Portable Air Conditioner

[Gary Hodgin]

Trying to think ahead to warm weather. Last couple of summers it has been to hot for me to do much in my 21'x24' garage shop. I'm thinking of adding one of those portable air conditions but don't have any idea as to how an a/c would work in my garage.

The garage door is remote and I can keep it closed when I'm wanting to keep the garage cool. Someone mislead my wife into believing a garage was for a car but I've got her convinced otherwise. The garage is not insulated and it wouldn't be easy to insulate it.

Any recommends on a/c units? I thinking along the lines of something like this from HD.
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202562961/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=portable+air+conditioner&storeId=10051#.USqkaqJwpD0

BTW, I'm not expecting something that will keep the garage in low 70s when it's 100 degrees outside. Would like something that would keep it around 80-85 when it's 90-100 outside.

[Greg Cuetara]

Gary is there a reason you can't use a window unit? Not exactly sure how they rate the units but IMHO the portable units have much less oomph than the window units. I have an 8,500btu portable and it is nice and glad that we have it but it puts out the same or less than a 5,000 btu window unit.

I have a buddy who put a 12,000btu window unit on a sled with rollers and he would open up his garage door roll it over and then he had built a wall out of plywood that he would extend out, push the unit outside, extend the plywood walls and then turn on the unit and it seemed to work pretty well for him.

Another thing is that the window units are much cheaper than the portable units and even with a portable unit you will need to vent to the outside so you will need some sort of window etc. I have casement windows in my house which make it difficult to use a regular window unit unless I take out the whole glass part etc.

Greg

[Brian Libby]

+1 to what Greg said.

[Gary Hodgin]

Greg,
I have 2 windows that I can use for a window unit. My wife would prefer me not to do that since the two windows are in the front of the garage and in the front of the house. I could do it to save money or get more oomph. They are quite a bit cheaper.

A 5000 btu unit at Home Depot sells for between $100-150 while the 11000 btu I'm looking at is close to $300. I was simply comparing the btu's which might not be the best thing.

[Darius Ferlas]

In my experience these don't last. I've gone through 2 portable A/C units in just over a year. A hassle to set up and a hassle to maintain, and then they die.

None will last much longer in a dusty environment, as they suck in the air of the room they are supposed to cool.

[Gary Hodgin]

Darius,
That's not encouraging.:) I've got a while before I'll need one so I'm going to think about it a little more. My shop isn't real dusty. I'm almost exclusively hand tool but I do use my table saw, band saw, and planer every now and then. I have decent dust collect and what little sanding I do is usually by hand and with 150 or 220. If I need to use my ROS, I take it outside. I am thinking more in terms of a window a/c now.
Thanks,
Gary

[Greg Cuetara]

Gary,

What is the climate like down there in Tennesee? I do not know that much about that part of the country. One idea, which may or may not be feasible, would be to cut a hole in the side or back of your garage to install a 'window' unit. If it does get really cold down there you could build a plywood box to go on it on the outside during the winter months. At least then you wouldn't be taking up any window space.

On another note I forgot to mention earlier that I had a problem with our portable unit growing mold very easily....have had to take the whole thing apart a few times to really get it dry and clean it out before it gets used. Not a big deal but a pain in the rear....probably the same with the window units just can't see the insides...

Greg

[Kevin Bourque]

I have one of those Home Depot portables in my 20x14 bedroom. It takes forever to cool down the room. I can't imagine it would make much of a dent in a garage.

[Gary Hodgin]

Greg,
My wife is okay with a window a/c. I think she'd let me do it just to keep me out of the house. I got a while but I'm thinking about an 8000 btu unit that costs a little over $200. We have hot and humid summers. Last year was terrible.

My SIL's birthday is late June and I smoked some ribs for her party last year. The temp on my thermometer read 115 degrees. The official temp in Nashville (about 35 miles from me) was 112, as I recall. Hottest day in Nashville's recorded history. It absolutely wore me out and took me 3 days to get over it. We had a bunch of 100+ days. 95 degrees felt cool. I have congested heart failure and can't take temps like that. I hope last year was a aberration but the past summers have been hotter than years ago.

