Why I went infrared in my garage?
"An efficient and sustainable way to keep your Jaguars warm and damp-free"."It makes it a pleasure to work on the cars no matter what the weather is like outside"
Customer Testimonial (December 2019) – Why I went infrared in my garage?
“Back in summer 2017 I had sold the carcoon in which I used to keep my Healey 3000 and installed insulated roll up garage doors to keep my E-Type and XKR protected from the winter weather. But heating was a problem so after much research I came across an article on a classic car owner who had used far infrared heaters mounted high up on his garage walls; this was the first I had heard of this so found the manufacturer was a UK company called Herschel and availed myself of all their technical info. Infrared heaters work by converting electricity into radiant heat and is part of the electromagnetic spectrum where the heat provides the same feeling of warmth as the winter sun on your face and the heat from a coal fire. It is even the same form of heat emitted by your own body.
This direct transfer of heat from the heater to the object or thermal mass (you, your car and the room around you) without heating the air in between presents a huge advantage over more traditional types of heating. The worst cause of rust in garaged cars is condensation, formed when the car body is colder than the air around it and much of this happens inside panels where you can’t see it. To me it made great sense to heat the car rather than the surrounding air so I gave them a call, providing the volume measurements from which they worked out that I needed two 1950 watt Aspect IRXL3-1950 wall mounted heaters.
These are controlled by a T1 Wireless Thermostat which is paired to the required number of R1 wireless receivers so in my case it was two of these which I wired up one to each of the heaters. Rather like the heat from the sun, the heaters are mounted high up on the garage walls, positioned to gently warm as much of the car body as possible. Once my electrician had wired the 13 amp power sockets into the overhead structure of the garage I fitted the rest myself which was quite easy as they provided full instructions.
The controller itself is battery operated and is programmable 5+1+1, meaning you can have one setting for the working week and two more separate settings for Saturday and Sunday. The signal range extends for up to 200 metres in open spaces. My controller is set at 12ºC and that extra 1.5ºC seen in the photo comes from my dehumidifier which I have running when it is wet and windy. The collected water comes in very handy for topping car radiators and washers as well as watering the plants in my studio, as of course it is free from chlorine and fluoride!
In the two years that I have been running these heaters I have found them to be super efficient and it makes it a pleasure to work on the cars no matter what the weather is like outside. The cars are not cold to touch as the heat gradually permeates the whole body.
One important question I asked was whether the infrared heat would have any fading effect on either paintwork or more particularly upholstery and I was pleased to learn that these remain unaffected as there is no ultra violet present. HOW MUCH?? I purchased these in October 2017 and the Aspect heaters came to £958.00. The controls came in a pack termed as an IQ Single Zone heater control pack and cost £138.00, both including VAT; shipping was free”.
With thanks to Nick Cliffe, Chairman of the Jaguar Enthusiasts’ Club Shropshire and Welsh Borders Region, for sharing his review for Jaguar Enthusiasts and other classic car owners on “Why I went infrared in my garage”?
Heaters for Garages
