how to air condition my shop

why can't you run a supply from your main house unit and just put a thermostatically controlled backdraft damper near the supply? This would not allow exhaust gas back into your home, and when it is open the positive pressure would prevent it. Just a thought. I would also put a small heat exhaust in connect to the same thermostat, to keep a good flow. This may or may not be to code, but in theory might work?? GL

 

Ya, thats pretty high. And that unit looks good. I bet it will work for ya.

 

sorry i havent chimed in, mine was great, i was living in a two story house and i spent 95% of my time in the bed room on the second floor, to save energy i bought one of those units with the hotair vent leading to a window, and living in Austin texas it gets pretty hot in the summer so it was always cold, and i love cold. electricity bill was SIGNIFICANTLY lower by cooling one room than central air on two floors.

sorry forgot to add the size of the room

it was 19x20 i believe + a large bath +closet and it was all cool

 

Well I suppose I owe all of you an update. I ended up buying one of the stand up portable air conditioners, and running the vent tube through the wall into my two car garage.

I'm not concerned about the heat accumulation in there (since the other day it was 120 in there even without the AC venting), and I've been monitoring the humidity, and the max I've seen is 32%. So looks like I'm good to go.

I've also been working on insulating the shop more. The attic and exterior walls were already insulted. Today I bought and installed a kit to insulate the garage door (pictured below)



So far I'm pretty happy with the setup. It was 101 today and the unit cooled the shop to 85 in a couple of hours. That about all I can ask for without spending a few grand.

Here are some pics of the shop. Thanks everyone again for all of your ideas.

 

Sweet job!

Humidity won't be a problem on the exhaust side. The condensation happens on the evaporator coil, which is the cold side, and should drain into a pan on the bottom of the unit.
The "hot" side of the system is simply blowing air over the compressor coils and venting so there's no increase in humidity on that side.

 

Thanks Rich, and thanks for all of your help.

This unit was advertised as also blowing some of the moisture out with the exhaust, so that you don't have to drain it as often, so that's why I decided to monitor the humidity.

 

Shop looks awesome! I'm . Didn't know they made those garage door insulating kits. Might have to pick one up for the house.

 

Yeah Dave it was incredibly easy. The strips are already cut to the right size and you just affix them with clips provided in the kit. It got great reviews on home depot and Amazon too.

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...&keyword=Garage+door+insulation&storeId=10051

 

Makes sense.

I was actually considering a way to capture the condensation that runs out the pipe in my back yard and pumping it into a dribbler feed across the compressor coils to help cool them.

Why let all of that ice-cold water from the A-Coil go to waste?

 

Wow thats an innovative idea.

I was proud of myself last week because I thought to start putting a bucket under the drain for our central AC system to water my trees with (we are only allowed to water for 2 hours per week here)

 

Thanks Keith!

 

My dad does that, must be a Texas thing.

 

I'm currently building a 26x36 shop on my property...as part of my new home project.

and I'm using an 18K btu Amana PTAC (like the hotel units)

I've used them before in room additions and they work GREAT.

simple stupid...provide grat heat and A/C. and are a plug-in unit.

and not very expensive.

another good thing...once you install the "sleeve" in the wall...if the unit ever goes up, slide the old unit out...slide a new unit in.

 

attached to my new home is a 24x26 garage...

there I'm hooked up to the heat pump forced air system...

with an electronically controlled damper that will allow me to heat and cool the garage as I need/want.

 

If you drop pan treat pills into the water trap and condesate pan, you'll be good to go for months...... Drain opener will get washed away with the first flow of condensation.

 

looks awesome keith!

and smooth. we have a plastic kiddie pool under ours that our dogs lay in when it's hot haha.