From: theise@panix.com   
      
   On Fri, 30 Jan 2026 15:21:16 -0000 (UTC),   
     Ted Heise  wrote:   
   >  On Wed, 28 Jan 2026 20:08:11 -0600,   
   >    sticks  wrote:   
   > >  On 1/28/2026 9:59 AM, Ted Heise wrote:   
      
   > > > When the weather is too cold to ride outdoors, I put my bike   
   > > > on rollers in the garage.  The last couple of weeks it's   
   > > > even been too cold in the garage.   
   > >   
   > >  I keep my 3 car pretty toasty.   
   >   
   >  That sounds appealing, but it doesn't seem possible for my   
   >  3-car.  It's a pretty new house and the garage is attached, but   
   >  there's no HVAC to it.  I've tried running a space heater (even   
   >  two!) and it doesn't move the needle much.  Maybe I need to   
   >  just prop open the door from the house and position a box fan   
   >  in it for air exchange? Maybe I just need a bigger space heater   
   >  (though I only have 110 V outlets, so that seems to be a   
   >  limiting factor).   
      
   Okay, I checked out various options at Lowe's yesterday.  It seems   
   the best approach might be to get a gas heater (or heat pump)   
   installed, but that's a big job and will take some planning.   
      
   Something that's somewhat portable would have the advantage of use   
   to heat the house if the power goes out.  I assume such use would   
   mean a catalytic heater or venting from inside the house as well.   
      
   For the near term, I ended up getting another smallish space   
   heater--one with IR that runs on 110 V.  With it and my existing   
   unit I was able to get the temp up to the low 40s yesterday.   
      
   Interestingly, opening the door to the house and running a box fan   
   for air exchange made no difference on the garage temp.   
      
   The garage was back down to the 20s this morning after an   
   overnight below 0 F and without any heaters running.  Hope I can   
   get it up to the 40s again so I can get on the rollers.   
      
   Additional reading suggests that probably the best thing to do is   
   improve insulation.  The double bay has living space above it, so   
   nothing to do there.  The single bay has an attic with no   
   insulation, so laying a layer of insulation above the ceiling   
   seems like a good idea (and something I can do).   
      
   One wall adjoins living space, so again nothing to do there.  Two   
   of the walls are exterior poured concrete like this...   
      
   https://www.westernforms.com/brickpatternconcreteforms   
      
   From a bit of reading online it seems the concrete loses a lot of   
   heat, so I should look at getting them insulated.  Looks as if it   
   would not be a small job.  Maybe glueing foam boards to the   
   concrete would be the simplest approach.   
      
   I expect the cheapo overhead garage doors also lose a lot of heat   
   and adding some insulation there would help as well.  I'm not sure   
   if the doors seal up well enough to the door frames to make   
   addition of foam panels effective on their own.  Maybe I'll call   
   up the contractor who put in a bathroom for us to see what he   
   thinks.   
      
   --   
   Ted Heise                Gretna, NE, USA   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)