Electric heater in garage reduce heat loss? (floors, Home Depot, furnace)
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We have a three level home. The first level is a poorly insulated garage. The garage gets so cold at times that our 2nd floor thermostat is effcted and turns on often. Other then insulation which is a whole task i would do someother time what do you guys think of a plug in heater? We have a gas furnace but no vents in garage space. Would this draw much more electricity if we had a heater in garage? Thoughts?
Something like this:
We have a three level home. The first level is a poorly insulated garage. The garage gets so cold at times that our 2nd floor thermostat is effcted and turns on often. Other then insulation which is a whole task i would do someother time what do you guys think of a plug in heater? We have a gas furnace but no vents in garage space. Would this draw much more electricity if we had a heater in garage? Thoughts?
Something like this:
So let's think this out a bit. Let's say you are setting your thermostats for the whole house at 68 (just to pick a number) and it's say 35 outside. So your garage which is poorly insulated sits at 50.
Now you put a heater in the garage, doesn't matter what type. You are now still keeping all the rest of the house at 68, but instead of the garage being 50, now it's 58.
Thermal loss through a wall is a function of the temperature difference across the wall, and the insulation of the wall (the conductive heat transfer coefficient of the wall). Just for giggles let's assume the average heat transfer coefficient of the exterior house walls (except the garage) is A and the average heat transfer coefficient of the garage exterior walls is B.
Previously the temp. difference over all the house except the garage was (68-35) and at the garage walls it was (50-35). Now the temp. difference over all the house except the garage will be (68-35) and at the garage walls it will be (58-35). So the previous heat loss was 33A + 15B. Now it will be 33A + 23B. Which is greater?
Heat moves in three ways; convection, conduction and radiation. Drafts and convection aside it always moves to cold, conduction and radiation do not have a direction. The heat in the room upstairs is heating the floor and it moves into the garage through radiation and conduction. It's imporatant to understand, your floors are cold becsue the heat is getting sucked out of them.
By heating the garage you will slow down this process and the floors upstairs will be warmer however it will cost you a lot more especially compared to gas. Any heat you put into that space is a loss as far as money goes.
It might be 3 times what you will pay for the gas. I can give you a rough estimate if you give me your rates.It's 4000 watts and when it's running it's like turning on 66 60W incandescent light bulbs. It's about 50 cents to run it for one hour assuming 12 cents per kWh. It's also 240 volts so you need a 240 line.
The garage is "unconditioned space", you don't want to heat it, you want to isolate it from "conditioned space"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brooklynorbust
We have a three level home. The first level is a poorly insulated garage. The garage gets so cold at times that our 2nd floor thermostat is effcted and turns on often. Other then insulation which is a whole task i would do some other time what do you guys think of a plug in heater
Using an electric heater to warm up the garage in order to reduce the running time of the 2nd floor furnace will not save you any money at all, will only increase your heating expense.
As your primary effort, look into how heat is escaping into the garage from the second floor.
Does your state offer free energy audits? Can you inexpensively seal up any places air is leaking through (good for fire/CO/fume safety also) or otherwise improve the isolation between the garage and the rest of the house?
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The garage is "unconditioned space", you don't want to heat it, you want to isolate it from "conditioned space"
