Garage heating

[Zerk]

No I didn't insulate the floor the outside boiler keeps it warm inside all walls are insulated with 2"spr form

A great deal of heat is lost through the ground. If using wood maybe you don't care. If you were using gas boiler or water heater, it might not be able to keep up. My family is in heating business.

Earth will soak up alot of heat.

 

[jack707]

A great deal of heat is lost through the ground. If using wood maybe you don't care. If you were using gas boiler or water heater, it might not be able to keep up. My family is in heating business.

Earth will soak up alot of heat.

I was thinking about doing the floor but I didn't want to spend more money. It's really not bad when the heats on or off my toes as re not cold.

 

[newbury]

A given air temperature, will require a certain amount of electric to maintain. That's not going to vary much with different electric heaters.

With an infrared heater, you can save money by feeling warm at a lower air temperature. The way the sun feels on your face, when it's shinning on the winter.

Pipes won't necessarily "feel" that heat, unless the heater is aimed at them. So, a lower air temperature could get you closer to the point where they could freeze.

Have you ever thought about putting heat tape on the pipes, and just heating them?

They have heat tape kits for plastic pipe.

However, if you are worried about heat tape on plastic pipes, change the parts you want to heat to copper.

30 ft. Automatic Electric Heat Cable Kit

For use on metal and plastic water pipes

 

[Zerk]

I was thinking about doing the floor but I didn't want to spend more money. It's really not bad when the heats on or off my toes as re not cold.

If you were doing a house, it would probably be worth it.

 

[jack707]

If you were doing a house, it would probably be worth it.

Yup it would be.

 

[bigtiller]

I was thinking that the infrared could heat the car and things inside which would build on a heat mass.. the electric oil heater is oil for mass...

Guess that I'll buy one and try it out. Maybe plug it into a wattmeter and the big fan and compare their consumption over a week period next winter seeing how winter is close to being over here

Does it matter what type of electrical fixture you use for heat? Electric heat is the most efficient and the most expensive. There are only 3412 BTU's in a kilowatt.

 

[PILOON]

"I have never used heat trace at home. Does it say not for PVC pipes on it? Is there a version that it can be used on? PVC does bend if you get it really hot, and could droop."

In pipe heat tracing is also available.
2 types exist, self regulating and thermostatic controlled.
Personally I prefer the self regulating at 6 watts per foot and this is a well proven concept which has been on the market for many years now.
Only the cold sections receive heat and that in 1 foot increments., very clever design based on thermoplastics that only conduct current when cold.
Around here lots of folks take lake water and there is very little soil cover (1-2ft often) and we are in a 4 ft frost zone so it is very common.

An earlier version was also sold that in reality was a very long element much like a common oven element. This used a probe to sense temps which needed to be clamped to the plumbing usually 5-6 ft outside where it measured and controlled the current. Costly to run and often broke down due to runaway heat if a leak occurred in the piping.

 

[Zerk]

Does it matter what type of electrical fixture you use for heat? Electric heat is the most efficient and the most expensive. There are only 3412 BTU's in a kilowatt.

Canada does have cheap electric rates due to hydro. No sure if cheaper then us, cause everything is expensive up there. Taxes and large area.

In the US LP is currently low, but just a few years ago BTU/$ was about the same or more.

 

[shui5612]

We pay about 5.7 cents a Killowatt hour and when you go over your "daily limit" (which is 30kw) then it's around 8.6c/kwh until 50kw a day.
But if you go over 50kw on top of the 8c you pay an additional 6 which means 14-15c/kw/h in the winter.. or around 13c in the summer when you go over.

Numbers pulled from the hydro quebec website.

I think most states it's around 12c and up if I'm not mistaken

 

[Zerk]

EIA - Electricity Data