...

Heating and ventilation of the garage

This WordPress post discusses the importance of properly heating and ventilating your garage. Heating your garage can prevent humidity and condensation from forming and damaging stored items, protect your car's battery and other parts from freezing, and minimize fluctuations in temperatures. Proper ventilation prevents toxic fumes from accumulating and provides fresh air for you and your car. Investing in thermal insulation and ventilation fans can help keep your garage cool in the summer and warm in the winter, minimize airborne particulate matter, and encourage airflow.

Recommendation points



In this Article: How to Create Effective Garage Ventilation natural and forced ventilation of the garage; central heating of the garage; garage heating – air and infrared.

Heating and ventilation of the garage

In winter cold, a roof “over your head” is required not only for people, but also for personal transport – a car. Moreover, there are much more nuances in the garage issue than it seems at first glance. First of all, heating the garage is directly related to effective ventilation – in a closed, more or less heated room, the corrosion of the car body, rolling along snow-covered roads, will accelerate many times due to moisture accumulated on the bottom and fenders. Many car enthusiasts prefer to keep the temperature in the garage in freezing temperatures, preventing moisture from melting. However, the owner of the “iron horse” will be very uncomfortable in such a garage. There is a solution – building effective ventilation and heating, and you can do it all yourself.

Why do you need garage ventilation

The garage is a room isolated from the external atmosphere, with its own microclimate. And in this microclimate, condensate is actively accumulating, especially with the onset of the cold season. The position of the car in the garage without effective ventilation is further complicated by the inspection pit – a source of heat from the bowels of the earth. It would seem that this is bad, because the flow of heat will only improve the storage conditions of the car? The fact is that the flow of warm air from the inspection pit contains a greater amount of moisture, which becomes either condensation drops on the car, internal surfaces and objects in the garage, or, at subzero temperatures in the garage, a bloom of frost on the same surfaces.

Garage ventilation

In addition to eliminating excess moisture, garage ventilation is designed to remove toxic impurities, such as exhaust gases, fuel fumes and all kinds of solvents. A well-built garage ventilation system will provide a complete change in the internal volume of air in this room twice in one hour.

DIY garage ventilation

It is necessary to arrange so that there is an inflow of fresh air from the outside and its exhaust from the garage. From the point of view of heating, this process looks illogical, because at the same time, a significant part of the warm air heated by a heater or stove will constantly leave the garage. But, on the other hand, in the process of supply and exhaust ventilation, cold and less humid air entering from the outside will heat up, absorb moisture from the room and bring it outside the garage..

There are two effective options for supply and exhaust ventilation – natural and forced.

In the first version, a small but sufficient air draft is formed due to the higher (for natural reasons) temperature inside the garage, in the second – due, for example, an exhaust fan.

Natural ventilation

The simplest way to arrange ventilation in a brick garage is to form ventilation ducts with a section of 260×130 mm (in one brick) in the brickwork. You can use hollow blocks or bricks, laying them in the masonry of the side walls of the garage building. Such ventilation openings are made at the top and bottom in each corner on the sides of the garage; metal nets or grilles that block the ventilation openings will help prevent birds and rodents from entering the garage. At the same time, some kind of ventilation is achieved, but how effective it is is difficult to judge.

Openings for natural ventilation in the garage

The classical design of supply and exhaust ventilation consists in installing two pipes – the first in one corner, the second in the opposite. Natural air exchange is possible only with the air flow from bottom to top, therefore the first pipe should be placed in a horizontal position, 150–300 mm from the floor level, the inlet of the chimney should be practically at the ceiling level. The diameter of the ventilation pipes is determined based on the total internal area of ​​the garage: one m2 area – 15 mm of pipe diameter. The material for creating ventilation pipes can be anything – board, plastic, brick, roofing iron, ready-made air ducts made of aluminum foil are popular. A conical, cylindrical, pyramidal cap is attached to its end to prevent rain streams from entering a rain flow pipe raised 500 mm above the garage roof. To quickly close the exhaust duct when a reverse thrust appears (overturning of the thrust), it must be equipped with a damper that can completely block the pipe section.

Natural ventilation in the garage

Disadvantages of natural ventilation:

  1. It works only when there is a temperature difference between the external and internal atmosphere, i.e. the outside air temperature should be lower. Accordingly, in the warm season, natural ventilation practically does not work..
  2. The air speed outside the garage is of great importance in its organization – the supply pipe, placed near the floor, should be installed on the windward side of the garage structure. However, it is quite difficult to determine the prevailing wind direction, and even more so to plan the positioning of the garage in its direction..
  3. There is a need to create a significant pressure drop between the supply and output air ducts; for this, the vertical distance between them should be 3 m or more. But the organization of such a significant difference in levels is hampered by the size of the garage..
  4. Significant low temperatures during the cold season cause freezing of air ducts, filling them with frost. The strong flow of cold air through the intake pipe can seriously lower the internal temperature of the garage. When planning natural ventilation for the entire period of the cold season, especially cold days should be taken into account – equip the supply pipe with a shut-off valve, insulate the exhaust pipes and regularly clean them of snow.

Installation of ventilation for the garage

Forced ventilation

Forced ventilation of the garage is built in the same way as natural with the only difference that the organization of air circulation is entrusted not only to the wind. In addition to the exhaust fan, other devices can be used. For example, put a rotating deflector on the end of the exhaust pipe, thereby entrusting it with the functions of a fan. There are two ways to increase the temperature inside the chimney for better ventilation: by installing a low-power light bulb with a narrow base (“mignon” type) in its duct; paint the outer surface of the pipe, located above the roof level, black – in sunny weather, the air flow passing through it will heat up. And again – in the cold season, it is imperative to insulate the chimney!

