The best way to heat a garage cheaply is to combine insulation and cost-effective heating methods.
Keeping your garage warm will keep you comfortable while you work and help keep your vehicle healthy as freezing temperatures can damage batteries and engines.
You can choose from many methods, such as space heaters, radiant heaters, wood stoves, and passive solar heating. Learn all about them in this article!
Sealing And Insulating Your Garage
One of the most important steps when heating your garage on a budget is to ensure it is correctly sealed and insulated.
If your garage is correctly insulated and sealed, it will keep the heat trapped inside for much longer, so you won’t have to keep your heating method running for as long.
How To Identifying Areas That Need Sealing And Insulating
The most common way heat can escape any room is through gaps around windows and doors. Many garages have metal doors, and metal is not a good insulator. If your garage has a metal door, you should consider insulating this.
If there are any cracks in the wall, these can allow heat to escape. Cracks can also allow moisture into your garage and mold to grow. Uncracked walls can also be a great source of heat loss.
Materials To Use
You need to match your insulating materials to the area you are insulating. When it comes to insulating windows and doors, it’s best to purchase tape or rubber that is specifically for this purpose.
To insulate walls, you should use foam insulation boards. You may need to construct some timber frames to hold the insulation if your garage already doesn’t have the framing.
If making frames is beyond your skill level, try foil-backed insulation boards that can be taped to your garage walls with aluminum foil tape. You can insulate your floor with some insulated underlay.
Space Heaters
These are used to heat small to medium-sized rooms and are portable. There are many different types.
Ceramic Heaters
These heaters have metal coils inside that heat up and blow hot air into your room. There is a ceramic roll inside as well and this is where the name comes from.
| Pros | Cons |
| Lightweight and portable | It can dry out the air |
| Quickly heat up | Only work in small spaces |
| Last for a long time |
Safety Considerations
- One of the safest types of heaters you can purchase
Oil-Filed Radiator Heaters
These look like radiators but are still space heaters. They have oil inside, and when plugged into a power source, the oil becomes heated to generate warmth. You don’t need to replace the oil as it doesn’t burn off.
| Pros | Cons |
| Stay hot for a long time | Take time to warm up |
| Very quiet | Very hot to the touch |
Safety Considerations
- As they’re hot to the touch, it’s easy to burn yourself
- Potential fire hazard
Infrared Heaters
These use infrared rays to heat your room.
| Pros | Cons |
| Very quiet | As soon as they’re switched off the temperature will drop |
| Very quick to heat your room |
Safety Considerations
- Prolonged use can damage skin cells
Radiant Heaters
Radiant heaters can be placed on your floors or as panels in your walls or roof. They’re similar to infrared space heaters as they use infrared rays to deliver the heat directly to objects or people in the room.
| Pros | Cons |
| Energy efficient | Expensive to install |
| It can be invisibly installed | It will not affect your air quality |
| It will not effect your air quality |
Safety Considerations
- Prolonged use can damage skin cells
Wood And Pellet Stoves
If you don’t have a handy power supply in your garage or don’t want to add to your electricity bill, a wood stove is a good option. These work by burning wood or pellets in a metal stove.
However, they can produce a lot of smoke, so you need to ensure that your stove has a flue installed to allow the smoke to escape.
| Pros | Cons |
| Cheap to run | Professional installation required to build the flue |
| Great source of heat | Requires more maintenance and cleaning |
Safety Considerations
- Proper ventilation is required as the smoke can damage your lungs
- Ensure that any fires are fully extinguished, and never leave the fire unattended
Passive Solar Heating
You may already know about active solar heating systems and how complicated these can be, but passive solar heaters are much more straightforward.
Passive solar heating is designed to capture the heat of the sun and then release that heat when the sun is absent.
Several different systems can be used, but generally, passive solar heating utilizes south-facing windows to capture sunlight.
The energy from the sunlight is then stored in materials such as brick walls or concrete slabs before being filtered back into the living space through radiation or natural convection.
| Pros | Cons |
| Environmentally friendly | Initial installation and adaptations can be expensive |
| Cheaper than more active solar heating | It might not work for every garage, depends on location |
| Cheap to run |
Safety Considerations
- Can increase exposure to air pollutants and toxic substances
Other Tips For Cheaply Heating A Garage
Let’s now look at some other tips for heating a garage.
Natural Sunlight
Take advantage of the heat provided by the sun. Even in winter, you can notice a difference between the hours the sun is shining and the hours it isn’t, so organize your time in your garage around this.
Ensure there are no coverings over your windows during the hours of sunlight. Open any curtains or blinds, and don’t store items in front of your windows.
We would also recommend only working in your garage during these sunshine hours if you can
Ceiling Fans
Heat rises, which means the small amount of heat in your garage during colder days will sit on the roof instead of wherever you are standing.
Ceiling fans can make this warmer air circulate and spread throughout the garage. If you have ceiling fans in your garage to help cool you down during summer, you should also switch them on during colder times.
Combination Of Methods
One of the best ways to heat your garage on a budget is to use a combination of methods. For as long as you can, use natural sunlight.
When natural sunlight isn’t enough, you can try another method. We recommend starting with space heaters, as these can cheaply and reliably heat a small area of your garage.
If you’re the only one working in the garage, you can position the space heater to cover wherever you are.
Conclusion
When aiming to heat your garage cheaply, your first thought should be to seal and insulate your garage. This will keep the heat in the garage and prevent it from leaking out and costing more money.
There are several ways you can heat your garage; the best way for you depends on your garage and budget. Wood burners are effective but require proper ventilation.
Space heaters can be used in any garage and are cheap to buy, but they may cost more over long-term use due to the electricity costs.
We recommend that you consider your initial outlay and future costs before you make any choice.
By working hands-on with different brands, you quickly become an expert on the best fireplaces and those you should avoid.
My family also owns the largest online retailer of fire pits and outdoor fireplaces in the UK. Although not part of the family business, I regularly help when needed.
I hope you can benefit from my experience and impartiality, which I have gained from installing fireplaces and seeing the family's fire pit business grow.
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