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Theoretically the heating oil is kept in a system that is rated to do so safely for indoor use.
The reality is probably more like the insurance thinks they can find someone liable and sue to recoup their losses with a heating system.
But yeah, I agree entirely. My father got 'busted' by his insurance co for storing bikes in the basement of his town house a few years back. Very lame.
Last edited by nhbubba; 10-29-14 at 07:50 PM.
🇯🇵 2001 Honda CBR 929RR R.I.P
🇯🇵 2009 Honda CRF 250X
🇯🇵 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX636R
🇦🇹 2016 KTM 1190 Adventure-S
It's an issue of volatility. Heating oil (diesel fuel) is almost impossible to light with a match, gasoline has a much lower flash point.
gasoline has a very high vapor pressure, diesel/heating oil does not. Diesel does not easily vaporize so the ignition is difficult. Gasoline on the other hand... And the electric heaters operate above ignition temperatures for gas, so be careful with those too.
If you have that much vapor in your garage, you are asking for trouble anyway. Don't touch the light switch, turn on a radio, etc. I would think painting would be a bigger threat than spilled gas.
I have a big buddy heater I used for my garage at my last house and was pretty happy with it. Worked good.
34 degrees, wanted to work on the bikes. Turned on the Hot Dawg and the garage was 67 degrees in a few minutes. AWESOME!
The Hot Dawg option is no good for me, don't want to scab another loop onto the FHW system, and don't want to have it trying to maintain a min temp to keep said loop from freezing.
I'm not 100% comfy with a 'vent free' combustion option as I have no windows in the garage for ventilation. If I need to let air in i'm opening the garage doors, not much fine adjustment there.
I've only got a 20A 110v service in there, so big electrics are out, and with no insulation on 3 out of 4 walls or the ceiling 1500w isn't going to cut it.
That led me to some nice direct vent propane setups, right up until I saw the costs. Why the hell are they twice as much or more than the 'vent free' junk?!
Lazy, and still annoyed after having to rip out the old fiberglass after it had turned into a litterbox for mice and squirrels before we could redo the roof... never again...
Mostly I can't swing fiberglass plus sheetrock or some other sheathing/covering at the moment, so I don't want to put just fiberglass up. (Stud spacing is also narrower than the normal 16" / 12" on center, don't ask..., so I'll be cutting batts to width which is NOT fun.) I'm also only active in that garage a few times a winter so the cost delta between heating it uninsulated and insulated isn't enough to matter.
I think I'm going to end up with one of the round kerosene units or a Mr Buddy propane setup. Still undecided.
I run an adjustable propane torpedo heater with good results. You don't need much heat to take the edge off in your garage. No problems with headaches or noxious gasses.
"...i would seriously bite somebody right in the balls..." -bump909
I'm loving the Hot Dawg. Had to work on the TW200, turned the thermostat up to 65, and in 10 minutes it was warm even by the doors.
I wonder if a propane monitor heater can be safely run off 20lb tanks...
the problem with direct vent heaters like a Monitor or Rinnai is that they provide slow even heat very efficiently, they do not bring a room up to temp quickly. They are not really practical in a garage unless you intend to keep it heated 24/7, even at a low temperature, if your not well insulated, you will blow thru $$$ in fuel
RandyO
IBA#9560
A man with a gun is a citizen
A man without a gun is a subject LETS GO BRANDON
I guess I'm a little confused on that front... A Mr Buddy big heater slaps out 18,000 btu an hour. The direct vents I've seen range from 15,000 but an hour to 30,000 btu an hour. If they're putting out the same amount of heat, where would the difference in time to comfortable temps come from?
RandyO
IBA#9560
A man with a gun is a citizen
A man without a gun is a subject LETS GO BRANDON
I am trying to visualize, studding is exposed now or not ? size? when the time comes, with the oddball studding, probably easier & better to use blown in until then, maybe a reflective barrier insulation it is surprising how much that alone can help retain heat while your working
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RandyO
IBA#9560
A man with a gun is a citizen
A man without a gun is a subject LETS GO BRANDON
Studs are exposed, was originally 16"-ish on center, but they got lazy and started doing odd framing work to use up scrap lumber. Had to redo the roof as the previous owners thought they could nail aspenite on top of a rubber roof to make a deck... Yeah, it's just as bad as you can picture. That's why I had to rip out all the animal infested, moldy insulation and sheetrock that was once in there. So all new flat roof from the rafters up, walls got additional uprights to account for snow load, original builder never considered that. So, it's, unique inside.As part of the design the roof has 2" or 3" of structural foam under the rubber. Outside walls are just sheathing and vinyl siding. Sitting on a slab, shares one wall with the house. It's got a 12' ceiling which doesn't help trying to heat it either.
Picked up a big buddy today. It clearly won't heat the space on it's own, but it does make for a workable area. I may hang some tarps to section off the space a bit next.
my house was originally built by a cellar dweller that worked as a handyman at a sawmill/lumberyard
you heard about the guy that build a car piece by piece sneaking parts home from his job at the auto factory
when I gutted my house for remodel, I found rough cut hemlock framing (thank god for pneumatic nail guns) sistered up scraps till they were as long as a stud sometimes 3 or 4 studs thick depending on the length of scraps (some as short as 12"), rolled asphalt roofing under the flooring (exposed roof when they were cellar dwelling) nearly 100 lbs of dog food that rodents had stored in one of the walls (I have never owned a dog in the 25+ years I had already been here )
turns out, I was able to identify the local millwork windows coming from a company that was a client of mine and that the original owner of my house in the 60's did infact work for them as a grunt and never bought a stitch of lumber
in the end, I woulda been better off running a dozer over it and starting from scratch, I spent half of what it woulda cost to build a whole house and I still got a POS
nice barn though, I built that myself
RandyO
IBA#9560
A man with a gun is a citizen
A man without a gun is a subject LETS GO BRANDON
Hah!
Near as we can tell, the person that originally built the house knew what he was doing. The problem is all the owners after... the last in particular appeared to be doing contract work for Home Depot, and should never be allowed near woodworking or wiring implements ever again. His add on garage is a testament to that. What should have been a simple roof redo ended up taking more time and labor than just ripping it off and starting from scratch.
it would more than likely run on 100's easy
get a 50-70k but $500 direct vent propane heater and run it on 100lbs tanks
a tank would more than likely last a few years with infrequent use.
while venting would be a little harder a used 140k btu oil fire furnace for $200-400 would work really well.
jim
"Molon labe"
Wow, colder it gets, the more obvious the impact of that big buddy... 22 degrees out and it was able to keep where I was working warmish. In the driveway, in this wind. I'm now VERY glad I bought it.
After reading the garage explosion thread on BoRN from a while back, I am wondering if 2 bikes + gas cans + propane heater + no ventilation = boom?
I have an unusual garage setup, its about 1.5 cars wide and 2.5 cars long. I want to heat the end farthest from the garage door. How can I confirm the air is safe before I flip the switch for the first time?
canary in a cage?
I heated the garage with a kerosene heater and oooh la la.. was it warm in 15 minutes very little issue as it was fresh kerosene and I had just replaced the wick
hmmmm......