What size kerosene heater?

[TowPro]

I have a 2 floor garage built into the side of a hill. 28X28 with 11' ceilings in the bottom garage. I heat the bottom garage which keeps the ceiling warm. The ceiling is the concrete floor of the top garage. This prevents water that might come off my wife's car in the top garage from freezing. I can't have her slide on the floor and drive out the other side of the garage, its 12' down!



I had a heater like your looking at in there when I first built the garage. I had water collecting on the ceiling (metal pan which is floor of top garage). I researched it and found that for every gallon of kerosene you burn you add something like 5 gallons of water to the air.



I then switched to 60K BTU propane forced air heater,with a duct that crosses the ceiling of the shop with several vents in it.

The thermostat would only go down to 45 at the lowest. I burned out a 100 lb tank of propane in 2 weeks.



I yanked that heater out and put a used 100K BTU oil burner in with a 165gallon tank. The first winter I think I burnt 100 gallons of oil leaving the thermostat at 45 all the time. Last winter I switched to a thermostat that I can set at 35. I burnt 45 gallons last winter!



When I need heat, just turn up the thermostat and its what ever temp I want within a couple minutes. Maybe the heater is over sized, but It was free. When I need heat it brings the temp up quick.



If doing it again, I think I would build the radiant heat into the floor and use Oil to heat it. Plus I would insolate the block. Don't know why I never thought of it while I was building it, now it would cost a fortune to insolate it.

 

[PToombs]

You could stud the walls with 2 x 4's and insulate it. Use sheetrock or cheap chipboard to cover and paint. Or! You could get some of that insulation board and glue it to the block. That would be cheaper than studs and work good too!

 

[bgilbert]

I have two forced air kerosene units and a 24x32 uninsulated garage. My first one, a 40k btu unit, couldn't keep up in the real cold. My second one is 115k btu and keeps up much better. A thermostat is a must, and most cheaper ones don't have that. Get a good one the first time around. 115k is the smallest I'd go. They aren't that loud, seriously guys.

Thanks to everyone that gave their input. This post was the one that sold me. I was gonna get the 40k unit, til I read this. I bought a 115k unit from Rural King. Reddy Heater with t-stat, fuel gauge, 9 gallon tank, oh and wheels. I don't like spending twice, so I dropped a few more pennies than what I originally planned, but I figured it would be worth it in the long run. Stole 5 gallons of #2 out of old grey since it has a nice electric fuel pump :-laf, and fired it up. Heated up pretty quick and is warm. Not too loud, but for a small garage, you gotta speak a little louder than normal, and turn the radio up a bit more. Better than getting fat in the house because it's too cold outside to do work . Now time to eat some jelly and rebuild that getrag thats been sitting out there since SOP3.

 

[Duluth Diesel]

Glad that helped you! I purchased twice and wanted to save you the same mistake. Oo.