Shop Air Conditioning

Eric,

There is a fine and fast growing plant (Pueraria lobata) that, if planted under the window in question, would completely cover the window unit in a matter of weeks. Given your climate and proper soil amendment, I think you would be all set. Knowing your horticultural zeal with the ornimental grass growing, I think you may want to give it a try!

T
 
Tod

Good idea! But it wouldn't stop at the window. In a year or two my house and yard would be a leafy lump. We have that stuff all over the place where I work. They burn it back every winter but you can't even tell come June.
 
Eric
Now that you have everyone's comments on this I have your solution. Move to Wisconsin, I have a nice out building you can bring all your restored tools and combine with what I have. It's cool in the woods although right now we are in a rainy season???? so hold off until it finally clears here. That would be rent free of course. You have to admit that's the best solution you've gotten right? Seriously, someone suggested a heat pump wouldn't that more sense---cool in the summer and warm in the winter---or do you have winter there? Just kidding of course.
wis boz
 
No, no! I got an even better solution. Wait for it! Wait for it! Get the portable unit, and a big one at that. Then you could use it inside should your home unit fail, and, more importantly, you could lend it to your nearby friends whenever they have a garage project or home unit failure. There you go. End of thread.
 
Boz

A cool shop in the woods does sound nice. We do have winters here. In fact last season we broke skim ice on two occasions. BRUTAL I tell ya.
 
Ken

We migh could work something out. If my compressor ever dies in the middle of a paint job you know whose door I'm going to knock on.
 
HVAC guy just left. He ruled out Dutch's idea saying copper prices made it unfeasible.

Seriously, he sized the situation up and said a ductless split system like Ryan posted was the way to go. As it turns out in the target location for the unit there's already a 20 amp line to tap so no additional electrician fees. I'll have a cost estimate by Monday. I'll let you know what that is.

Thanks again for all the helpful suggestions.

Eric
 
Eric, my wifes cousin installed hi s split system, except for charging it. He had the HVAC guy do that. It was not a difficult installation
 
Eric If possible put the duck work as high as possible. The classes I took said this was the most efficient way. I wasn't a AC technician (start,test and balance) but installed a lot of units. Some of them we could cool down the entire neighborhood not just your work shop.

Looking at some of the sites posted, I really liked the ceiling units.Looked like the cats meow. They seemed the most practical. I forgot if you have a ceiling in your work shop. Any way I don't want to spend your money.

The neatest unit I ever saw was in Peatone Ill. The fellow a retired colonel had a car radiator up near the ceiling and a fan behind it.The cold water pipe was connected to it and the drain went into a tank. He used that water to water his lawn and flower beds. It followed the KISS principle. A lot less than the $2500 Harker quoted. Of course if you have to drill a well and buy a pump, get permits, drive twenty miles to a savage yard find one that doesn't leak. Hire a pipe fitter It could run into big bucks. Just glad to help (; o )
 
Well it took longer than I thought but I just finished installing AC. I had a HVAC guy come out and he gave me an estimate for a ductless split system.................$4000. No thanks. I called a few more and they were anywhere between 3 and 4k. No reason to dump that much cabbage into a garage shop whose days are numbered. I went out yesterday and bought a portable unit. Brought it home, hooked it up, and waited for the room to cool off, and waited, and waited...... Well it never did. The best that unit could do was upper 80s and that was only a coule degrees lower than the outside temp. So I took it back and bought a lowly window unit. Turns out the nandinas and youpons have done well this summer so the unit isn't very visible from the street and if I plant one more shrub in the right place it won't be seen at all. Given the money saved and the temporary status of my present shop it should work just fine. I did have to install a new outlet and that meant pulling wire in the attic and adding a breaker to the box but it wasn't too bad. Oh, it cools the place too which is more than can be said for the portable that cost 50% more.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Eric
 
Glad you got some cool hee hee Nothing worse than a wood worker dropping moisture on a fine piece of wood.
Harker was off by $$$$$ lost that bet.( : o )

Put a trellis in front of the window with plastic flowers no one will ever know. Carpenters camo.
 
Lost the bet??? I was the only one who guessed...so I WON. Actually, I was going to say 4k but went conservative, didn't know he was going to get a quote from Al Capone's house of cool.
 
Sorry for the bad info on the portable units Eric.

A friend has the Amana unit in his garage and it works good but his garage is smaller than yours.

Hitch
 
Hitch

No problem. I had several people suggest a portable as the solution. In fact it might have worked if I bought a model that had hoses for intake and exhaust. Mine had exhaust hose only and I think what was happening is the negative pressure it created caused hot air to be sucked in from cracks and crevices including from the attic around the cieling door. That hot air must have negated the cooling capabilites. I don't think the window unit creates negative pressure so it cools better. I bet if you were using the portable unit inside a cooled house that needed help in a particular room it would work fine.
 
Several years ago I was a "lower income housing technician" with several places in Detroit. One of the rocket scientist tenants (The r.s., tongue in cheek, is no "slight" against all the Alabama r.s.) wanted to cool their flat so they "installed" a window a/c unit in the middle of the living room. Well, that didn't cool it down enough. Hmmmmmmmmmmm r.c. So, they picked up two more units (guess more is better) and by the time they were "satisfied", they had 3 window units in the living room & dining room and swore it helped. Well, if they were happy, everybody is happy.
Way too funny.
Lou
 
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Lou

You mean you didn't teach them about the First Law of Thermodynamics? C'mon, as a former physics teacher you could have set them straight. Reminds me of the guy on our football team that argued the running we did was more uphill than downhill and the coaches did that on purpose. The starting and ending points were the same!
 
Hmmmmmmmm, thermodynamics. They wouldn't have been able to pronounce it, much less understand it.

I had an upper flat tenant who cranked the furnace up as high as it would go and then "cooled" the place by opening the doors when it got too hot. Ok, we'd understand that opening the windows and putting COLD air onto the thermostat would merely keep it running but...........not them.

It was always something new that defied logic.
Lou
 
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