Forced garage ventilation

Central and autonomous garage heating

According to SNiP 21-02-99, the temperature in covered car parks, that is, in garages, should be about 5 ° C. For a car, such a temperature is possible and acceptable, but what about the owner who independently repairs his car? You won’t work very well at five degrees …

First of all, dissimilar stoves and stoves on the development of their own production, so popular among garage owners, are strictly prohibited from fire safety rules PPB 01-03 approved by the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation in heating a garage. It is understandable – to be heated with an almost open flame near fuels and lubricants is fraught with fire with all the consequences.

Private garage heating

Centralized hot water heating can be supplied to the garage if this building is located no further than 50 m from the main building. In this case, natural heating is impossible – the supply of the coolant to the garage through pipes can only be performed by a circulation pump, moreover, powerful enough, and the pipes themselves will require insulation. It should be noted that it is possible to load a heating boiler with garage heating only if it was designed for such a load initially, even at the design stage of the heating system. Of course, the walls and ceiling of the garage heated by the central heating system will need to be carefully insulated with a layer of mineral wool at least 150 mm thick. In terms of cost and labor costs, the introduction of garage heating into the central system will be very expensive, and in operation such heating will be very energy-intensive.

Garage water heating

You can create an autonomous garage heating system by analogy with heating a house – a heating boiler, a pipeline with a circulation pump embedded in it, heating radiators around the perimeter of the garage. However, this method of heating is not popular – for the installation of a boiler room, it will be necessary to build a separate room close to the garage structure, fire-prevention regulations prohibit installing a heating boiler in the garage itself.

Individual garage heating system

It turns out that heating the garage in one way or another will depend on the availability of electricity – not cheap, but much safer than a stove-stove, and much easier than pulling a pipeline from central heating. The undoubted advantage of an electric heating source will be the presence of a thermostat that independently turns off and turns on heating for a given temperature range. So, there are oil radiators, heat guns, infrared heaters or a homemade autonomous heating system, which is similar in principle of operation and design to oil radiators …

Important: never use electric heaters with an open coil in the garage, whether they are home-made or factory-made – their contact with gasoline vapors will lead to disastrous consequences!

Temporary and permanent heating of the garage

Heating the garage depends on its tasks – temporary heating when carrying out some work in the garage, or constant heating while maintaining a given temperature.

A homemade oil heater is created on the basis of a “petal” radiator: a boiler welded from a steel sheet, an electric heating element is placed in it on one side, and the radiator pipes are connected on the opposite side. It will be convenient to place this homemade heater on a frame made of a metal corner, equipped with wheels – to move it to the place of work. The heat carrier in it will be transformer oil – water is not good, because it will freeze in winter in the absence of heating from the heating element. The disadvantages of both homemade and factory oil heaters will be a long warm-up period, the inability to completely warm up the garage room.

Homemade oil heater Construction of a homemade oil heater: 1 – expansion tank cover; 2 – expansion tank; 3 – heating tank; 4 – radiator plates; 5 – convector pipe; 6 – control valve; 7 – drain valve; 8 – heating element

Heat gun or electric convector with fan. Both of these devices are able to quickly warm up the air in the garage, they are much more efficient than oil heaters. Their disadvantage is associated with the operation of the fan with which these heaters are equipped – immediately after switching on, a significant part of the dust “peacefully lying” on the floor ends up in the air. In other words, thorough wet cleaning is required before starting the convectors (heat guns), otherwise you will have to breathe dust..

Heating the garage with a heat gun

Alternatively, but more expensive, you can use fan coil heaters. Air heaters of this type are usually rectangular and are installed above garage doors, on side walls or fixed to the ceiling. Equipped with a garage door opener sensor, fan coil units automatically create a strong stream of warm air, cutting off cold air from the outside from the inner atmosphere of the garage. It is these heaters that are advisable to use with constant heating of the garage – the temperature sensor will control the fan coil, maintaining the set temperature with a weak flow of hot air.

Fan coil unit in the garage

It is worth noting an important advantage of air heaters – the stream of warm air generated by them will quickly dry the bottom and fenders, reducing the formation of foci of rust to a minimum..

Infrared heater in the garage

Permanent garage heating can be built on infrared heaters that transfer heat to the surfaces they are directed to and do not heat the air. Among the advantages: their location on the garage ceiling, the design of the heating elements will not cause ignition of gasoline vapors. Disadvantages: one infrared heater will not be enough, several will be needed; it is impossible to direct their radiation to the car, since the hard radiation will damage the paint layer on the car. An infrared heater in a garage is often installed similarly to a fan coil – above the entrance gate..

Rate the article
( No ratings yet )
Recommender Great
Tips on any topic from experts
Comments: 3
  1. Rhiannon

    What are some effective ways to properly heat and ventilate a garage to ensure maximum comfort and safety?

    Reply
    1. Liam Mitchell

      Some effective ways to properly heat and ventilate a garage for maximum comfort and safety include installing insulation to minimize heat loss, using a space heater or electric garage heater for heating, and ensuring adequate ventilation by installing exhaust fans or opening windows and doors when necessary. Additionally, sealing any drafts and cracks can help retain heat and prevent the entry of cold air. It is important to follow safety guidelines, such as avoiding the use of open flames or gasoline-powered heating devices, and using carbon monoxide detectors to monitor air quality.

      Reply
  2. Ava Brooks

    How can I effectively heat and ventilate my garage to maintain a comfortable and safe environment?

    Reply
Add comments