What are the Benefits of Garage Heating?
If you start by thinking of the different uses of a garage and the space within it, that will help guide you on the benefits of garage heating. Because in cooler and cold temperatures, garage heating can open up the options and the level of comfort you have when using your garage. There’s a range of options available depending on what you are looking to achieve through the heating of a garage. Our detailed buyers guide to garage heaters will help you complete background research.
So what are the main benefits of garage heating for you and your family?
1. Greater comfort and safety when completing vehicle maintenance, repairs and projects in garage workshops.
If you’ve got a car project or a workshop in your garage, you can probably relate to how much enjoyment is taken from these jobs (and how much they feel like a chore) when you’re cold.
Rugging up in layers of clothing and gloves to try to stay warm as the cold weather kicks in, limits your ability to freely move around and squat or lean into or under a vehicle safely. You’ll also be limited in how well you can grip tools and manipulate items in your hands.
To try to beat the cold, you’re likely to take shortcuts to get the job done more quickly so you can retreat to the warmth of your house. These practices can create a safety risk to you and potential damage to your project.
Garage heating can help to overcome these issues keeping you warmer and safer. There’s a range of different types of garage heating that can work depending on whether you work in one location (like a workbench) or move around the garage. Choose what will best suit you so you can be more comfortable and work more easily getting greater enjoyment from your project.
2. Flexibility to repurpose extra space for work or hobbies.
The addition of garage heating gives you significant flexibility in how you can use extra space in the garage. With people being confined indoors with COVID, working from home and home schooling, the garage has become the extra room in the house to help families meet these demands. And despite what you may think, the patterns of home-schooling have continued at a significantly higher rate than prior to COVID and people have continued to work from home by choice at high rates post COVID But depending on where you live, using a garage as the extra space in your house, is only practical in cooler temperatures with heating.
So whether you want a home office, classroom, games area, man cave, art studio or something else, these all become more practical options with garage heating in cold temperatures so you can better enjoy your hobbies or learning.
3. Ability to use your garage gym year-round with better comfort and safety.
Home and garage gyms have taken off particularly with COVID giving you and the family the flexibility to work out and stay fit when you want. But being motivated to use a decked-out garage gym takes a nose dive when the temperatures get too cold.
Exercising in cold temperatures creates a risk of injury with it being more difficult to warm the muscles up gradually. And the outcome is reduced fitness – and not just in terms of your physical fitness and if you’re a regular exerciser, you’ll also know how much better you feel within yourself after exercise. Garage gym heaters can provide you with the background heat so you’ll be able to approach your workout sessions with greater motivation and safety.
4. Easier to start your car with prolonged vehicle battery life.
Cold temperatures are an issue with the battery and fluids in motor vehicles. They cause the batteries to discharge at faster rates resulting in a flat battery and your car not starting – probably at the time when you are running out the door in a hurry! Over time, it will take longer for batteries to charge and the life of your car battery will be reduced. Electric car batteries are also adversely affected and you can expect less mileage from each charge if you’re coming from a cold garage.
Keeping the air temperature warmer around your vehicles can help to overcome this and provide a greater level of confidence that you’ll be able to drive your car when you want to need to no matter how cold the weather.
5. Prevent condensation and rusting of tools and damage to sensitive equipment.
If you have sensitive equipment or tools that you store in your garage, keeping the space warm can help prevent condensation and rusting that can damage your belongings.
Cold temperatures cause condensation or moisture on the items you have stored in your garage. For metal items such as tools, this will cause rust and damage to your tools. Using garage heating to increase the temperature above the dew point will help to prevent this damage and increase the lifespan of your tools and other sensitive devices.
6. Less prone to aches and pains and joint stiffness from being in cold temperatures.
The likelihood of garage heating helping to reduce some of your aches and pains from for example arthritis is going to depend on each person. The medical research is mixed about the impact of weather on joint pain, but if you are like many people we know, the relief they feel from sunlight or heat allows them to function more freely.
So the coldness in the air and through the floor in garages in cooler and cold environments may create an issue for you. Garage heating options that are appropriate for the task you’re doing coupled with matting (or in some cases a garage floor heating system) may be a solution that helps you to move more freely giving you greater enjoyment in activities you complete in the garage and helping you to complete activities there more safely.
7. Allows an extra fridge and/ or freezer to be used in the garage in cold temperatures.
Stocking up on food particularly with the supply chain challenges we are experiencing and people at home more often with COVID, makes it tempting to purchase an additional fridge and/ or freezer. But refrigerators have an optimum external temperature range with most manufacturers recommending they are not used when in rooms where the temperatures fall below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Doing so may result in the freezing of the contents of your fridge or thawing of the freezer spoiling your food.
So before you start using a refrigerator in a cold garage, you need to check the manufacturer’s instructions on the optimal temperature for use. You may find your model has a garage fridge kit available that will heat the thermostat to help protect the fridge.
Be wary of refrigerators with water lines that go to icemakers in garages that get cold. These can freeze if your garage gets too cold causing damage to your fridge. Garage heating in an area near the fridge may also increase the temperature to allow you to use a refrigerator in an otherwise cold garage.
8. A warmer garage can have a positive impact on the temperatures in other parts of the house.
If your garage is attached to your home, the chances are that when you enter and leave it, through your house, cold air from your garage will go into your home. The temperature differential can cause draughts into your home and reduce the efficiency of your heating there. You’ll lose heat from your home through an uninsulated garage. If your garage is located underneath other rooms in your two-story home, they will also be warmer if you use a garage heater.
Final Words
With space usually at a premium in most homes particularly with being at home more with Covid, garage heating can open up opportunities as to how you use your garage and create more useable space. It can contribute positively to your personal safety as well as to the lifespan and performance of your car battery and tools.
Selecting appropriate garage heating is necessary to help ensure your safety and that it delivers the benefits you would be seeking. Start with researching the different kinds of garage heating before looking at models that may work for you.
