Garage heat... thermostat settings?

Dr.Jass

Dr.Jass

Pastor of Muppets
Since I'm spending a lot of time in the garage at the moment, I've been considering my thermostat settings. I have an automatic thermostat with a day/time schedule for automatically changing the temperature. All of the temps are currently set at 45°F, so if I leave it'll eventually turn itself down. When I'm out there, I set it to 63° which is a very comfortable working temperature.

Here's my question: Would the default setting be any less efficient if I moved it to, say, 52°? To my thinking, a lot of heat gets wasted every time I bump the 'stat up to my working temperature. First, I have to raise the temperature nearly 20°, but there's also the consideration of everything in the garage: 11 engines, several transmissions, wheels, tools, boxes, parts on shelves, etc. All those items absorb heat until they reach ambient temperature, along with slow-to-heat items like the walls, bench--anything non-metal. I've noticed that while I'm out there, the furnace runs more frequently early in my shift, tapering down to running maybe once every 30-40 minutes after the higher temperature is well-established, both in the air and all the stuff in the garage.

A few years ago, a friend decided to run his home thermostat at an insanely-low 58°F in an attempt to save money. According to his observations his monthly gas bill was scarcely affected: between $5-$8 per month. He also said he was miserable and it totally was not worth it. He left it at the low setting 24/7; he did not raise it at any time in the name of comfort. His minimal savings were found at a constant, uncomfortably-low 'stat setting.

I was told several years ago by an honest HVAC professional that in his experience, digital thermostats that drop temperature while you're at work or sleeping (depending on how you set it) save you exactly zero dollars. He told me, "Unless you're going on vacation for several days, turning down the thermostat is useless." Well, ordinarily I'm not in the garage every day but I have been of late.

I'm starting to think that leaving it at one setting much closer to, if not at, 63° would be more economical in the long run. If I know I won't be out there for a week, I can set it lower. Has anyone ever made observations regarding this? Does my thought process hold water?

Would love to hear any input or observations on the subject.
 
My previous home, which had hot water heating, might make a good comparison. I fell into the digi-stat thinking, hoping to save some coins. As you stated, the discomfort until temp was met vs small savings wasn't worth it. After 2-3 months to compare, I set it to a constant temp. My present place is at a constant temp. But then, I don't go to work any more. A furnace isn't much different from an engine. Most consumption is in accelerating, not maintaining.
 
ill chime in too as this house is also a gas fed boiler water baseboard heat, we turn it off in the summer entirely and kick it on before the temps fall into the 40s and then set it to 60-65 untill winters over, i too played with the on off BS and promptly found that it was actualy costing us MORE doing the on off than just leaving it on

as far as the shop goes..and a garage too, if im going to be out there every day i set it and forget it as it easily takes an hour or 2 for everything in the shop to "heat soak" and that includes the floor...to which no one ever considers but its a huge slab of a heatsink and it soaks that heat up for around 2-3 hours on a 20x20 slab

the more steel you have in the space the longer it will take to heat PERIOD....my lloyd the shops heated and and "stable" in about 30-60 mins..stick something big like a vic or truck out there..expect to wait at the very least 2 hours to be comfortable..and thats cheating and setting the stat to 75/80 for an hour before going out there

so you have 2 options as ive found, set it for close to comfort and forget it..or crank that bastard to neerly 80 for an hour before you go out there to let everything heat soak up ....with the big ass unit ive got up high blasting everything i tend to just high heat for a short period before working, but if im out there daily ill set it 60ish and forget it
 
Around 1500 sq ft home with forced hot air, digital stat was great when we all were at work or school. House got comfy in minutes. I don’t think with water heat it would have been worth it.
Garage is 24x36 with 2x6 insulated walls and a ton of insulation in the ceiling. When cars were going in and out on a regular basis it stayed comfy enough to work out there. Now I keep up one of those forced air little heaters out there running to keep it warm enough for my daughter to do her stained glass hobby work.
 
something i failed to mention that seems to make a big deal about the cost of maintaining heat vs bringing it up to work temp is, how cold is it when your kicking it on, if its sub45, your better off keeping it on, if your over 50ish to begin with then bringing temps up isnt as bad

another bit of noteworthyness would be the seals on the garage door itself as well as insulation in the door
 
