Two of our kids rooms are build on top of the garage.It makes their rooms colder in winter,specially the floors.Are space heaters, either floor or wall mounted safe enough to keep them 'on' during the night or they are fire hazard. Any other suggestions?
In addition to the insulation others mentioned, you can add electric baseboard heaters. My husband is a union HVAC technician & he says PROPERLY-installed, electric baseboard heat is much safer than space heaters. If you have questions for my husband, you can drop me a private note.
D.
We have the same problem and my husband is currently fixing it by insulating the garage door, the walls and ceiling in the garage and putting in a heater. He has also been contracted out by others that experience the same problem in their homes. Let me know if you would like to contact him.
I 2nd the notion of insulating the garage door. I believe all it really takes is some styrafoam that you can adhere to the garage door. One of the DIY channels was doing an energy audit on someone's house and they found that most of the heat lost in this particular house was due to the uninsulated garage door. You can probably Google it to find out how to do it.
MG, I would be very worried about putting a space heater in a child's room. regardless of whether they listen to you or not about touching it. All it would take is a toy or blanket flung out and a fire could start. I would suggest having an electrician put in a baseboard heater. They pass codes and can be operated in each room individually to keep the room as cool/warm as you like. This is what we had done in my grandchildren s rooms. Much safer than just a space heater. so many fires in the news these days that its just not safe. If you need the name of an electrician let me know I can tell you who did ours. good luck
S.
How old are the kids? My son is almost 3 and I would trust him with a spaceheater in his room. He would not touch it if we told him not to. His room is in the basement and it gets colder down there, so we are going to put a spaceheater on his dresser in the corner farthest from his bed. We bought a spaceheater with a thermostat in it so it won't run all night long. Once it gets to a certain temp. in the room, it shuts off and turns back on when it gets colder. I would make sure you buy one of those and put it on a flat surface away from anything flammable. As long as you know your kids won't play with it, it should be fine. Hope this helps!
My husband sealed around the floor and wall of their room with foam. Look for gaps. Maybe an area rug will help. You can insulate around outlets/plugs/lightswitch. Check the windows (our kids opened them and one wasn't closed all the way). If there is a leak by the window, you can use plastic shrinkwrap by 3m to help keep the cold out. Limit the time you have your garage door open. I would be worried about space heaters. You can invest in some down blankets. (IKEA has some nice ones.)
Our bedroom is over the garage, and it has always been much colder than the rest of the house. Our garage has drywall on the walls and ceiling and (we assume) insulation in it, but just this year we realized the garage door was not insulated at all. My husband insulated the garage door, and so far it has made a big difference. I know it hasn't gotten super cold yet, but it has been almost the same temp as the rest of the house even on the coldest nights we've had this fall. Also, keep the garage door closed as much as possible. The warmer the garage is, the less it will affect the bedrooms. I don't have any advice about space heaters as we haven't used them- just extra blankets. Hope this helps.
We have the same problem in our house. I put shrink wrap plastic over their windows when winter truly hits. A throw rug on top of the carpets would be a big help too. We also use both shades and curtains to help insulate. As far as the space heaters go, I have used them on the really cold nights, but I would recommend the oil-filled heaters instead of the electric coil ones. It looks like a radiator but it is permanently sealed. The heater works from heating the oil within it. It has multiple setting levels and it much safer than the typical electric heaters since there are no heating coils that could start a fire or that the kids could stick their fingers into and burn themselves. It never needs maintenance or refilling. I've had mine since college (yes, it's been awhile - but don't tell) and it still works great! The manufacturer of mine is DeLonghi and I saw them last at Target and JcPenney. You can see a picture here: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?sourceid=navclient...
Wishing you a warm winter!
