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An unheated garage isn't any warmer than outside, the only difference is less snow & ice on the vehicle and place to work out of the wind. Heating a garage is probably just as expensive in the long run as plugging in your vehicle. You can throw a tarp over your vehicle to keep the snow off and help trap some extra heat from the heaters.
Lots of folks in the bush don't have garages or grid power and just plug in to a portable generator, and/or use a propane weed torch or light a charcoal smudge pot under the block & transmission with a tarp over the vehicle to trap more heat.
So, no, a garage isn't a necessity, but you will need to budget extra power, fuel and time to get & keep a vehicle running in the winter regardless of where it's parked. You'll soon notice that many people will leave their vehicle idling when running errands if the facility doesn't have outlets in the parking lot; it's not uncommon for people to refuel with the engine running when it's really cold either.
I see a lot of people with 2-car garages that park outside because the garage is filled with "crap". I can't understand that.
I am saying that the wear-and-tear on a vehicle that gets parked outside in the winter is significant and needs to be accounted for also. It will not last as long as a vehicle that gets parked inside, plain and simple.
I leave the heat off in my garage, and it stays about 50* in there, even during the coldest days. Depends how your garage is setup though. Most people have the furnace in the garage, and just the heat that comes off of it while heating the rest of the house should be enough to heat the garage. It doesn't have to be 70 in there.
Comparing the electricity used to open and close a garage door to the amount used to heat an engine block heater doesn't work. And if your furnace kicks on and runs 5 minutes to heat the garage, isn't that WAY less fuel than idling your truck for 20 minutes in the driveway??
I keep two cars in the garage, one of which is my wife's, plus a couple of ATV's. I also keep the garage thermometer around 50 degrees. The boiler is in the utility room in the middle of the house. Next time your boiler comes on to heat the garage when it's -20 or colder, time the run and you will realize that it takes somewhere around 14 minutes using electricity, and burning fuel.
Boilers are set-up by the number of zones they will heat, and the garage is one of the zones, so it's not as cheap to heat a garage as you think. The boiler comes on not only when you open the garage doors, but to keep the garage space heated constantly at the temperature you have set the thermostat all day and night long. You can see this if you turn all the zones off except for the garage (the boiler will come on every time the thermostat temperature drops around 5 degrees from preset. The most expensive is heating fuel, and you can see this on your electric bill, and when you receive the bill from the fuel delivery company. But I do understand that if the person is leaving a car plugged-in day and night, he or she will be paying a lot of money to keep the engine warm.
All depends on how your house is setup. For me it's cheaper to leave the newer or more expensive cars parked inside, and to plug the vehicle I drive to work into an outdoors timer for a period of three hours.
The vehicles I drive to work are very old: a 1987 Civic with over 260,000 miles on the odometer, and a Sidekick with around 200K. But I also have a couple of other vehicles I keep outside, a 1981 F-150 I drive during the summer, and this 1988 Sierra I drive year round:
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As I mentioned before, most renters in multi-apartment units don't have garages to park their cars. That's the way it is. Just look at the apartment units around Fairbanks, and notice all the outlets at the parking lots. A garage is convenient for the reasons several of us mentioned before, and I am not denying that.
As I mentioned before, most renters in multi-apartment units don't have garages to park their cars. That's the way it is. Just look at the apartment units around Fairbanks, and notice all the outlets at the parking lots. A garage is convenient for the reasons several of us mentioned before, and I am not denying that.
And apartment renters should keep in mind that the costs of the electricity for these parking lot outlets is either tacked on to their base rent (whether they use it or not), or they're assigned a specific parking spot which is metered/billed separately. "Utilities Included" makes a huge difference in costs in extreme climates... and it's not always to your benefit, you can end up paying more year round than you would just paying for the extra during the hard season.
Like I said, depends how your place is set up. My furnace is in the garage, so it is heated for "free". We aren't talking about homeowners here. The OP is looking at apartments I presume, and almost all will have the heat included in the rent, and the electricity to run the furnace for the building on a different meter.
I say again, if you can get a nearly identical quality apartment that includes a garage for only $100-200 more, get it.
I believe that most people who rent a place with a garage use it to store "stuff" instead of parking the car in there. And I can SOMEWHAT understand that since storage units are $100 a month.
I did the math... if you have a small engine block heater only (which is WAY minimum--you should have an oil pan heater as well) AND use a timer on your vehicles plug-in that comes on 3 hours (4 should be minimum) before you want to start it, it costs $17 a month on your electic bill. If you get an oil pan heater too (which in my opinion is required even with full synthetic oil) than your electric bill will go up to $25 a month.
Most people idle their car for around 20 minutes before driving. That is about 1 gallon of fuel in a typical truck (somewhat less in a small car). That's $120 a month. You really only need to idle the vehicle about 30 seconds before driving away, as long as the oil is warm. The car will heat up faster if you drive it.
So if you get a timer for your outlet, and then only warm up the vehicle for 10 minutes, it is still costing you $85 to park outside.
Like I said, depends how your place is set up. My furnace is in the garage, so it is heated for "free". We aren't talking about homeowners here. The OP is looking at apartments I presume, and almost all will have the heat included in the rent, and the electricity to run the furnace for the building on a different meter.
I say again, if you can get a nearly identical quality apartment that includes a garage for only $100-200 more, get it.
I believe that most people who rent a place with a garage use it to store "stuff" instead of parking the car in there. And I can SOMEWHAT understand that since storage units are $100 a month.
