anyone have experience cooling their garage in the summer? Im moving my home office work space out to the garage and was looking for cooling ideas

I read that the portable AC units arent up to the task for AZ summers. Window unit is an option, but Id have to make it work with the side garage door and Id lose that exit. Any other ideas? Looking for something that costs under $500

Is your garage insulated? including the door?

Avis wrote:Is your garage insulated? including the door?

nope
i have block for 1 wall, the other drywall

Your going to be hard put to cool that... And even if you do, the a/c will run non stop and your electric bill will go through the roof.


However, Long ago I purchased for $300 a portable a/c that was on wheels, and worked really well. But I was also using it in doors. Only thing it had to have was a way to blow all the hot air outside. So I got a dryer vent tube, cut a hole in my wall and sealed it up so it looked nice with a flap on the outside.

ahh yah, I think one of my next projects is to try and insulate the garage a bit better

thinking maybe some radiant along the walls then some board insulation on top of that?

i was considering the spray insulation foam stuff for the garage door since its light and I can cut/trim it so it still closes?

For garage doors, I've always bought the 4x8 sheets of foam insulation from Home Depot and cut it the size of the door panels and a little bit of glue, it sticks and works great. That alone will help a ton, especially if your garage door gets a lot of afternoon sun.

In our shop, what we did on the walls is your standard fiberglass pink insulation and then used peg board to finish off the walls. Peg board is the most useful thing to have in a garage in my opinion, and you need something to keep the insulation in place anyways... so why not.

Hmm, mind taking a pic of how you have it setup?

This obviously isn't my garage, but it's what we did...




And this is what we used...
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rmax-Thermasheath-2-in-x-4-ft-x-8-ft-R-13-1-Polyisocyanurate-Rigid-Foam-Insulation-Board-613010/100573703


If you cut your pieces tight, you probably don't even need glue as they will slide behind the edge of the panel where it attaches to the next panel.


Use this in your walls,
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Owens-Corning-R-13-Kraft-Faced-Insulation-Roll-15-in-x-32-ft-RF10/202585857


Then buy your 4x8 sheets of white or brown pegboard, and finish off your wall(s)

With this set up, we can turn the A/C on in our shop in the morning, and within an hour have the temp down 15-20 degrees and it'll stay that way if you don't open the big door, only turning on a handful of times for a short period. Granted, we have a 2 ton package unit, but it's also bigger then your garage.


Pick out something from this list,
http://www.homedepot.com/b/Heating-Venting-Cooling-Air-Conditioners-Coolers-Air-Conditioners-Portable-Air-Conditioners/N-5yc1vZc4m4

Park it next to you and you should be good.


We used this on the outside where our vent tube ran into the wall. Painted it the color of the house and it looked nice.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Master-Flow-4-in-Round-Wall-Vent-Black-WVA4BL/100396976

Here's a vent tube that would work.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Whirlpool-6-ft-Dryer-SecureConnect-Vent-4396010RP/202204725

these single zone units are the way to go. Lenny has had a couple of them and they work great and not difficult to install.

http://www.lg-dfs.com/standard-inverter.aspx

Daniel is right though. if you don't insulate, you're wasting money.

That's a pretty cool little unit Matt.

nice, thats a lot of good info!

Looks like this will be my August project

Have any questions or need help, just let me know!