We had a wonderful bunch of ideas on garage heating systems! Thanks to everyone who contributed. More ideas are welcome!

Now we are getting to COOLING season

My neighbor just put up a nice 24x24 shop for his motorcycles. I gave him a working room AC unit to put in it. Now his wife is mad at me because he may spend tooo much time in the shop. We already installed a telephone line and cable TV. An ethernet connection from his cable modem network is next. His wife WILL kill me then

Any ideas on how to cool a shop down so that tools don't rust in your hands and your pants don't fall down from water weight?

I know there are parts of the country where this is not a problem, but for the rest of us we could use some ideas for relief.



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I thought your earlier post "Summertime Air Cooler" was the ideal solution, short of an A/C set up like your friend has. And I thought having an old oscillating fan was livin' large.

 

The Air MOVER works great outside and in some inside locations but in a confined space it can raise a hurricane! You can get too much of a good thing sometimes

I was kind of wondering about how to keep your cool free of too many bugs, or dirt and flying debris. How to get max cool for min bucks. I like to spend my bucks on FUN things like auto parts or juice for my welder not on AC/heat bills.


over!

 

what about one fo those window a/c units? would that work?

 

We put one of those window/room AC units in the neighbor's shop for the real miserable 105F/95%days. I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with passive ventilation systems that work, or even active systems with fans that don't cost $$$ to run.


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Heres an idea to cool your garage and water your lawn at the same time. Items you'll need include; 1 A/C radiator from any car/truck. 1 box style fan (9.99 walmart special works great). Two lengths of graden hose that can run from your outdoor water supply to the A/C radiator then to a sprinkler head. 4-12" long Strong cable ties.

Just by reading the item list I think you're getting the idea here.

Connect the female end to your outdoor water supply. Cut the male end off one of your graden hoses. Attach this to one side (inlet) of the A/C radiator. Cut the male end off the second hose and attach this end to the other side (outlet) of the A/C radiator, then connect the hose to your sprinkler. Use the cable ties to attach the radiator in front of the box fan. Start the water and turn on the fan.

The water temp running out of your water supply should be around 55* (the average thremal temp of the earth at 6' in North America). That should give you a very nice cool breeze even on the hottest days.

ps. IF you're cheap like me you can put a 55 gallon drum in your basement and run a small pump (I use a 1.5 amp 250 gph pump meant for outdoor fountains) to recyle the water. Draw the water from the bottom of the drum and return it to the top.

 

Nice idea, simple, CHEAP, the recycle will work well for intermittant use!

Be careful to clean the AC condenser very well to avoid contamination of your water supply.

Thanks for sharing!


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I use an old furnace blower to move air around my garage . You can even put casters on the bottom so you can move it around , you would be surprised how much air one of the puts out .

I must admit that i do have 2 BIG window a/c units mounted in the wall too , it really helps on those miserably hot days .
When we have family get togethers I fire up both of them and leave the garage door wide open , it makes a nice cool area for the older people and keeps my wife happy that I have the a/c in the garage .

 

Benz302-

That is a tip I will have to pass to the neighbor. It may get me part way out of the doghouse at least until I install that ethernet connection for him.

Lets get this straight now. Find a way for your shop improvements to benefit the better half.
Kind of like my new compressor, -so that I can check/fill her tires, and use the new sandblaster to fix that rust spot on her car!

I'm sure this tip will apply the other way around also.
Thanks!


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With the garage door and the side door open it lets a breez blow through when there is a breez. But it gets hot where I live. 100+ degrees in the summer for days on end are common. Sometimes I might find an old swamp cooler at the swapmeet for cheap. A small side draft works well and doesn't take up much space. Sit it on the floor or up on a crate. I just fill the pan with the hose. Or I just use a fan.

 

Driver-

A swamp cooler would work Great in a low humidity environment!
You could probably even make one somehow.

I wish you luck looking for one!

-Eric

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torque1st

Along the same lines of making the wife think its for her .

Years ago my brother had a little 3.8 in his cutlass . We lived in a valley and his fiancee lived on top of the hill . She couldn't understand why we had to spend 1000 dollars no a rebuild , cam and intake for his car that ran just fine !

I explained to her that we had to make his car more powerful so he could climb the hill faster and see his lovely fiancee that he had missed all day while he was working . She took it hook , line and sinker .

We still look back and laugh about that one .

 

btw

My wife is very happy that I have all the ammenitties of home in my garage , it keeps me from having to drack dirt into the house all the time . I even built a little urinal and mini septic tank , crude but it works .

 

Now that's ALL the comforts! I presume that you have a well stocked electric beer cooler also to help flush out the urinal.

Just take care with spirits around power tools!

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