Garage's Furnace and Water Heater (Energy Efficiency)

My garage is attached to my house (2 story) and we open it about 3-5 times a day since we parked our cars inside the garage. The furnace (gas) and water heater (electric) are also inside the garage.

Last Spring, I cutted a hole on the side of the garage to add a second gable for summer time (energy efficiency). Now it is winter and it is pretty cold out in the garage.

Question: Regards safety (gases and fumes). If I cover these gables, will this be dangerous when running the furnace or will it create an unsuitable environment for these appliances?

Thanks

 

The electric water heater produces no emissions so it is OK. The furnace should also be fine as long as it is properly vented and has adequate air for combustion.

It being cold in the garage will cause the water heater to run more. The furnace will also have some heat loss.

 

Not cold enough to freeze pipes...... is it ?

 

Thanks for the replies Ironhand and PJMax.

No, I can still walk out there in my underwear. TMI... Hahaha

 

I can buy a heating blanket for the water heater but I remember the instruction said not to wrap it.

 

There is a great deal in your posts that I do not understand. Is Americanized English a second (or third) language for you?

For example:
A gable is a flat vertical wall that rises to a peak. Please explain EXACTLY what you did. Did you simply cut a hole in a wall and add a grille to allow for more ventilation? Did you cut a hole in the garage ceiling allowing air from the garage to enter the attic space of the house proper? A picture of what you did would help.

And:
You need to put a number with "cold". California, like my home state of Washington, has a range of temperatures that in some areas drop to zero degrees F. or lower every winter and other areas that rarely go below thirty degrees F. For someone used to temperatures in the seventies forty can seem really cold but if a person is used to forties then thirty won't seem all that cold at all.

Gas furnaces and water heaters, both gas and electric, are routinely installed in garages in my area. Years ago gas-fired appliances had requirements that stated a certain minimal volume of the room (length times width times height) and if the room was not that size or larger then additional ventilation was required. My garage is this way. The thinking was that the standard building practices would provide enough "leakage" that sufficient combustion air would be available without any additional venting. My sister's garage however has an eight-inch vent in one wall to provide for the necessary combustion air.

You MIGHT have a problem if you are sealing up too much of the ventilation in the garage. IF you seal off too much of the ventilation the furnace MAY produce carbon monoxide and that could be deadly.

Please add the photographs and also tell us what the normal winter low temperatures are in your area.

 

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If you wall off gas or oil appliances, you can create a "confined space" that would need special provisions to provide combustion air for the appliances to use to burn the fuel.

That's not going to be a problem with two appliances in a space the size of a garage, however.

 

ok, thanks for the information.