Commercial Garage Heat

cgw

I want to compare infrared radiant to infloor heat. I have searched the site and found helpful information but want to ask about a direct comparision.

Applicable to repair garage but I am thinking of a municipal truck (plow) garage for which the doors may open twice a day with cold snowy plows coming in.



Would an infloor system have to be "oversized" for the load of the cold trucks or infiltration air from the OH doors?

Would an overhead radiant system have to be "oversized" for the load of the cold trucks or infiltration air from the OH doors?



Other issues?

LarryC

How about both?

DISCLAIMER:  I am not a heating professional.



Since you will have large peak loads from when a cold truck comes into the garage, why not install right sized both systems?  Use the high mass slow changing radiant floor to maintain the building temperature and use auxillary overhead radiant to provide the rapid heat to warm up the large trucks when they initially return.  The floor will provide some comfort when working under the trucks and act as a baseline load for the heating system.  The overhead radiant can be a seperate redundant system for peak heating needs.

cgw

Oversizing infrared?

The thought has occured to me and is slightly on the table.

Looking at posts on this forum, there is a lot of opinion that infloor heat will work well for the application (without much over sizing).



Looking infrared heaters manufactuerer's recommendations, infiltration and cold trucks should be accounted for. This is a significant load (could be more than double the regular calculated heating load).

Steamhead

Also consider

what flammable vapors, liquids etc. might be present in that garage. You certainly don't want an open flame in the presence of flammables. This would obviously tilt the balance toward radiant, with a boiler using outside air for combustion.

Henry

Infrared

We have done both. Separate combustion infrared is the best method. In floor radiant in a garage prevents yo from making changes in the floor and could have a negative when you are choosing some floor mounted equipment as you may damage the piping by bolting down the equipment. We have done one infrared gas installation that warms railway cars full of toxic material (mercury, lead etc) from the NY City area. It is sized according to the ventilation load when unloading the railway cars, 25,000 CFM= 2,500,000 BTU, works fine.



We have installed gas infrared in drive through at car dealerships, the mechanics area, bus repair depots, cement plant garage areas etc.. You size according to the space and number of doors. Check with your favorite infrared maker.

bob_46

Steam bath

I .have done a few with in floor . The mechanics complain that it's like working in a sauna.

The vehicles come in the snow melts and evaporates real quick on the warm floor.

Watch your overhead clearances with infrared . I never had any complaints with the infrared .