Recommended Garage Heaters, good but inexpensive Options

[nine14cats]

Any ideas on a cheap heat source for a garage heater? about 550 square feet of garage space. Electric or gas? Where to get?

It also has to be rugged enough for me to drop, trip over, hit with my tools when I'm not looking where I'm going, etc..... (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/laugh.gif)

Thanks!

Bill P.

[SpecialK]

QUOTE (r_towle @ Jan 11 2006, 08:09 PM)

QUOTE (Buzzard1 @ Jan 11 2006, 08:51 PM) Watch the newspaper for a residential electric furnace someone's selling (15kw would be more than enough).  I see them all the time for around $50.  You can mount them in any position, suspend them from the ceiling, lay them down in the attic (with a little ductwork), and down the road you can add a central a/c to it for the summer! New, they go for about $300. can you show me a pic of what you are talking about please.... Rich

Pretty simple and compact units. Essentially it's a blower housing (air handler), and an electric heat coil (5kw per coil). All of the parts are relatively cheap, and they rarely break.

I've been running the same electric furnace in my house (20kw) for the last 19 years, and in that time had to replace two sequencers, and one of the coils.....that's it.

Pic is with the blower door off, heat elements and components would be located in the covered area below the blower.