I don't disagree with you. The only point I have been trying to make is that a garage is a convenience to most people, including renters. Specially the ones who do not need a garage when is warm enough outside (spring through the Fall), but still have to pay for such garage yearlong. But if the person can afford paying for such a convenience, by all means go for it.
That said, to the landlord, a home or apartment with garage, or home owner, a garage is just another zone to heat during the winter. In multi-apartment units, regardless of having garages or not, the boiler usually is locate at an utility room.
Since the OP asked if a garage was needed, several of us stated the reasons why it's not. There are hundreds, if not thousands of renters, and even home owners who don't have a garage. There are hundreds of cabins and apartment units all in and outside Fairbanks that have no garages
In my case, I park a couple of automobiles in the garage during the winter. But I also perform most of the maintenance of our (my wife and I) automobiles. It's quite convenient to do such in the garage during the winter months, but the rest of the year I work and park outside.
I did the math... if you have a small engine block heater only (which is WAY minimum--you should have an oil pan heater as well) AND use a timer on your vehicles plug-in that comes on 3 hours (4 should be minimum) before you want to start it, it costs $17 a month on your electic bill. If you get an oil pan heater too (which in my opinion is required even with full synthetic oil) than your electric bill will go up to $25 a month.
Most people idle their car for around 20 minutes before driving. That is about 1 gallon of fuel in a typical truck (somewhat less in a small car). That's $120 a month. You really only need to idle the vehicle about 30 seconds before driving away, as long as the oil is warm. The car will heat up faster if you drive it.
So if you get a timer for your outlet, and then only warm up the vehicle for 10 minutes, it is still costing you $85 to park outside.
Look at your electric bill. I look at mine for December and it shows that I paid $70.00 for electricity to GVEA, and that I also had to pay just about the same amount for GVEA to produce the kilowatts of electricity I consumed (GVEA uses diesel fuel). Just because you have a boiler in your garage does not mean that all renters will have one in theirs. And even so, that heat is not free, because the boiler still loses heat by convection, even in the garage.
When you drive the car out of the garage, you still have to let it warm for a few minutes if it's very cold outside. What happens when you drive the car out of the garage is that all the warm moisture in the cab is mixed with the cold air from outside, and the windows and windshield fog-up. In this case you still have to wait for the motor to warm enough to push warm air though the cab. If you have lived long enough around Fairbanks, like I have, you would have realized what I am talking about.
Then you plug your vehicle for 8 hours or longer at the outlet at work, and the engine's antifreeze and oil are kept barely warm. Even so, you still have to idle the car for a while before you can see out the windshield and windows.
And I too went without one just fine for the first 25 years of my life. Once I got one, I sure don't want to go without.
Its not the same as in the 80-'90's though, where gas was 99cents/gallon and I didn't care what the electric bill was. These days, I still think its cheaper, and not just a convenience to park in a garage. A couple winters ago, I had to park outside all winter because I drove a big lifted SUV that didn't fit in a garage. I figure I spent about $400 a month EXTRA in the winter due to plugging in and warming it up.
I could try to compare it to Phoenix for instance, where I would say it would be "cheaper" to park in a garage there also. The faded paint, ruined interior, rotted headlights, etc, would make keeping a vehicle in a garage better and worth it in the long run.
Obviously, if you take care of your stuff, it will last. If you have multiple vehicles with 200,00+ miles and decades of Alaskan winters, you know how to take care of stuff. Some people don't understand the importance of plugging in. Its not just the emissions, or the ability for the car to start or not--its the longevity of the car.
Most wear on a vehicles engine occurs in the first 20 seconds it is running each day. This is multiplied by a huge amount when there is no oil circulating for the first minute of running in cold temps.
The error in my math above is that the $85 a month to park outside is only 6 months a year, not 12.
And I too went without one just fine for the first 25 years of my life. Once I got one, I sure don't want to go without.
Its not the same as in the 80-'90's though, where gas was 99cents/gallon and I didn't care what the electric bill was. These days, I still think its cheaper, and not just a convenience to park in a garage. A couple winters ago, I had to park outside all winter because I drove a big lifted SUV that didn't fit in a garage. I figure I spent about $400 a month EXTRA in the winter due to plugging in and warming it up.
I could try to compare it to Phoenix for instance, where I would say it would be "cheaper" to park in a garage there also. The faded paint, ruined interior, rotted headlights, etc, would make keeping a vehicle in a garage better and worth it in the long run.
Obviously, if you take care of your stuff, it will last. If you have multiple vehicles with 200,00+ miles and decades of Alaskan winters, you know how to take care of stuff. Some people don't understand the importance of plugging in. Its not just the emissions, or the ability for the car to start or not--its the longevity of the car.
Most wear on a vehicles engine occurs in the first 20 seconds it is running each day. This is multiplied by a huge amount when there is no oil circulating for the first minute of running in cold temps.
The error in my math above is that the $85 a month to park outside is only 6 months a year, not 12.
I just use a timer.
By the way, GVEA has the data on electricity saving for plugging your car from 2 to 3 hours before you start it in the morning. Also, at some places the electricity powering the outlets at the parking lot is cycled so that it's not on all the time. Over at UAF most of the outlets being used cycle themselves automatically, and monitor ambient temperature to set the cycle times and lengths. If you see any of the outlets that gave blinking green LEDs, those are the ones I am referring to.
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