I need an electric furnace, for a 30x40x12' Garage. It's well insulated. How do I figure BTU's or KW

Question

This isn't a normal size garage, it's 1200 sq ft . that's like a normal size house, w' 12' ceilings. I've heated it the past 2 winters with a forced air propane heater 50,000-85,000 btu. I was using 100 lbs of propane a week last year. It was getting expensive & the prices are going to be more this winter. It was over $300 a month last year. I think electric will be less expensive than that. Also when chemicals are sprayed or used with the propane heater, it about kills you as far as breathing. So I'm thinking an electric furnace up in the attic would be a good idea.

Answer 1

Depending on where you live you may need 50,000 BTU.

That would be a 15 KW unit. 3,412 BTU per KW.

Get an estimate from someone in your area.

They can do a heat loss calculation for your area and your construction.

Right now in my area electric strip heat is a little bit cheaper than propane and and fuel oil is 50% higher than electric.

Natural gas here is half the cost of electric tho but not available to everyone.

Answer 2

a furnace? Wow  the electric systems are so expensive to run! Honestly man go with a kerosene heater save yourself some money! as far as btu's go 1,500.