philcam
Well Known Member
The search for a cool garage is over! Now back to the building.
My garage is 19x23. One wall is insulated and the double garage door faces west, into the afternoon sun. No insulation in the attic above.
When I first started I wanted something portable and not a window a/c unit.
I tried a total of three different A/C units and one swamp cooler. My first try was a Boston Products 10,000 BTU portable cooler from Wal-Mart. Cost, $200 even. It was a piece of junk and didn?t even cool well standing right in front of the thing, so I took it back. In all fairness, it may have been defective.
Next I went shopping at Home Depot and Lowe?s. Both stores had all their A/Cs on clearance. I told them what I wanted to do and both stores said if it didn?t cool as needed, they would accept returns on the items.
I bought another 10,000 BTU portable unit from Home Depot. This unit is made by Evenstar and was a much higher quality unit than the one from Wal-Mart. Closeout price was around $315. This unit worked much better than the Wal-Mart unit but still would not cool down my garage. I returned the unit to Home Depot and as promised I had no problems getting a full refund.
Next, I bought a MoblieMaster 12" evaporater cooler unit from Lowe's, almost the same price as the Home Depot A/C, $320, and again on close out. The swamp cooler had a huge fan, and blew cool air, but as I suspected it just raised the humidity too much. Doug had warned me about this. Lowe's gave me no hassles on the return.
BY this time I decided if I wanted cold air, I was going to need a window unit. This presented a new problem since most units at 15,000 BTU and above are 220 volt. I was worried about the added cost of having an electrician wire the new outlet, since I didn?t feel comfortable doing it myself. After help from the VAF community, thanks Captain John!, I decided to go ahead and hire the electrician. The electrician was great, the work was done in about an hour and a half but best of all the cost was cheap! So I bought a 18,000 BTU unit by LG on closeout from Home Depot for $277. The unit is rated for up to 1,000 suare feet, but being that my garage is uninsulated and has a washer, dryer and hot water heater, I decided to go with a the larger unit. The instructions for installing this A/C are worthless and the supplied hardware is junk. The unit itself, however,is GREAT! Very quiet, very cold. Yesterday the thermostat in my house was set at 75. My garage was cooler than the house!
I also bought foam panels to insulate the garage door, and I did double up on the insulation panels. Cost for 8 sheets was $64 and it took about 2 hours to cut and install. The girlfriend says it looks like something from NASA since the foam sheets are covered in a shinny, aluminum foil-like material. It was either the shiny foil looking stuff or pink foam from The Pink Panther.
The results, yeah 18,000 BTU is an overkill, but it gets my garage down right cold. The foam on the door is WELL worth the money. Not only is it quiet, but it helped the cooling considerably. More than likely, I?ll blow insulation into the attic this fall or winter also. Home Depot and Lowe's will ?rent? you the insulation blower for free with the purchase of 20 bags or more. I figure for around $200 I can do the attic. If you?re thinking about doing this project, do it now! All the stores are closing out their A/Cs so you?ll save some cash.
My garage is 19x23. One wall is insulated and the double garage door faces west, into the afternoon sun. No insulation in the attic above.
When I first started I wanted something portable and not a window a/c unit.
I tried a total of three different A/C units and one swamp cooler. My first try was a Boston Products 10,000 BTU portable cooler from Wal-Mart. Cost, $200 even. It was a piece of junk and didn?t even cool well standing right in front of the thing, so I took it back. In all fairness, it may have been defective.
Next I went shopping at Home Depot and Lowe?s. Both stores had all their A/Cs on clearance. I told them what I wanted to do and both stores said if it didn?t cool as needed, they would accept returns on the items.
I bought another 10,000 BTU portable unit from Home Depot. This unit is made by Evenstar and was a much higher quality unit than the one from Wal-Mart. Closeout price was around $315. This unit worked much better than the Wal-Mart unit but still would not cool down my garage. I returned the unit to Home Depot and as promised I had no problems getting a full refund.
Next, I bought a MoblieMaster 12" evaporater cooler unit from Lowe's, almost the same price as the Home Depot A/C, $320, and again on close out. The swamp cooler had a huge fan, and blew cool air, but as I suspected it just raised the humidity too much. Doug had warned me about this. Lowe's gave me no hassles on the return.
BY this time I decided if I wanted cold air, I was going to need a window unit. This presented a new problem since most units at 15,000 BTU and above are 220 volt. I was worried about the added cost of having an electrician wire the new outlet, since I didn?t feel comfortable doing it myself. After help from the VAF community, thanks Captain John!, I decided to go ahead and hire the electrician. The electrician was great, the work was done in about an hour and a half but best of all the cost was cheap! So I bought a 18,000 BTU unit by LG on closeout from Home Depot for $277. The unit is rated for up to 1,000 suare feet, but being that my garage is uninsulated and has a washer, dryer and hot water heater, I decided to go with a the larger unit. The instructions for installing this A/C are worthless and the supplied hardware is junk. The unit itself, however,is GREAT! Very quiet, very cold. Yesterday the thermostat in my house was set at 75. My garage was cooler than the house!
I also bought foam panels to insulate the garage door, and I did double up on the insulation panels. Cost for 8 sheets was $64 and it took about 2 hours to cut and install. The girlfriend says it looks like something from NASA since the foam sheets are covered in a shinny, aluminum foil-like material. It was either the shiny foil looking stuff or pink foam from The Pink Panther.
The results, yeah 18,000 BTU is an overkill, but it gets my garage down right cold. The foam on the door is WELL worth the money. Not only is it quiet, but it helped the cooling considerably. More than likely, I?ll blow insulation into the attic this fall or winter also. Home Depot and Lowe's will ?rent? you the insulation blower for free with the purchase of 20 bags or more. I figure for around $200 I can do the attic. If you?re thinking about doing this project, do it now! All the stores are closing out their A/Cs so you?ll save some cash.
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