How To Resaw In A Hot Garage, Comfortably

[Julie Moriarty]

Set up a fan behind you, preferably at table height, and keep it on while resawing. The breeze from the fan will keep you cool and at the same time blow dust away from you. Clean and cool! Ask me how I know.

[Nick Decker]

Julie, that's my MO for pretty much everything I do in the shop all summer long, except I have two fans.

[Bruce Volden]

Well I thought everyone who retires moves to Florida because of the "wonderful" climate.

Never mind, I guess that's a winter thing

Bruce

[Julie Moriarty]

Well I thought everyone who retires moves to Florida because of the "wonderful" climate.

Silly, you know when you retire you're SUPPOSED to move where it's uncomfortably hot.

[Ben Rivel]

Mini split.

[Bruce Wrenn]

AC with air cleaner circulating cool air around the shop. Heat in the winter also. Used to do fan routine, till I figured that it was loading my shop with humidity. It's hard to stain something that has sweat drops on it.

[Bill Carey]

I discovered that if I keep the door to my office on the second floor open the AC upstairs falls down to the shop and keeps it at 75 or so when it's 90 plus outside. The whole building is insulated .Makes all the difference.

[Mitchell Garnett]

Bruce - just curious - what kind of AC do you have? portable, window, split unit, etc. I've just moved from the Pacific Northwest to East Texas and I'm wondering what to do to keep cool.

thanks.

[Dick Brown]

I use a large swamp cooler. I can hear it now! RUST YOUR TOOLS!!! Not in the desert side of Oregon. A few weeks ago it was 104 in the shade outside and 75 in my shop. No rust, pennies to run and 29 degrees cooler than outside! Love it! Just close the doors, open a window on the other end of the room, turn that baby on and work cool.

[Jamie Buxton]

Minimal clothing helps too.

[Edwin Santos]

Minimal clothing helps too.

True, but I wouldn't go naked around cutting tools. Even with a SawStop.

[Greg Parrish]

I can see a mini split in your future..................

Being in Florida also, I love mine. Low maintenance, quiet, low power consumption and comfortable work environment. I run mine full time all year round along with a dehumidifier. Keeps interior very stable and my cast iron shiny and clean.

[Julie Moriarty]

I can see a mini split in your future..................

Being in Florida also, I love mine. Low maintenance, quiet, low power consumption and comfortable work environment. I run mine full time all year round along with a dehumidifier. Keeps interior very stable and my cast iron shiny and clean.

You know. You can't really appreciate the crushing heat and humidity of Florida unless you live here year around. I don't have AC in the garage but it would be easy to cut open the duct and let the cool air fly. The air handler is in the garage. But the problem is I vent the DC exhaust outside and with it would go all the cool air I paid for.

The garage door is 2" and insulated, so as long as it's closed, the garage is cooler than outside. It's not so bad. The fan works well but I especially like the fact the dust is being blown away from me. I made up two box fan plenums that hold 6" of filter material. I use a 5" MERV 13 filter and a 1" standard furnace filter as a pre-filter. The air blown at me is filtered and I don't have to wear a respirator.

[Don Jarvie]

If you plan on working in the shop everyday then it’s worth the investment of a mini split.

[mark mcfarlane]

... I don't have AC in the garage but it would be easy to cut open the duct and let the cool air fly. The air handler is in the garage. But the problem is I vent the DC exhaust outside and with it would go all the cool air I paid for...

FYI, I think it is against code, at least in some areas, to share the same HVAC circulation with living space and a garage. Whether or not it is a code violation in your area, opening an HVAC vent in the garage is a dangerous thing to do.

Here's the root problem: Whatever air volume you blow into your garage must come from somewhere. Blowing air into the garage (which is outside the normal HVAC envelope) means creating a negative pressure inside the home, and that pressure must equalize, or your house would collapse. If you have an 8" duct in your garage that is blowing 150CFM, then 150CFM needs to get into your home some way.

Option 1: Replacement air comes from your garage: Recirculating air with garage/auto fumes (carbon monoxide being one particularly bad one) can kill you, or make you sick.

Option 2: Replacement air comes from outside.

2a) Fresh, but hot, humid air comes through bathroom vents, the kitchen range hood, and other building envelope leakage points. This isn't dangerous, but also isn't very energy efficient, will make your house more humid/less comfortable and will raise your cooling bill significantly.

2b) Unhealthy air backdrafts into the house, e.g. from a gas water heater flue which is full of CO.

I encourage people to never open any garage vents in an HVAC system used for living space, but if you do open a duct in the garage, I would encourage at least installing a few CO detectors inside the home.

Some mini-split info and benefits: The mini-split systems are very efficient, and can be DIY installed, and since you are an electrician you can run the electrical. I have 3 Mitsubishi systems. You can get a Mitsubishi system with a variable speed compressor that can run down around 15-25%, which means you get very cheap and efficient cooling AND exceptional dehumidification in the spring and fall. Fixed speed AC's take 5-10 minutes before water starts dripping out of the drain pipe. Dehumidification does not happen until this point: when the water is removed from your building. In the spring and fall traditional HVAC systems may not run long enough to perform much dehumidification, instead they cycle on and off frequently to just control the temp. The closer the outdoor temp is to the indoor temp, they worse they do at dehumidification.

The better variable speed mini-splits run at slow speed in the spring and fall, closer to 100% of the time at a very low power consumption, performing their dehumidification efficiently, making you feel more comfortable at a higher temp due to lower humidity, which makes them even more efficient and cost effective because you will feel the same when the inside temp is a degree or two hotter.

I think most people miss the dehumidification benefit of variable speed HVAC systems. There are also 2-speed and variable speed whole house AC systems. They cost more to buy and maintain, which is also a consideration.