My body shop was 7000 sq ft, with overhead radiant heat.
The first year after the overheads were installed, I used the programmable, multi-zone 'stat with the after 8PM temp at 55F and the 6AM temp at 68F. I averaged $500 month on natural gas.
The second year, on advice from a friend, I kept it a constant 68F. I averaged $500 month.
The effort required to constantly re-heat the vast amounts of steel (cars, equipment, tools, etc), and bring the floor temp back up everday negated any savings by running cooler at night. It was also much nicer to walk into an already-warm shop through the winter months. I was in the shop just about every day, though... I did spend a LOT of time sealing up drafts and re-insulating the bare spots when I first moved in. I used remote-operated overhead doors, too, so the lazy fucks who worked for me no longer opened the 12 x 12 doors before going out to bring in a car. THAT saved me heating money, I'm sure.
Our home: 65F at night, 70F through the day. We use a programmable stat, but truthfully, it's sometimes a PIA if we're up later at night and the temp drops to 65. Forced air gas, with a 95% furnace. Average gas consumption is $70 month through the winter. Gas-fired tankless water heater, too.
 
69.5CUDA said:
something i failed to mention that seems to make a big deal about the cost of maintaining heat vs bringing it up to work temp is, how cold is it when your kicking it on, if its sub45, your better off keeping it on, if your over 50ish to begin with then bringing temps up isnt as bad

another bit of noteworthyness would be the seals on the garage door itself as well as insulation in the door
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As mentioned in the original post, I'd been keeping it at 45° when I'm not out there. That's why I was considering keeping it higher--the furnace seems to run a lot until everything's up to the temp at which the 'stat is set. The garage door is insulated and seals relatively well, which is surprising considering the hit it took from the Imperial about 12 years back.

Discussing this subject with Stretch today, he said he learned his lesson last year when he'd set his garage stat quite low during non-use. He now keeps his thermostat around 56°, turning it up as necessary. He noticed that his gas bill is lower with the higher 'stat setting, which bears out my thinking in the original post. I'm just trying to conserve fuel in the long term... it ain't getting any cheaper.
 
imo alot of it comes down to 2 things..how often your out there, what temp your most productive at

set it no lower than 10degs down from productivity...NOT comfort....most of us can comfortably work at colder temps our productivity is higher at a certain temp

if stretch has his at 56 id likely set mine the same since your in the same location
 
My good friend Jim used to keep his 24 x 36 home shop at a constant 70F... It was well insulated. He said it didn't really affect his gas bill, and if it did, he didn't care. Jim hated winter. ;)

The local Volvo dealer's old shop had in-floor heat. Oh My God, was it nice to visit there in the middle of winter!
Whitlock Motorsports had in-floor as well, but he never kept it as warm as the Volvo dealer did. It was still nice at their year-end party, though.
 
If I ever do any custom construction--home or shop--I will definitely do in-floor heat. One of my old bosses had it in his shop, and it was amazing. I stopped over there to see his Ford retractable hardtop in the middle of February, and he was out there in shorts and flip-flops.
 
oh god yes floor heat..dito if i ever get that chance

fun side note on the house..due to the gas fed boiler baseboards..the pipes under the house are NOT insulated, so keeping the house warm is a double edged sword..heat must be maintained in freezing temps to keep the pipes warm, but that also means..the floor of the whole house is ALWAYS warm in the winter....bloody love it
 
I wanted to do in floor heating on my shop....but when told I couldn't do it myself and had to have an engineered system installed by professionals...at a projected cost of $30K I had to pass. :( But having the wood burning stove is nice.

On my days off I have the fireplace running, large ceiling fan to move the air and warm everything up nicely, I don't have time to maintain the fire when I'm working so everything slowly cools down, unless it's arctic weather then I'll have the wife try and keep the fire burning. Been burning now almost 3 years and have yet to pay a dime for fire wood...still burning the old dead fall on my property, and every year another 2-3 tries come down in storms or die.

Nice thing to with wood burning stove is if I'm doing something in the shop that generates smoke or fumes I can just open the two big doors...16Wx12H on the front, 11Wx12H on the back and just let it air out....close the doors and toss a couple logs on the fire to get my heat back up.

As for the house with a 95% high efficiency furnace we run 65*F when we are awake, then I drop it down to 60*F when we sleep.
 
Funny furnace story that happened to us many years ago, we went on a small vacation in the winter and thought "Hey why heat the house while were gone, we'll save a bunch of money by shutting the furnace off!"

