Cooling your garage

[spanky55amg]

Has anyone really tried to cool down their garage? I have a 2 1/2 car garage with a single door. Its about 650 sqft if I remember correctly. I live in one of those fancy houses with windows in the garage to make it look like the front of the house is bigger than it is.... anyways, we have solar screens and so I cannot put in a window unit.

Do you think that a 14,000 btu portable a/c unit would work. I would crack the garage door and build a "window spacer" out of plywood. But before I commit $400+ to do this, I was looking to see if ya'll had any suggestions or know if 14,000 btu's would be enough.

 

[yevgenievich]

A mini split system is great set up for cooling the garage, and works better than a hacked in window unit. The unit size is going to be based on insulation of the garage. I have used a 14k unit on non insulated 400 sqf wooden garage before and it did ok.

 

[Camar068]

You could build a swamp cooler. Depending on how elaborate you build it, you should be able to build one for under $20. Not sure of the humidity there, but the lower the more efficient they are. In low humidity you can get ~22° lower than the input. Here in Kentucky the best we could get with our slap together experiment was 12°. We took a bucket and put small holes in the side (bottom part) then filled with water beads. then we attached a pc fan on top by cutting a hole in cardboard and packing tape to seal.

A guy I know used water beads instead of water for his auto garage. Said he loves it, course he didn't have anything before so something is better than nothing. Video below.

you could throw some ice in to help lower it.

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[75Monza]

If you don't have window space, why not a through the wall unit? Most garage walls are usually on 24" centers and there are quite a few of the 14k btu through the wall units that will fit perfect between the studs. I did that on my brothers shop for him, measured and cut out the hole once I found the studs (carefully if you have drywall or covering over the studs, don't really know if there could be wiring hiding in the wall. I drilled a small hole in the wall first and stuck my bore scope through to check it out). Stuck the sheath through and made a little angle roof over it and support platform off the outside wall, then put the AC into the sheath, the cord ends up almost flush with inside wall. In the winter time, made a slide out of the siding I removed and you pull the AC unit and sheath out, slide the piece of siding back in place, and same inside with a hinged drop cover and latch to plug off hole. It would cool his garage about 18 degrees from ambient, insulated garage with windows.

 

[spanky55amg]

Well... I was going to do a window unit because we have bushes out front that hide the bottom part of the window. Sadly, the solar screens are one piece and the misses will not have one solar screen missing from the front of the house. "The yard looks like **** already." ~ the misses. Our garage faces the south, but the house faces the east. So I dont have another wall to put in another unit. I was thinking about ductless units but that's taking the cost from $400 to $1000 + instillation.

They humidity in Dallas usually isnt too bad, but this year has sucked. Its like Midwestern humidity and heat. Recently we have been about 95 degrees with a heat index of 110-117. Granted I know heat indexes in Indiana werent that high, but you need heat and humidity to grow corn. Plus, I worked in an automotive shop that was cheap and purchase one huge swamp cooler for us... yeah, I wont be doing that anytime soon.

I almost thought about looking at making a swamp cooler with ice. But two things: 1. I dont think it will cool down the garage enough. 2. It wouldnt keep the ice long enough with our temps.

Most of the time I would suck it up with just a fan or two, but since I've been through a couple of surgeries and about to do my last to fight off the Big C, plus Im getting old and like my creature comforts, working in these temps is just not possible for me.

 

[Camar068]

Is part of the house above your garage? You could always tie into your existing ventilation and add a vent or 2.....if any of the ventilation is in the ceiling or walls. Might take a little drywall work also. I would put a damper on it so you could close it off when not in use to save electricity.

 

[yevgenievich]

Not a best way. When house ac dumps air in to the garage, it has to make up for it in the house unless you leave the door between garage and house open.

Is part of the house above your garage? You could always tie into your existing ventilation and add a vent or 2.....if any of the ventilation is in the ceiling or walls. Might take a little drywall work also. I would put a damper on it so you could close it off when not in use to save electricity.

 

[Camar068]

right....be best if there was some sort of return.

 

[morrow07]

Ductless minisplit +2. I've been in HVAC over 10 years. Trust me, it's a little bit more of an investment, but leaps and bounds better. Plus you have heat, fan function, and dehumidification.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[spanky55amg]

If I knew I was going to be in this house for 5+ years, I would be all for it!

 

[MrMarty51]

When I was framing My garage, I framed in for an 18,000 BTU 220 volt AC unit. The garage is 28 X 28 with 10` ceilings.
The AC unit keeps it mighty nice in here, sometimes a little too cool for My liking's.
It is easy enough to frame in for an AC unit if a feller has a chainsaw.

 

[SHILOW]

I'm not sure how cool you're try to get it but I would start with insulating the door. There is a lot of heat coming off that door. I have also noticed that in my house there is no insulation in the attic above my garage. I guess the builders are cutting corners where they can. Next you could install some sort of ventilation.

www.windeevent.com.

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