How to Size Electric Garage Heaters
Electric heaters are the most efficient type of heater and are a popular choice for heating rooms and garages. Electric heaters do their work by convection. This process causes the air near the heater itself to warm up and rise, while new, colder air replaces it, and is then heated. When an electric heater is too small for an area, it can't get all the air to circulate this way, and will fail to heat the entire area. When an electric heater is too large, it uses an unnecessary amount of energy. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Sizing an Electric Heater
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Determine the level of insulation in your garage. If your garage has barely any insulation, you will want a slightly larger heater than the one you would get just by measuring the size of your garage. If your garage has more than one window, you will also want a larger heater. If your garage is well insulated, however, you will mainly be concerned with the number of square feet.
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Measure the length of your garage, and then the width. Multiply the length by the width to get the garage's square footage.
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Determine the proper heater wattage that will heat the garage. For a well insulated garage, 10 watts per square foot is recommended, but for little or no insulation, you will need 15 to 20 watts per square foot.
For example, if your garage is 700 square feet and well insulated, you would need a 7,000-watt heater; if the same garage has little or no insulation, you will need a 14,000-watt heater or two 7,000-watt heaters.
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Tips & Warnings
The square footage measurement above assumes a ceiling height of 8 feet or lower. You will have to increase heater wattage if your ceiling is higher than 8 feet. Increase the wattage by 25 percent for every 2 feet above 8 feet that your ceiling measures.
