Adding Basebord Heat Loop in Garage?? Any thoughts??

[Drewmon]

Hi all,
I know this may sound weird or stupid, but I just have to ask. I live in Maine and it gets cold in the winter. I have an attached 28'X28' single 22' door well insulated garage attached to my house. I had a tech come and clean my furnace last year, and he asked me if I had ever thought about adding a loop of baseboard heat in the attached garage (about 15' from the furnace) to extract any residual heat left in the zone before it goes back into furnace to get heated back up. I answered no, because I had just built the garage the year before. I had forgot all about until just last week I was installing a water spigot in the garage and had to extend the water lines through he sill of the house into the garage. Has anyone ever done this? The zone I would use is the normal 1st floor zone in my house, the 2nd floor stays warm most of the time and hardly runs. The way he explained the plan was to just add a few feet of baseboard (hot water heat) in the garage and tap into the 1st floor zone before it goes back into the furnace to get heated back up and thought the house again. The run would only be a few feet away from the furnace, my only concern is would it freeze? I do have a direct vent propane monitor heater that I use if I'm working out there a while, it heats up the space in about 10-15 minutes, so much that I end up shutting it off. I don't run the monitor heater at all unless I'm out there. The end goal here would to be just to use any residual heat in the baseboard system to keep the garage a little bit warmer. I do keep bottled water and other beverages in the garage and never had them freeze during the winter. Any thoughts?

 

[oosik]

I had the same situation on the house we had when we were in Anchorage. Built an attached garage - ran a loop off our hot water heat system - hung a large Modine fan down off the ceiling. It kept the garage at 50F all winter long. It ran on a controlled loop with a thermostat. 50F was as low as the thermostat would go.

 

[Raspy]

The return line from the downstairs loop is not "residual heat". It's not heat that is otherwise wasted. If you add a loop in the garage, you will be heating the garage and you will use more energy in the boiler to do that.

Also, you'll be heating the garage whenever you're heating the downstairs zone, whether you want heat there or not.

The Monitor heater sounds like the better choice because you only run it when you want heat there, it works well and you don't have to do the install of the extra baseboard.

 

[Jack Murdock]

Hi all,
I know this may sound weird or stupid, but I just have to ask. I live in Maine and it gets cold in the winter. I have an attached 28'X28' single 22' door well insulated garage attached to my house. I had a tech come and clean my furnace last year, and he asked me if I had ever thought about adding a loop of baseboard heat in the attached garage (about 15' from the furnace) to extract any residual heat left in the zone before it goes back into furnace to get heated back up. I answered no, because I had just built the garage the year before. I had forgot all about until just last week I was installing a water spigot in the garage and had to extend the water lines through he sill of the house into the garage. Has anyone ever done this? The zone I would use is the normal 1st floor zone in my house, the 2nd floor stays warm most of the time and hardly runs. The way he explained the plan was to just add a few feet of baseboard (hot water heat) in the garage and tap into the 1st floor zone before it goes back into the furnace to get heated back up and thought the house again. The run would only be a few feet away from the furnace, my only concern is would it freeze? I do have a direct vent propane monitor heater that I use if I'm working out there a while, it heats up the space in about 10-15 minutes, so much that I end up shutting it off. I don't run the monitor heater at all unless I'm out there. The end goal here would to be just to use any residual heat in the baseboard system to keep the garage a little bit warmer. I do keep bottled water and other beverages in the garage and never had them freeze during the winter. Any thoughts?

I have been in the gas / heating business over 40 years in upstate NY. I use this to heat my 2.5 car garage / shop
Heaters | Infrared Gas | Heatstar Propane Garage Shop Heater HS22L - 22, BTU Millivolt Control | B1735877 - GlobalIndustrial.com

 

[Drewmon]

The return line from the downstairs loop is not "residual heat". It's not heat that is otherwise wasted. If you add a loop in the garage, you will be heating the garage and you will use more energy in the boiler to do that.

Also, you'll be heating the garage whenever you're heating the downstairs zone, whether you want heat there or not.

