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Halogen vs. Infrared garage heating
ken555 - 1/12/15 at 01:47 PM

At the moment the Temp in the garage is getting a little cold on the nose.

I have a small halogen heater
like this, that I bought as an IR heater.
It works as long as you stand in front of it.

But I want to put a couple of the "proper" Floodlight style ones on the walls.

I now understand the different wave type(far IR needed), but the people that sell them don't seem to.
I search for IR heaters and find the halogen types, anyone one found a good source of the 'proper' (cheap) ones that will sell to the public.

If not, I'm off to the pub to borrow a couple of theirs.

v8kid - 1/12/15 at 04:44 PM

Beware condensation with any form of intermittent heating. Air being lighter than walls, floors or pretty much anything heats up quicker and absorbs water which it promptly dumps on colder surfaces. i.e. anything dense like steel. Google dew point or relative huimidity should give you the info I imagine.

Better with constant low level background heating. Underfloor is perfect but you need to think ahead to install otherwise can you still get storage heaters second hand for buttons?

Cheers!

maskell01 - 1/12/15 at 08:17 PM

i always used one of these!

SIP 09288 Fireball 512 Propane LPG Gas Space Heater Workshop Warehouse Farm

it was fierce!i rested it in top of the 19kg propane bottle!

ken555 - 1/12/15 at 09:40 PM

I thought that Gas powered put a lot of moisture in the air.
Where IR just warmed you not the air.

Irony - 2/12/15 at 08:21 AM

Don't use anything gas powered for your garage. The chemical reaction releases water vapour into the air. Prolonged use will have it raining in your garage. Best go for infrared as that heats the objects in the garage rather than the air. We have just converted out paintshop heating from air heating to radiant heat (infrared is radiant heating). With air heating overtime we set the extraction system going we sucked all the heat out!

I have no heating in my garage now my cars running. I just run the car for five minutes.

ken555 - 2/12/15 at 08:35 AM

quote:
Originally posted by IronyI have no heating in my garage now my cars running. I just run the car for five minutes.


Even with a draughty garage, this tends to set off the smoke & co detectors I find.

rgrs - 2/12/15 at 08:44 AM

http://www.leisureheating.co.uk/electric-patio-heaters/

Mr Whippy - 3/12/15 at 01:06 PM

quote:
Originally posted by maskell01
i always used one of these!

SIP 09288 Fireball 512 Propane LPG Gas Space Heater Workshop Warehouse Farm

it was fierce!i rested it in top of the 19kg propane bottle!


I have one of these but gave up on it as apart from going through gas quite quickly you can't have the garage door shut cos of the fumes so all you heat just goes straight out the door! have to stand in the airstream to get any real heat so found it was more use for preheating panels prior to painting.

I found the infrared heaters that look like outside security lights much more pleasant and more like being outside on a sunny day but you need at least two in a garage to cover around a car, I find up high on opposing corners gets the best coverage



[Edited on 3/12/15 by Mr Whippy]

ken555 - 3/12/15 at 01:38 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy

I found the infrared heaters that look like outside security lights much more pleasant and more like being outside on a sunny day but you need at least two in a garage to cover around a car, I find up high on opposing corners gets the best coverage



Can you remember where you got them ?

The Brewers Fayre next door ?

v8kid - 3/12/15 at 02:29 PM

Any form of intermittent heating will neither give really comfortable or condensation free conditions.

Water vapour is strange stuff and is "dissolved" in air. Just as you may imagine two liquids mixing when they are poured into the same glass water vapour and air mix quickly.

Air heats up fast and when warmer has a bigger capacity to absorb water and "attracts" it from, principally, outside. This water vapour will permeate rapidly through small gaps and even seemingly solid surfaces like brick walls.

When the warm air comes in contact with a cold surface i.e. your beloved car/machinery/tools it cools down and cannot dissolve as much water vapour with consequent condensation. Nothing on earth can stop this happening if the air is wet and warmer than the surface - anyone who says otherwise is selling snake oil.

The solution is to have the surfaces at the same temperature as the air. i.e. constant heating.

Fortunately in the UK the air is not as wet as we might imagine and the effects are mainly limited to winter months with a few notable exceptions. ( As an aside air often becomes drier when it rains!)

Solution is simply constant background heating. Its easier to do with a diffuse source i.e. underfloor or tubular heaters or even lighting but the source really is only of concern (excluding water producing ones like bottled gas) when running costs are involved. Hence the importance of insulation.

With regard to comfort our physiology requires a mixture of radiant and ambient heat to feel comfortable and just as infra red heaters feel warm a cold surface "radiates" cold so with intermittent air heating you will need a much higher air temperature to overcome this radiation sink, conversely with constant heating a lower air temperature will give the same impression of comfort due to the lack of radiation sink to low temperature surfaces.

Bottom dollar? Insulate until there's no tomorrow and have a constant low level heat source such as a oil filled radiator or even just leave the lights on if you insulate enough!

Sorry for the rant

Cheers!