How to cool my garage ?

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Pontiacfan

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I have an insulated 2 car garage. It is attached to the house. It gets smokin hot out there. I want to put in a large window unit ,but my wife says no way. It would look tacky as the windows are in the front of the house. Any ideas ? I have personally experienced a 10000btu portable air conditioner in use , and it couldnt keep up with the heat in a small camper , so I dont think that would do my two car any good. Thanks all...
 
My garage had the same window facing the street problem. I went with the Mitsubishi ductless system. It fits over the walk in door of the garage. It cools the 2 car garage down very nicely. I tried the portable and it was about worthless. My garage is my main detail space and in the Florida summer the Mits was a great investment and a lifsaver.
 
A split unit is best. I got a 12000 BTU from Sams for $280. It is a portable unit and isnt visible from the street. It has kept my 2 car garage in low 80s when it is upper 90s. It isnt a split unit but it costs 1/10 the price. It has an exhaust duct that is flush with the window. It costs $280! I sweat but am not miserable.
 
Porsche Pilot said:
My garage had the same window facing the street problem. I went with the Mitsubishi ductless system. It fits over the walk in door of the garage. It cools the 2 car garage down very nicely. I tried the portable and it was about worthless. My garage is my main detail space and in the Florida summer the Mits was a great investment and a lifsaver.
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How much do those mitsubishi units generally run? They don't like to give out prices unless you are serious about buying some.
 
That's a little expense for A/C...

I would be looking for something less than $400 or so.
 
Old Tiger said:
Ed. the criminals here wanted $3900 for a 12KBTU unit!
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Yikes Jim!! That is insane. 2k was way higher than I wanted to spend. I watched the guy install it. It was a full day but not almost 4 grand. I dont blame ya for not installing one.
 
If its an attached garage you could possibly have your duct work rerouted
 
Flash Gordon said:
If its an attached garage you could possibly have your duct work rerouted
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Thats a option but not all houses have duct work accessible to the garage,plus the btu's of the unit my not carry the load..so while your trying to cool the garage your house is getting hot and that little ziz-wheel on the power meter is going around so fast it will make you dizzy!
 
I'll share what I did and it has worked beautifully!!! I purchased a portable, 13,000 BTU a/c unit by Amcor. I installed a dryer vent in the garage door and had a metal flange made up for it to fit the exhaust tube. Total cost of parts was roughly $60. It will get the garage down to 70 degrees if I leave it on all night. Check out these pics of the setup and before and after pics:

Temperature Before Starting Inside:

DSCF9881.jpg


The setup:

DSCF9888.jpg



Temperature later:

DSCF9887.jpg

 
maximus20895 said:
Nice, do you have any pics on the outside?

How big is your garage?
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The outside looks great, just a white dryer vent against the white garage door; you hardly see it. The garage is a 2 1/2. It will drop it 10 degrees over night and of course no humidity. The products work so much better (as does their owner) when the temps and humidity are normal.
 
richy said:
The outside looks great, just a white dryer vent against the white garage door; you hardly see it. The garage is a 2 1/2. It will drop it 10 degrees over night and of course no humidity. The products work so much better (as does their owner) when the temps and humidity are normal.
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I will leave mine on overnight and see how it does. Ive been turning it on about 0700 and waiting until ~1000.
 
Old Tiger said:
I will leave mine on overnight and see how it does. Ive been turning it on about 0700 and waiting until ~1000.
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Jim, I'm glad you found a cheaper alternative. I bought my Amcor unit on ebay and got a fantastic deal on it as it was a brand new unit that had been scratched and couldn't be sold in a store. It's in my garage, what do I care if it had a scratch?
 
How well insulated is your garage? If the walls and ceiling are not insulated it will be difficult to keep hot out and cold in.

I found 3" of insulation in my garage ceiling made my garage about 10 degrees warmer this winter. Expecting similar results keeping it cool this summer.
 
Make sure the attic is properly vented too! I have have (had) two garages at my old house. One was finished off by the previous owner and the other was insulated and finished off by me. The one the previous owner did does not have adequate venting for the attic and is noticeably hotter in the summer. It was 103 here on Tuesday and my garage was sitting at about 82 all day with no A/C running. The other garage felt hotter than it was outside...though I don't have a thermometer in that one.
 
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