Garage tank question

[dabandit]

my truck doesnt fit in my garage,and I have a seperate work shop. Basically thats where I smoke and keep my ride on and dirtbikes none of which get started in there. I cant heat the garage because its open through the soffit for ventalation on the deck above it. If I was to close off the ceiling it would rot out my deck. Trying to heat it would be far too impractical. I think I may build a little room in there that doesnt go all the way to the ceiling if I absolutelly must. I was just curious if anyone had ever attempted a basically outside tank on aquarium heaters alone.

[Jay180reef]

In Calgary it was -31 outside last night and I keep all my sumps in the garage! I surrounded it all with styrofoam insulation and poly to keep the cold out. I've got a garage heater but a small space heater would be fine for you.

[StirCrazy]

I did that for a while in Victoria, if you are realy worried about the cold you can do thing like wrap 3 sides of the tank with styrofoam to help lower heat loss, but it would be best to try a big container of water with a couple heaters, then wrap the container in styrofoam and see if it gets hotter.

Steve

[hillegom]

I am doing that as well, I have two 10 gal tanks in the unheated garage with 1" stryofoam on most of the 3 sides. Temperature is stable in this cold weather we are haveing.

[Tom R]

The bigger problem is in the summer HEAT. In the winter you can heat the tank and insulate the sides. In the summer you will definitly require a chiller.

Tom R

[hillegom]

I can only speak for mine. For the last two summers, mine has not overheated. It is a 3 car garage with only room for one car. We always leave the car outside for a couple of hrs before bringing it inside, as it is the sec. car, it does not drive too often.
Must be the massive amount of concrete that keeps the temp stable, and the garage only gets about 3 hrs of sunlight in the morning. Hey, but things can change esp with global warming

[Sam1969]

you could pick up a used hot water tank, run it on low, use your return pump as the hwt input and the hot line on the hwt directly into your tank ...

Just a thought

[hillegom]

That would work on FW
However, all hot water tanks have a sacrificial anode, made out of zinc, inside of them. A long rod, that is changeable by the way. Just like aluminum fish boats and lower legs on boats, they all have a sacrificial anode. So I don't think that this zinc would be any good for the inhabitants of the SW tank.
FYI If you want your hot water tank to last longer, then change out that anode every 5 years. Not everyone will tell you that. My last tank went 20 yrs and longer, I sold the house before the tank went.