Garage Heaters: Finding the Best Type!

If you ask what are the few areas used for a number of projects then garage is one of the answers. Beyond just parking your car or other vehicles, this area is a place for number of project, all year round (including in the winter). You need the right one of garage heaters to keep your garage productive and keep friendly in the winter. Well, you might clearly understand that there are a lot of types, brands and products to choose from. And you may be confused to determine the best one of them for heating your lovely garage. One thing that you have to keep remembering is that not all products that are currently available in the marketplaces have equal performance!

Nowadays, a more variety different types of garage heaters are available! And one of them is propane radiant heater which is widespread and utilized by a number of household for different uses. Whatever your selection, the efficiency performance and safety issue should be on your first list that you have to prioritize! The safety issue is so important and crucial because there are usually a lot of paint, petrol, papers, wood, even kerosene in the garage that can lead to the fire accident and can be so dangerous for you and your family! Make sure all of those flammable materials away from your heater. Based on the fuel-used, garage heaters are available in two popular choices; combustion unit (mostly with propane) and electric unit. And like mentioned before, based on the way to heat up the area, mostly they come with radiant heating design.

Radiant garage heaters

As the name suggests, this type heat up the people (object) directly in the same way the radiant of the sun light does, so thus the unit does not heat first the entire air inside of the room. This radiant heat will make anyone feel warm quickly. But this directly heating cannot work powerful if you are too far from the heater, therefore you have to keep the ideal distance to the unit otherwise you will feel less warm in the cold days of winter and autumn. Moreover, this type is usually not designed with the blowing fan to distribute the heat into the room, because the heat from the heating elements will be radiated outwards.

In addition, radiant heating method is also popular due to its unique performance that can be used as spot heating. With this technique, we can heat a certain spot of the room more powerfully without needing to heat the entire air of the room. This is the reason of the popularity of radiant garage heaters that will make them work more efficient and faster.

Gas (combustion) garage heaters

For this type, like mentioned before propane model is the most popular although there are also available some powered with natural gas fuel. The propane fuel is usually stored into a pressurized tank and this tank is portable and can be moved and replaced practically, so thus if your local area is not available for natural gas service then propane garage heating unit is welcome idea. It is powerful enough and available in a wide range of size for different square feet area of garage.

Pros:

1. Relatively more affordable for the cost of operation and more efficient (if compared to the electric model).
2. The pressurized propane tank is portable and can be installed and replaced practically.
3. More powerful on heating.

 Cons:

1. The unit must be vented properly!
2. Improper venting installation can give a significant effect to the efficiency performance of the heater.
3. Sometimes the price of propane could be higher than the price (KWH (the cost/ kilowatt-hour)) of the electric energy.

In addition, if your local area is available for natural gas service then it is much better to use natural gas than propane, because relatively safer and more affordable for cost of operation.

Garage electric heaters

It is undeniable that this type is the easiest option to warm up your garage. And there are a lot of powerful models to choose from, and most of them usually more practically and easier to be installed. The standard size of this type is usually available for heating 500 sq-ft areas.

One thing you should consider before dealing to use this model, make sure you have enough power to run the unit, at least you must have a 100 Ampere service, depending the size specification of the unit that you want to purchase. Unlike combustion units, electric units do not need the venting installation and they are safe ventless units.

In addition, although there are some people who say that using electric garage heaters are relatively safer but for better safety, it much better to always make sure that your electric unit is unplugged while not in use. Avoid also using an improper extension cord that can lead to fire accident!

Image source: Amazon.Com

Check this one if you are looking for one of them that can be mounted on the wall of your garage!