If you’re like most persons, the idea of heating your garage isn’t even on your radar since you’re worried it’ll be too costly or take up all the room.
There is a cost-effective, energy-efficient alternative that will keep your garage flooring dry and comfortable in the winter: Radiant heating on the floor. It’s not just for your living room or bedroom.
Installing heated garage floor
Here are some basic steps for installing a heated garage floor.
Construction
Follow these simple estimations to figure out how much heat you’ll need:
- Determine the surface area of heated garage space.
- Multiply the number by a factor of ten. (For example, 500 multiplied by.09 equals 450).
- Multiply the median size of the system required (wattage) by 12 (450 x 12= 5,400 watts).
Install and coordinate with flooring
Warm-up advises utilizing the DCM-PRO wire or DWM mat with Ultra – lightweight insulation board to bring radiant warming to an existing garage.
DCM-PRO: A decoupling device attaches to the current garage slab using a peel-and-stick carpet (or fleece-backed). The mat permits flexion and extension in the subfloor under it without damaging the completed concrete layer above it. After testing, the cable is threaded through the carpet, and 2″ of cementitious materials is poured over the top to complete the installation.
DWM with UV light Insulation Board
This framework consisted of a net-type mat with a previously attached heat cable. The insulating board is put on top of the original garage floor to limit energy loss to the bottom to a minimum. Because the insulating board is just 14 inches thick, it does not contribute much to the floor level. The back of the mat is adhesive to attach to the insulating panel.
Pour up to 2″ of concrete to finalize the floor once everything is linked and tested. Warmup recommends an in-the slab system for a new building (WODH). During the first laying of the garage floor, the heating cable is tied to the wire mesh without a mat. The system is intended to operate below 2-6 inches of concrete. The wire can be separated up to 2″ apart depending on the power needs.
Read More: How The Foundation For Garage Will Construct? Interesting Facts About This
Extend the radiant heating system to include the driveway
If you live in a location where there is a lot of heavy snow, you might think about putting radiant heating to your driveway. For this sort of application, the systems described above would be ideal.
Make that the space is well-sealed and insulated
The space to be heated must be adequately insulated and sealed for any thermal system to perform at optimal efficiency. This is not a concern in contemporary homes because most building rules demand insulated windows, doors, walls, and ceilings. If your home is even more than 20 years old, check if these sections have been walled and sealed.
Any visible spots of air leakage may be sealed with a caulk gun around the outside of the garage, but you may need to dig a bit deeper to evaluate the insulating in your floors and walls.
Select a Heating-Friendly Flooring Material
Concrete is the most common garage floor material, and the thermal radiation methods discussed work well with it. If you’re going to paint over the concrete, be sure the paint is suitable for use on a heated floor.
Seek professional advice before installing
Warmup electrical radiant heat systems are easy in design, but only certified electricians or heating specialists should install them. These experts can also ensure that you have the appropriate system for your project.
Comparison of electric radiant heating
Most systems aren’t as efficient as new electric radiant heating in providing balanced, medium heat to your whole garage. The space is uniformly warmed since the entire block is heated, and the heat spreads throughout the garage.
Instead of warming the entire space at once, some methods produce a circular air flow which it starts at the heat source and travels around the room. If having a warm floor is one of your aims, none of the other alternatives will do it satisfactorily because they warm the air first.
Forced air
HVAC systems, also known as central heating, are commonly referred to as this term. Convection systems require up a lot of space inside and outside your home, are noisy, and require more maintenance to function correctly. As they heat the garage, they stoke up dust and allergies, and in most situations, they’ll have to supply heat through ducting to ceiling vents. The heat that begins at the roof has difficulty efficiently warming the air below it.
IR heater
Infrared heaters work similarly to radiant floor heating, but they’re considerably smaller and can’t supply consistent heat over a huge room like a garage. Vehicles or equipment immediately in their route would warm up first, as they warm objects and people initially, rather than air.
Space heater
Gas or electricity can be used to power space heaters. Electric heaters are often portable and give warmth solely where the heater is installed. To adequately heat a garage, you’d need further than one or a big unit that had to be suspended from the ceiling. The majority of gas heaters are suspended from the top. To warm the airflow in the lower half of the room, systems that provide heat to the shelters first must operate longer and be less effective. This is referred to as stratification.
Convection heaters
The operation of a convection heater is dependent on natural airflow. The heat source causes the air over it to rise, allowing cold air to enter behind it to be warmed. Cold spots and layering are concerns with convection heaters, just as with the other methods discussed above, because they rely entirely on regular air movement to transfer heat.
Advantages of heated garage floor
Electric wires laid beneath the surface of your garage concrete produce radiant floor heat. Through a mix of IR radiation and convection, the energy from the cables heats the whole floor and then transmits that warmth upward, warming people and items. Radiant floor heating distributes heat evenly around the garage without leaving cold areas as other systems do.
1. Efficiency of energy
Because the heat source directly touches the surface and spreads uniformly across the garage, radiant floor heating is also more energy-efficient. When the garage achieves the correct temperature, the concrete slab retains the heat for a more extended period before gently dissipating it. This enables the system to switch on and off less often than traditional heating techniques, resulting in cost savings.
2. No need for maintenance
Electric radiating floor heat is low-maintenance once installed. There are no purifiers to replace, and no mechanical components to fail.
3. Snow Removal
If you live in a snow-covered location, you’re probably used to discovering bodies of water in the garage when the ice melts from your car. Snow rapidly melts and evaporates when the garage floor is heated rather than the garage air, leaving you with a secure, dry bed.