I know there's not much of chance to get my garage "cool" under those conditions. I'll just not do any wwing when it's that hot, but I would like to be able to get the temp down to 85 or so when the outside is low to mid 90s. Also, I do most of my wwing in the evening during the summer because of the heat.

[Gary Hodgin]

Kevin,
Now, I'm pretty sure I'll go with a window unit, but I want to check around a little more. I don't want to waste my money. Tomorrow night I'm going to a local woodworkers' club that I belonged to several years ago. Had to drop out because the meetings conflicted with something else. Plan to rejoin tomorrow night and hopefully some of the members have some experience with this.
Gary

[John Fuda]

How about a mini-split? You can mount the external half anywhere and the internal half anywhere. These are used heavily overseas and I'm considering one for my future workshop. They'll run you around $1000 plus install (have to have a licensed HVAC person to make the final connections and charge they coils), but it is the most elegant solution. This would keep you from having the ugly window units viewable on your home's front.

As far as window units go, in my current workshop, which doubles as a garage, I have a window unit. I'm fortunate that I have windows in the front and back, so mine is not visible from the road. It is an 8,200 btu model and keeps my uninsulated 20 x 26 garage with 14' ceilings comfortable enough in the NC summer. I say comfortable enough becuase it struggles to keep it below 80 if the temperature is above 90 outside, but it is enough to pull out the humidity (I also run a seperate dehumidifer in there year round to keep my tools from rusting) keep it nice enough to work in, and preferable to opening the door or windows.

Another option is to make a place for the window unit on the wall not visible from the front. Cut a hole in the wall big enough for the window unit and some extra framing and mount the unit in it. It can be made to look rather nice if you do a good job, but would probably be a negative if you ever resell the home to someone who does work in the garage much.

[Myk Rian]

Kevin,
Now, I'm pretty sure I'll go with a window unit, but I want to check around a little more. I don't want to waste my money.
If you don't mind cutting a hole in the wall, it could be mounted out of sight.

[Steve Peterson]

I have one of those Home Depot portables in my 20x14 bedroom. It takes forever to cool down the room. I can't imagine it would make much of a dent in a garage.

This is especially true if the garage is not insulated. My workshop is about 13'x23' in one stall of a 3 car garage. I have one of the ~5000 BTU portable units that runs two 5" air tubes to a cracked window. It can cool the room down to around 85 degrees when it is 100 outside. The walls and ceiling are insulated, but I could not fully cool the room until the roll-up door was also insulated. I try to run my 5hp Clearview dust collector only when it is really needed.

A mini-split system should be able to provide much more cooling.

Steve

[Gary Hodgin]

I can't hide a window unit very well. My two car garage door opens from the rear. We have a drive way along the side of the house and enter the garage from the rear. The only wall available is the wall running down the side of the house next to the drive. The other has a door that opens into the kitchen.

Although not desirable, a unit in one of the front windows is not terribly conspicuous because of a big oak tree. The unit would be hard to find when the leaves are on but stick out when not.

I'll look into the split unit is I can't satisfy myself with another solution. It's a little more money than I want to spend on a garage shop. I'd have built a decent size backyard shop along time ago if I lived where I could do it.

[Brian Elfert]

5,000 BTU isn't much for an air conditioner. I just picked up a decent used one for $10. I'm only planning to air condition 64 square feet.

Various folks have tried to use the portable A/C units in RVs and they just don't have much power. They have used other air conditioners with the same BTU ratings and gotten a lot more cooling out of them.

[Mike Cutler]

Gary

Go with the window unit. I have a Sharp, and a Penquino, portable that we used to use. Both are rated at 10K btu's, neither is remotely close to the two 10K window units we just put in to replace them,and we don't get anywhere near the heat and humidity you get, here in ct.

[Gary Hodgin]

Mike,
Thanks for the info. I've pretty much backed off the idea of a portable. The key issues I've got to think through is whether I want a window unit in the front of the house and what size unit I need to get satisfactory cooling. I might have to give up the idea of cooling during the peak of summer but we have pretty hot weather running from May through October around here coupled with high humidity. Not Florida, but pretty hot and humid.
Gary