electric heat

[John Gregory]

I want to wall off the front of my garage for a refrigerator, freezer and other house hold storage. Right now it is uninsulated and remains very cold in the winter (northern Utah) and the freezer and refrigerator do not run properly. I will insulate the walls and ceiling, the size will be about 16'X10' with 7-8' ceilings. I will be replacing the concrete floor due to some settling. In the winter I would keep it at about 50*.

Would electric infloor heat work well? Since it will be a storage area, wall space will be at a premium. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks

[Don Abele]

John, I read a post before where someone was going to pour an additional concrete slab over the existing one and wanted to add radiant heat to it in the process. The general opinion was that it wouldn't work very well as the existing slab would act as a giant heat sink and just keep pulling the heat down. This is why they put rigid foam insulation under slabs that are going to have radiant heat in them.

If you want to do electric there are all kinds of options including electric baseboard and electric fan units. I have a ceiling mounted Farenheat electric heater in my shop and it does an excellent job at keeping it warm in there.

Be well,

Doc

[John Gregory]

The old slab will be completely removed and a new one poured. I think that ceiling mount might be an option. I am looking for something that I can get the best bang for my dollar running it.

[Don Abele]

John, with the slab completely gone you could have it prepped correctly for in slab heat (either electric or water).

Of course you really need to weigh what it will cost to have a radiant heat system installed (and to maintain) versus what an electric heater would cost to run (plus the initial $200 or so for the heater).

Here's a cut and paste from a previous thread where I was talking about my shop heater:

I am currently located just outside Boston and heat my 2 car gar...shop with the same unit that Tom linked to (Farenheat). I keep the thermostat set to keep the shop about 50 when I'm not in there and turn it up to about 65 when I am. The shop isn't very well insulated, standard 2-car size with 15 foot ceiling.

Here's a link to an old thread about heaters, I posted on the second reply with links to several other threads about heating shops when I was stationed in Virginia: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=13209

The cost to run this heater in my VA shop came out to about $40 a month and here it's closer to $75 (just a wee bit colder up here).

Since that post I lowered the temperature to about 40 when I'm not in there and cut the $75 to about $45! You are talking about a much smaller area and one that is insulated. I wouldn't think it would cost you even half that to run the unit. The unit I have also has multiple settings for the maximum wattage as well as a thermostat so you can really tweak it to meet your needs.

Be well,

Doc

[John Shuk]

John I've heard that electric radiant goes well with cement.