Well when we came back after a week or so the house was pretty much frozen solid,, toilets were mostly frozen, thankfully the water pipes hadn't froze or cracked, but fired up the furnace and it then ran almost constantly for the next 3-4 days before it warmed everything back up....that cost us way more then it would have just setting it at 60*F.
 
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The thermostat's been set at 63° since last week. Whilst working out there during the week, I noticed the furnace turning on very little; last night I actually kept track. I was out there for almost 4½ hours and the furnace ran four times, with a burn cycle of less than five minutes for each round. The blower ran longer, but that's of no concern since it doesn't consume fuel. Since my "work" out there currently consists of a lot of non-physical activity--staring at things thinking how or where they're best utilized--63° is probably a bit higher than necessary. I'll figure that out when I'm back on regular projects, but for now I'm leaving it where it's set. It definitely seems more efficient long-term.

Thanks for the input!

thrashingcows said:
I wanted to do in floor heating on my shop....but when told I couldn't do it myself and had to have an engineered system installed by professionals...at a projected cost of $30K I had to pass. :( But having the wood burning stove is nice.

On my days off I have the fireplace running, large ceiling fan to move the air and warm everything up nicely, I don't have time to maintain the fire when I'm working so everything slowly cools down, unless it's arctic weather then I'll have the wife try and keep the fire burning. Been burning now almost 3 years and have yet to pay a dime for fire wood...still burning the old dead fall on my property, and every year another 2-3 tries come down in storms or die.
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One of my bosses did in-floor heat himself. He laid the PEX tubing on the concrete mesh and left the tails up to connect it to a standard water heater (which I don't believe is yet installed). He didn't have to pay a contractor as long as it was done correctly (he did get some input from the concrete guy, whom he knows well). The inspector didn't need to see a receipt, just that it was done correctly. It passed.

I could certainly see the value of wood heat as an auxiliary, but after watching many deal with it for many years (and having dealt with it myself while installing the 440 in my '72 SE), it seems like a lot of work for "free" heat. Time spent finding trees, then felling, cutting, and splitting them is time I'd rather spend in the garage working (or doing just about anything else). More time (and fuel money) is spent hauling and stacking, the latter taking up valuable space (and in my case, earning yet another blight ticket as an eyesore). After all that, yet more time is spent waiting while the garage reaches a comfortable ambient temp, and longer yet for its contents to warm up as well. Here, there's a significant additional detriment--home insurance goes positively ballistic at the prospect of insuring a wood-heated garage. Virtually all my local friends have abandoned wood entirely at this point.
 
out here in the west its simply overlooked as "normal", and the forestry service allows the picking of logging "cleanup piles" a few weeks a year, so it becomes free if you can haul it

im not for it or against it but having delt with it altitude when snows on the ground...F that noise you spend too many hours waiting
 
It's "normal" here as well, with the weather being as cold as it is 6-6 months of the year. A lot of peope use it for supplemental heat; very few use it as primary. "Free" still includes fuel money to go get it, plus time spent doing so and and cutting/splitting it to fit in the wood stove. Gotta clean the ash out every so often, too.

It's just not worth the effort in the opinion of many, myself included--especially with the significant insurance penalty if it's primary heat, moreso if it's in a garage.
 
yeah out here the insurance isnt even dinged, having gathered split n stacked many many a decade in my past, imo its only good if youve got a big unit running 24/7 or you have someone to cozy up with in front of one....im actualy happy this house hasnt had one since likely the 70s.....best guess based on the remodel excavations weve done


i personaly prefer boiler fed water over everything ive ever lived with, central included, something about the boiler fed stuff is just more comfortable and "natural" feeling..be it floor or baseboard

for the shop i love my massive 150,000 btu reznor style unit...its old its huge and its bulletproof....and heats the shop up FAST..its stupid overkill for my 20x20, hell its overkill for a 40x40 LOL
 
Your right about insurance, but we live outside of town in rural area and there are no hydrants or fire halls near by so we get rapped on inurance anyway....and the wood heat in the shop only added maybe another 6-700 bucks to our already ridiculously over priced insurance costs.

As for cutting, splitting and stacking...I have to say I quite enjoy it! And with 5 acres we have lots of room for it...I built a 10x10 wood shed with scavenged materials this year, only costs me an additional $125 for a few brackets and one piece of roofing tin.

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got any old oil....soak some small logs in it, makes for GREAT starter when the stoves ice cold..i always kept a 5gal bucket of oil/diesel mix filled with small logs and would pull one out over a chunk of cardboard as my starter
 
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