Can anyone help with pointers for automatable garage heaters? So far my searches aren’t finding anything. My requirements are:
- remotely preheat when I want to work out
- alert if it’s left on, or automatically turn off
I’m in the US, looking for 240v maybe 5,000w electric heater. The basic item is cheap and readily available at home centers or online. I even see variations with Bluetooth remote and/or controlled by app.
I’m looking for something locally automatable. Matter/Thread would be ideal but I’m fine with Zigbee or z-wave. But I’m not finding anything like that, and getting stuck on some vendors portal is not ok. Any leads?
Or something that can use an external thermostat - I actually have an extra Ecobee - that can be locally automatable. Any leads? Any search tips that might find such a thing?
I briefly thought of automating an outlet, however even if smart outlets are available for those loads, that wouldn’t work because all these heaters have a safety feature to run the fan until the unit is cool
Not sure how much this will help you, but my house is heated by electric wall heaters like this with unit-mounted thermostats. I recently installed a real thermostat for the one in the main room, by using this relay that I wired with a three wire 24 volt off the shelf loom like this that I bought by the foot from the closest to me store. You could use a smart thermostat unlike me. I used this site for help but mine is 120v. That link, tho, is for a 240v and may be more helpful.
Importantly, I have a background in electric (DC) and access to folks with household electric.
Anyway, what you want isn’t hard and can be done safely and easily. But if you are not an electrician, it is best to us a contractor. My heat is on a dedicated circuit, yours should be, too.
Best wishes and be warm!
Get a mini split, and be done with it. Almost all of them are made from the same 3 factories and have pretty much the same parts. Buy one that fits your budget and install it yourself or hire someone to install it. No need for a heater when these exist now. They’re cheap, do both cooling and heat, and work great for stuff like this.
@AA5B @SupraMario I hear that some are coming with hoses pre-charged with gas now so you can self install?
They are, yeah
Not trying to spread fear. But remotely running heaters could be a fire hazard. Please be cautious
You mean like all of the millions of them in every house, building, business around the world?
If it’s 240, it’s installed. It’ll require a proper 240 circuit for its type, not something the average homeowner can do, so an electrician will be necessary.
Technically, pretty much every heater is “remote” (except portables). Or do you crawl into your attic or crawl space whenever you want to adjust the temp?
Do you turn off your heat when you leave the house? Water heater?
Business have used heat and cooling on timer and remote systems for 75+ years, and here you come fear-mongering some nonsense about “remote heaters”.
Moreover, an electric hearer is about as safe as you can get - nothing being oxidized, the heater element is well shielded, with a compressor type fan pushing air through it.
If the fan stops, the unit stops. If the heater stops, the fan stops, it’s all tied together with controls that have been around since the 50’s (and mostly now electronic). Even controls from back then are crazy robust and simple.
A gas heater won’t even attempt to fire if it doesn’t detective negative pressure in the chamber, which would mean the exhaust blower isn’t running. And we’re not talking gas here, so the controllers even simpler.
@AA5B Surely a split system A/c would be more efficient?
Might be able to use a baseboard heater thermostat.
Slightly odd option is to connect it to a car charger like Technology Connections did, and then automate the cafe charger. And then you have a car charger for the future.
Another idea is to consider a mini split heat pump. It won’t be hot, but it’ll take the edge off.
If you can find one with IR remote, you can use something like broadlink rm mini 3 or 4 to learn commands
A second option I can think off is If heater has a button (not touch ones), you could use a fingerbot and add a temp sensor further away on direction of the fan so you can make an automation to ensure it is on or off
The IR blaster is not a bad idea. While I didn’t notice that, I wasn’t looking for it. I do see some with Bluetooth remotes and I imagine there’s similar I could look into
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I would imagine any proper heater would be able to be connected to a thermostat, just like in your house. I have a gas one that connects to a Honeywell that is connected to home assistant.
Look in the manual for how to wire an external thermostat.
For instance, this dynaglo one mentions it on page 8. https://cdn.menardc.com/main/items/media/GHPGR001/Install_Instruct/8474ba55-9c16-4829-bf58-02baa7c521ac.pdf
Yeah, your last point might be an issue for this. But if you manage to find a heater that works as a simple on/off, this z-wave high power relay might suit your needs: https://www.thesmartesthouse.com/products/zooz-z-wave-long-range-high-power-relay-zen78-800lr
I would be very careful with automating a heater in your garage, as they’re obviously a fire risk, especially when unattended. I would make sure whatever automation you land on has safeties based on if you’re home, if a smoke alarm goes off, or if connection to your controller is lost (this one would be more difficult to automate, but is probably doable with an esp32 or similar).
It you’re using a relay to turn it on and off then just put like a 90F furnace high limit switch on the air inlet side of the heater and run the control signal for the relay through that high limit switch. That way if the air going into the space heater gets too hot from the room getting too hot or the area around the heater gets too hot from the fan failing, it’ll shut off. Also furnace safeties are cheap, easy to find, and already designed to fail open circuit for safety.
And built into thebheaters already.
Clearly people here have never tried to maintain these things - the safety in them today is annoyingly extensive. They fail for the most trivial things (which really is for the best, just a nuisance from a maintenance perspective).
To be fair, I don’t think I’ve ever actually bought a space heater. I just get them from places and they’re always from the early 2000s at best. The ones I’ve worked on usually only have a fuse in them as far as safety features go. I’m glad new ones are more safe though because they used to be deathtraps.
For sure on the safety, and this is one of the reasons I’m going for something intended for purpose, rather than portable space heaters. The other reason is power. Basically I want to ensure the heater is Always off unless I want to work out, but that also means sufficient power to heat the garage quickly in the coldest months
Something mounted on wall or ceiling is a critical safety feature, so it can’t get knocked over nor anything fall on it. There will never be anything flammable in my garage: it’s too small for cars and I converted to battery lawn equipment
I even see heaters with automatic 2 hr shutoff, but not automatable. That’s probably my backup plan
Realistically my priority goal is alerting and shutoff: remote pre-heat would be a bonus
Just as a backup you might consider putting some atandalone zigbee/z wave temp sensor in the garage just as a double check that the heater is operating as it should
I personally would just find something and add an esp32 in to augment control.
But a really simple solution would be to add a switchbot or something similar. Just be sure that whatever heater you pick up has a switch you can easily control.
Im not familiar with those in person, only on paper. Would a switchbot interfere with normal use of the button? Would normal use of the button be likely to interfere with the switchbot?
Ideally smart devices continue to work as if they were dumb devices. In this case I have a teenager wanting to use heat to work out but he hasn’t been interested in my automation, and an electric bill payer (me) wanting to ensure the heater is off when not in use
I’ve never used them either. But I’ve seen pictures and as long as they are setup correctly the devices buttons are still able to be pressed and turned on manually.