The Monitor heater sounds like the better choice because you only run it when you want heat there, it works well and you don't have to do the install of the extra baseboard.

I understand that it would in fact use more "energy" from the oil burner furnace, but running the monitor heater isn't cost effective. I tried that the first year set to the lowest setting (60 degrees), it went through too much propane. I'm just looking to "take the edge off". I'm ok with the gargae getting heat whenever the first floor does, I could always put in a bypass loop as well if needed.

 

[oosik]

A little off topic but - when we were in Anchorage - everything possible, in your home, was on natural gas. They almost gave natural gas away. Everything in our brand new house was on natural gas except the clothes dryer and the lights. Wife was scared of flames around lint.

Now - on the other hand - electricity was the highest rate in the nation - still is. Only thing in the house on electricity - lights and clothes dryer. Monthly electric bill averaged - $75 per month. Everything else on natural gas - monthly bill average - $42.

Gas company gave me an estimate of the cost to heat the garage to temps of 50F - $1.72 per month.

 

[MossRoad]

If it's just a water loop, well, yeah, it could freeze if your circulation pump ever stopped. It may take a few days, depend on the outside temp, temp it got to in the garage, etc.... but yes, it could theoretically freeze.

You could put in a heat exchanger inside the house, and put a separate loop in the garage with anti-freeze in it, and heat that glycol loop with the heat exchanger. That would prevent any possibility of freezing that circuit, but it would also cost you the price of a heat exchanger, pump, etc....

You understand that by tapping any residual heat left in that loop before it goes back to the furnance to get heated back up means that loop is going to be colder when it gets to the furnace, and therefore will take more energy (dollars) to heat it back up.

And if you put in a bypass around it so you can shut it off when you don't need it, well, then you'd have to drain it, too, if you expect it to get near freezing temps in the garage ever, or it will definitely burst.

 

[oosik]

We alway ran 50/50 antifreeze/ water solution in our hot water baseboard system. There was a makeup tank - very much like the expansion tank on your cooling system in your auto. Check the water level in the makeup tank once a year and add water as needed. NEVER allowed to have a direct connect between the house heating system and any potable water supply.

 

[Drewmon]

If it's just a water loop, well, yeah, it could freeze if your circulation pump ever stopped. It may take a few days, depend on the outside temp, temp it got to in the garage, etc.... but yes, it could theoretically freeze.

You could put in a heat exchanger inside the house, and put a separate loop in the garage with anti-freeze in it, and heat that glycol loop with the heat exchanger. That would prevent any possibility of freezing that circuit, but it would also cost you the price of a heat exchanger, pump, etc....

You understand that by tapping any residual heat left in that loop before it goes back to the furnance to get heated back up means that loop is going to be colder when it gets to the furnace, and therefore will take more energy (dollars) to heat it back up.

And if you put in a bypass around it so you can shut it off when you don't need it, well, then you'd have to drain it, too, if you expect it to get near freezing temps in the garage ever, or it will definitely burst.

I understand the costs, nothing is free. The monitor heater, set on the low setting, set on an electrical timer to run only during certain time frames coat me roughly $125 a month. The main reason for the question is just to see what benefit it could bring and what obstacles I would have to face. The tech told me that the furnace would run a little longer during the firing cycles, but not enough to make a huge difference in the yearly consumption based on my house and current usage.

 

[Drewmon]

A little off topic but - when we were in Anchorage - everything possible, in your home, was on natural gas. They almost gave natural gas away. Everything in our brand new house was on natural gas except the clothes dryer and the lights. Wife was scared of flames around lint.

Now - on the other hand - electricity was the highest rate in the nation - still is. Only thing in the house on electricity - lights and clothes dryer. Monthly electric bill averaged - $75 per month. Everything else on natural gas - monthly bill average - $42.

Gas company gave me an estimate of the cost to heat the garage to temps of 50F - $1.72 per month.

I wish.... We don't have natural gas near where I live, and the times I did run the heater on low and on a timer it cost me roughly $125 a month.