How do electric garage heaters work ?
How do electric garage heaters work ?
Electric garage heaters can be two types of heating elements
infrared / radiant or convection
Infrared heaters will heat the body
but not the room,
so you will only feel heat if you are right under the heaters element. a
convection heater will heater the entire room. So when you are thinking of
buying electric garage heaters you have to decide “ do I want or need heat the
whole garage so my pipes don’t freeze “ or “ do I just want to do spot heating
garage next to my work bench area while I’m in my garage for two hours on a
Sunday afternoon and not worry about heating the whole”
If you need to heat you whole garage with convection heating you
will have to do what is called a heat load, which is a calculation of how much
heat you need based on the length, width & height of the room, the insulation
you have, the temperature outside, the temperature you want to keep it in the
inside and how many over head doors and windows do you have. A contractor,
architect, engineer or download the software “Manual J” we have a rule of thumb
garage heater sizing chart base on how many garage doors you have
Convection Fan Forced Heaters
Four types of Garage Fan forced heaters
- Unit Heater
- A unit heater is the most common because, it’s commercial grade
and will heat the room the fastest because of the larger fan and
motor, it’s the loudest of the four just because its moving the most
air. Its recommended for larger garages Its mounted on a bracket
which will go on wall or ceiling
- A unit heater is the most common because, it’s commercial grade
- Wall Heater
- A fan forced wall heater is for small to medium garages. It will
mount to a wall stud
- A fan forced wall heater is for small to medium garages. It will
- Ceiling Heater
- A Ceiling heater can work great, when there is no wall space.
The down side is they will not work
in a lot of application where there is not finished ceiling.
With exposed beans or ceiling joist the air tends to just go
straight up
- A Ceiling heater can work great, when there is no wall space.
- Plug In portable heater
- Plug in garage heaters, we sell the 240 volt version so you will
need a 240 volt receptacle a standard 120 house hold outlet will not
work. These heaters come with 6′ cord and you typicall place them on
a work bench 3′ away from anything else or on the floor again 3 ft
from anything else
- Plug in garage heaters, we sell the 240 volt version so you will
Voltage
Electric Garage Heaters come in either 120 or 240 voltage, its important to
have to correct voltage if you have question on voltage please call us or
consult your electrician
- 120 volt heaters come in wattages ranges of 500 to 1500 watts a 120v
heater can heat at best a 10 x 12 x 10 ft ceiling with insulation any thing
bigger will have to go with a 240 volt
model
- 240 volt heaters range for 1,000 to 50,000 watts
- If you wire a 240 volt heater to a 120 volt circuit, you will only
receive about ¼ or 25% of the wattage the heater was designed to deliver - If you wire a 120 volt heater to a 240 volt circuit the heater will
overheat and self-destruct! The heater will try to deliver four times its
rated wattage, causing the element & the motor permanent damage.
- You may also have heard of (110 volts, 115 volts, and 125 volts) – they
are the same as 120 volts. Also,
(220 volts, 230 volts, and 250 volts) are the same as 240 volts.
Thermostat
Electric wall heaters can be controlled
with a built-in or wall mounted thermostat. Certain models have the
option of one or the other, while some just have option for just built in or
just wall mounted only
The built-in thermostat, the knob is mounted on the outside of the heater. It
works just like a wall mounted heater by turning it clockwise you turn the power
on and you set the desired room temperature. Turn it counterclockwise you will
lower the desired temperature wanted and if you turn it all the way to the left
it will turn the unit off.
Wall thermostats works the same way, as the built in but a wall thermostat
can be more energy efficient with the use of a digital programmable thermostat
with can give you a better temperature reading
- Electric wall heater can be surface mounted or recessed mounted.
Recessed mounting simply means you cut a hole in the sheet rock wall and
mount the heater to a stud the only thing visible is the grille - Surface mounting is a the other option were the heater is mounted to on
a brick or block wall, your heater will mount on the wall instead of inside
the wall.