<VV> New Garage - Heating

[JVHRoberts at aol.com]

You don't need a monster heat pump, but you do need one the right size. If  
you use a convential central heat pump unit, all you need to make sure of, is  
that it has LOTS of electric resistance heating to get that fast warm up. Once 
 warm, it'll run on the heat pump alone. 
Forget the radiant floor heating, unless you plan on keeping the garage  warm 
24/7.
 
 
In a message dated 10/23/2005 1:43:00 PM Eastern Standard Time,  
jb30343 at navix.net writes:

If you  want to keep the ceiling open, you might consider using insulated
stressed  skin panels for the roof.  Excellent insulation and depending
on your  design they might save you a few bucks in construction costs. 
Radiant heat  in the floor would be great.  The downside is that you will
either  need to turn the heat on hours before you want to work in your
garage or  heat it all the time.  If you really want the benefits of
radiant heat  you might consider a dual heat source system.  In floor
radiant heat  to keep the building above freezing and a second big
furnace for fast heat  when you want it.  Heat pumps are worth
considering.  They have  one of the same drawbacks as in floor radiant
systems.  Unless you  install a monster of a heat pump you will not get
the kind of instant heat  that lends itself to a spur of the moment
desire to go work on the  cars.  If you can apply a heat pump to your in
floor system it might  be a good combination.  One word of caution about
heat pumps.  I  have two Trane air source heat pumps in my house.  the
energy savings  I've gotten from them has been almost exactly offset by
higher maintenance  costs.

This is a great garage you're building!!   --J.B.