, from my experience. I know 2 people that have valved off their garage due to this and now use unit heaters. Commercial installs have under slab have leaks all the time and I've been told some (many?) homebuilders will not do it in a garage.

[Buster]

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Under slab leaks seem to be inevitable, from my experience. I know 2 people that have valved off their garage due to this and now use unit heaters. Commercial installs have under slab have leaks all the time and I've been told some (many?) homebuilders will not do it in a garage.

How can you tell?

[benyl]

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How can you tell?

Your glycol gets diluted because the system keeps pulling in new water to replace the lost glycol in the slab.

You are supposed to get your crossconnect tested every year and pressure test too. At the same time, I always got the boiler cleaned and check as well as the glycol mix percentage checked.

[Buster]

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Your glycol gets diluted because the system keeps pulling in new water to replace the lost glycol in the slab.

You are supposed to get your crossconnect tested every year and pressure test too. At the same time, I always got the boiler cleaned and check as well as the glycol mix percentage checked.

do you have a guy?

[ThePenIsMightier]

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What dehumidifier did you get?

My garage is 1000 sq ft, so I'm not sure if it's important or not.

The biggest advantage of in floor in my view is the recovery time, the fact that it's silent is a bonus as well. Once the slab is up to temp, I think it's pretty efficient, too?

Noma 23-pint. It's too small (at times) and my garage is smaller and only has 1 vehicle coming in/out with slushy muck. The other is stored. It ices over under really heavy load, but most of the time, it's fine.
I'd upsize to the next one.

[benyl]

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do you have a guy?

Canyon Plumbing

[prae]

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Canyon Plumbing

If all your loops are to conditioned spaces, why even run glycol at all?

The more I think about this, the more a unit heater (i.e. NG forced air) seems to make the most sense. Best bang for the buck. Smallest footprint. Easiest to maintain. Like many of the folks sharing experiences here, I've been surprised by how capable my little 5000W electric heater is for my 20x20 detached today.

Likely going 32x24 or some kind of staggered combo, 26'deep x 10'wide adjoined with a 22x20, so giving up a bunch of floor space for mechanicals seems kind of lame.