For many people, the garage is for much more than just a place to park their vehicles, instead being are used for a variety of other different projects and purposes. However, for those of you who live in a colder climate, without proper heating the garage can become unbearably cold and send you fleeing back to the warmth of inside and preventing you from getting anything done in there. If this is a problem for you and you’d like to be able to use your garage all year round, you’ll need to find an efficient garage heater to help keep the room at a comfortable temperature for working.
Still, with so many different types of garage heaters on the market, it can sometimes be difficult to determine which one is best for your situation. Deciding on which type of heater is best depends on how large the space is, how much heat you need to generate, the type of fuel source you want to use and more, which is why we’re here to explain all of your various options to help you make the right choice.
Choosing a Garage Heater
When it comes to heating your garage, you’ll first need to determine the size of the area you need to heat and also how much heat you need the unit to produce in order to determine the size of heater you’ll need. For instance, if you live in a fairly warm climate and will typically not use the heater much, you can probably just go with a small electric heater, such as a space or baseboard heater. However, if you need to provide more heat or have a large garage, your best bet might be a more powerful propane or natural gas heater.
Types of Garage Heating Units
There are basically three distinct categories of garage heaters—propane, natural gas and electric—and the choice of which to use depends on what you’ll be using the garage for amongst other things. This is because electric heaters are the only type which doesn’t produce a flame, making them your only option if you store anything combustible in your garage or are doing automotive work, due to the risk for fire.
•Electric Garage Heaters
Electric garage heaters are typically the cheapest of the three types to purchase, but they are also the most expensive to run. Still, they are quite a bit more convenient, as some of them are portable and can simply be plugged into an outlet. With electric heaters, you can choose between forced air, convection and infrared radiant heaters—all of which are fairly decent options for heating smaller garages and workshops.
•Natural Gas and Propane Garage Heaters
Both natural gas and propane heaters are more efficient and work much faster than electric heaters, while also costing much less to operate as well. However, there is one major drawback in the fact that they require a vent from the heater to the outside in order to carry away the potentially toxic fumes that they produce. These heaters both use the fuel in order to make a flame which then heats up the air before the built-in fan circulates the air through the garage. These heaters are available in a wide variety of sizes, so even if you’re trying to heat up a huge double car garage, you should still easily be able to find a heater with sufficient enough strength to do so.
At the end of the day, heating up your garage to allow you to work throughout the year doesn’t have to be difficult, and with so many excellent garage heaters available, you should have no problems providing that extra warmth you need.
