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Heating garage (was: Why we do it)

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On Fri, 30 Jan 2026 15:21:16 -0000 (UTC),
  Ted Heise <theise@panix.com> wrote:
>  On Wed, 28 Jan 2026 20:08:11 -0600,
>    sticks <wolverine01@charter.net> wrote:
> >  On 1/28/2026 9:59 AM, Ted Heise wrote:

> > > When the weather is too cold to ride outdoors, I put my bike 
> > > on rollers in the garage.  The last couple of weeks it's 
> > > even been too cold in the garage.
> > 
> >  I keep my 3 car pretty toasty.
> 
>  That sounds appealing, but it doesn't seem possible for my 
>  3-car.  It's a pretty new house and the garage is attached, but 
>  there's no HVAC to it.  I've tried running a space heater (even 
>  two!) and it doesn't move the needle much.  Maybe I need to 
>  just prop open the door from the house and position a box fan 
>  in it for air exchange? Maybe I just need a bigger space heater 
>  (though I only have 110 V outlets, so that seems to be a 
>  limiting factor).

Okay, I checked out various options at Lowe's yesterday.  It seems 
the best approach might be to get a gas heater (or heat pump) 
installed, but that's a big job and will take some planning.

Something that's somewhat portable would have the advantage of use 
to heat the house if the power goes out.  I assume such use would 
mean a catalytic heater or venting from inside the house as well.

For the near term, I ended up getting another smallish space 
heater--one with IR that runs on 110 V.  With it and my existing 
unit I was able to get the temp up to the low 40s yesterday.

Interestingly, opening the door to the house and running a box fan 
for air exchange made no difference on the garage temp.

The garage was back down to the 20s this morning after an 
overnight below 0 F and without any heaters running.  Hope I can 
get it up to the 40s again so I can get on the rollers.

Additional reading suggests that probably the best thing to do is 
improve insulation.  The double bay has living space above it, so 
nothing to do there.  The single bay has an attic with no 
insulation, so laying a layer of insulation above the ceiling 
seems like a good idea (and something I can do).

One wall adjoins living space, so again nothing to do there.  Two 
of the walls are exterior poured concrete like this...

https://www.westernforms.com/brickpatternconcreteforms

From a bit of reading online it seems the concrete loses a lot of 
heat, so I should look at getting them insulated.  Looks as if it 
would not be a small job.  Maybe glueing foam boards to the 
concrete would be the simplest approach.

I expect the cheapo overhead garage doors also lose a lot of heat 
and adding some insulation there would help as well.  I'm not sure 
if the doors seal up well enough to the door frames to make 
addition of foam panels effective on their own.  Maybe I'll call 
up the contractor who put in a bathroom for us to see what he 
thinks.

-- 
Ted Heise        <theise@panix.com>        Gretna, NE, USA

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Why we do it sticks <wolverine01@charter.net> - 2026-01-26 21:08 -0600
  Re: Why we do it Ted Heise <theise@panix.com> - 2026-01-28 15:59 +0000
    Re: Why we do it sticks <wolverine01@charter.net> - 2026-01-28 20:08 -0600
      Re: Why we do it Ted Heise <theise@panix.com> - 2026-01-30 15:21 +0000
        Heating garage (was: Why we do it) Ted Heise <theise@panix.com> - 2026-01-31 16:35 +0000
          Re: Heating garage sticks <wolverine01@charter.net> - 2026-01-31 12:54 -0600
            Re: Heating garage Ted Heise <theise@panix.com> - 2026-01-31 22:12 +0000
              Re: Heating garage bfh <redydog@rye.net> - 2026-02-01 03:37 -0500
                Re: Heating garage sticks <wolverine01@charter.net> - 2026-02-02 19:19 -0600
                Re: Heating garage Ted Heise <theise@panix.com> - 2026-02-03 17:14 +0000
              Re: Heating garage sticks <wolverine01@charter.net> - 2026-02-02 19:13 -0600
                Re: Heating garage Ted Heise <theise@panix.com> - 2026-02-03 17:26 +0000
                Re: Heating garage sticks <wolverine01@charter.net> - 2026-02-05 12:18 -0600
                Re: Heating garage Ted Heise <theise@panix.com> - 2026-02-07 22:48 +0000
                Re: Heating garage sticks <wolverine01@charter.net> - 2026-02-07 17:48 -0600
                Re: Heating garage Ted Heise <theise@panix.com> - 2026-02-08 15:32 +0000
                Re: Heating garage sticks <wolverine01@charter.net> - 2026-02-08 11:09 -0600
                Re: Heating garage Ted Heise <theise@panix.com> - 2026-02-09 15:23 +0000
                Re: Heating garage sticks <wolverine01@charter.net> - 2026-02-12 10:06 -0600
                BS-ing (was: Heating garage) Ted Heise <theise@panix.com> - 2026-02-13 16:26 +0000
                Re: BS-ing sticks <wolverine01@charter.net> - 2026-02-19 11:05 -0600
                Re: BS-ing Ted Heise <theise@panix.com> - 2026-02-20 17:57 +0000
                Re: Heating garage bfh <redydog@rye.net> - 2026-02-04 00:47 -0500
        Re: Why we do it sticks <wolverine01@charter.net> - 2026-01-31 11:56 -0600
          Re: Why we do it Ted Heise <theise@panix.com> - 2026-01-31 21:52 +0000

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