Heating a Garcade

jay

Permanently Banned
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
2,377
Reaction score
308
Location
Alabama
So I've decided it makes more sense to have my arcade in my 3 car garage vs the 2nd floor. It's just a giant pain trying to get these things up and down stairs.

So besides painting the walls and doing something with the floor, I am going to need a source of heat.

My garage doors are insulated, but the 2 side walls are not. They already have drywall so it's out of the question to tear out the existing drywall, insulate, drywall again. Too much cost.

I was looking at one of these to heat the garage. http://www.everyspaceheater.com/asp/superbrowse.asp?clid=997&caid=&sku=MXH1047&refid=AC263-MXH1047

Since I already have a gas hot water heater and furnace, I'll need to get someone to tap in a line for this. They are both already in the garage

Anyone used this type of heater before? Anyone know what it would cost to have the gas line tapped into.
 
I don't think baseboard heaters are practical for my garage, and the expense and time of wiring them. The heater I posted doesn't use electricity. So I think I'll save a lot of money just using gas.

Thanks for the suggestion though. I think they also may take too long to heat it up. My garage is 1000 sqft with 10ft ceilings.
 
You can probably insulate without ripping out the drywall... Google pellet insulation.
Think you just need to cut a hole and fill the walls. Typically used more for inaccessible areas I think, but might help keep your heating costs down.
 
So I've decided it makes more sense to have my arcade in my 3 car garage vs the 2nd floor. It's just a giant pain trying to get these things up and down stairs.

So besides painting the walls and doing something with the floor, I am going to need a source of heat.

My garage doors are insulated, but the 2 side walls are not. They already have drywall so it's out of the question to tear out the existing drywall, insulate, drywall again. Too much cost.

I was looking at one of these to heat the garage. http://www.everyspaceheater.com/asp/superbrowse.asp?clid=997&caid=&sku=MXH1047&refid=AC263-MXH1047

Since I already have a gas hot water heater and furnace, I'll need to get someone to tap in a line for this. They are both already in the garage

Anyone used this type of heater before? Anyone know what it would cost to have the gas line tapped into.

I've never used one, but I've seen them - be careful how big a one you get - some of those are made for installation in warehouses, and the amount of heat they throw out will just kill you in a garage. You also need to be wary of venting requirements. Again, in a big warehouse, no problem, but in your garage, you've got to make sure you've got sufficient ventilation. I'd get hold of the manufacturer's recommendations, there's almost certainly a proper way to do it, but this is something you don't want to screw up.

The piping for the gas is going to depend a LOT on where the gas pipes are and how much they have to do to get to it. I just had a 1/2 pipe run from the furnace up to my kitchen for a gas cooktop (ahh, finally, cooking with gas!). This involved dismantling the gas connection for the furnace, adding appropriate Ts, running the 1/2 in flex pipe about 30 ft, then adding appropriate valves under the cabinet and finally connecting the cooktop (I had already gotten the cooktop in position). That ran me around $500, and the entire basement ceiling is open - he didn't have to do anything odd to get the pipe where it belonged.

If you are comfortable doing your own gas work, it's really not that bad, and depending on the run, parts might not run you more than $100. I'm paranoid enough that I pay other people to do gas (I'll happily do my own water and electric, just not gas).

If you're going to have more than one gas appliance out there (like if you use 2 smaller heaters) be sure to oversize the pipe to the garage, then split off the smaller tubing to the appliances - if you try to chain them off the smaller size tubing, you could run into a situation where one starves the other for gas. This really depends on the appliances, but you're trying for lots of output, so you probably want to plan for lots of gas usage.
 
Nope, I don't play games with gas or electricity. I will let a pro handle the work.

Luckily, we already cook with gas. Most of my major appliances use gas. Gas furnace, water heater, stove and fireplace.

I just figured since the hot water heater and furnace are in the garage, it would be a simple "T" off of the current piping to add the heater.

The garcade heater will be run rarely since it doesn't get that cold up here for any long period of time.

The run of pipe won't be more than 10ft.
 
Call the Gas Company and ask them. Some cities have a lot of restrictions so it's best to check with them first before you buy anything.
 
dont use that thing you listed. I had one of those in my old garage.. even insulated, it ate about twice as much gas as the boiler in my house did..

over a few mos, youd pay more using the mr heater then you could is you insulated the garage and got a more permanent and more efficent heating system
 
I have a kerosene heater for the gameroom. I don't use the room near enough to justify a dedicated HVAC system. For this summer, I'll probably get a portable AC unit...or just sweat my ass off as usual.
 
Insulate your walls or you'll be spinning your wheels. Get insulation blown in. They drill a 2" hole at the top and a 2" hole at the bottom between each joist and blow in insulation... I had it done to my place and it made a HUGE difference... I use a simple roll-a-round electric oil heater now and it keeps the gameroom a nice temperature even when it's single digit cold outside.

You're left with a bunch of 2" holes on your wall, but they plug them with wooden or plastic plugs and they're easy to spackle and paint if you want.
 
I had my games in my garage a few years ago. It was a 1.5 car garage and what I did was cut out holes to add air vents in the cinderblock and tapped into the downstairs air system. I added two vents and that was sufficient for the space. The only negative is there is no thermostat in the garage so it only runs if the 1st floor inside the house gets cold enough. It didn't pose a problem for me though, I insulated around the garage door and all of the exterior facing walls when I put up the drywall. It worked out great.

One thing; you will probably have more moisture in your garage versus the inside of the house. I would get a de-humidifier and run that constantly. You could have it drain the water outside of the garage automatically.
 
garage

I had a house with a 2+ car garage. It was insulated well and I installed a small electric heater (Benko perhaps $200-300). It heated the garage quite nicely and if you can get offpeak electricity it's cheap. Appx. half the normal rate.

Make sure you ceiling is well insulated though.
 
I had my games in my garage a few years ago. It was a 1.5 car garage and what I did was cut out holes to add air vents in the cinderblock and tapped into the downstairs air system. I added two vents and that was sufficient for the space. The only negative is there is no thermostat in the garage so it only runs if the 1st floor inside the house gets cold enough. It didn't pose a problem for me though, I insulated around the garage door and all of the exterior facing walls when I put up the drywall. It worked out great.

One thing; you will probably have more moisture in your garage versus the inside of the house. I would get a de-humidifier and run that constantly. You could have it drain the water outside of the garage automatically.

That's what I have. It's normally 50 in there if it's not being used, and when the time comes to use it I gradually open the connecting door to the house to mix the air, and also run a little ceramic heater in the garcade. It gets up into the 60s and is perfect.
 
Back
Top Bottom