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New Build Garage Ventilation philosophy

Xjsar

New member
Joined
May 7, 2024
Messages
1
Greetings, recently bought a new build home in the Phoenix area. Small 2.5ish car garage. Its a relatively sealed home so efficency is quite high. Which brings me to my garage. Its entirely sealed up. No ventilation whatsoever. Traditionally, in every other home ive been in here in AZ the garage usually has one or two vents on the outside wall for circulation. But my garage does not. Sealed (as much as it can be) and insulated door, no vents to the attic or exterior. This makes me think this is part of some effeciency standard that im unfamiliar with and i havent been able to find much about it.

Anyone know anything about efficiency standards and why this may be? I ask mainly because in the past growing up, adding a vent on the ceiling, with a fan, drastically reduced temps inside quite quickly (even with two hot vehicles in the evening, whereas now with it being sealed, its still quite warm the next morning when i hop into my truck after i parked it the afternoon prior.
 
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CraigStu

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Joined
May 22, 2014
Messages
4,057
Location
Blacksburg, Va
I don't know if the garage is included although I think not, but our new (5yrs ago now) build house had to pass a vacuum test to get an occupancy permit. The garage is fully insulated and drywalled and it is pretty dang tight but I am not sure the garage door would pass the test. I know this testing is required in our SW Va county but not sure how wide spread it is.
 

BORING HOP YARD

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Joined
Jan 13, 2007
Messages
1,105
Location
Boring Oregon
I did a deep retrofit on my home by putting 2 inches of foam insulation on the outside walls and roof, I don't have vents as well.
I found lots of good information on the Green Building Advisor website.

https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/all-about-roof-venting
 
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pima67

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 5, 2009
Messages
310
Location
Tucson, AZ
I'm guessing the vents you saw in other houses were required due to gas water heater. Our house garage build in 2006 has a vent up high and one down low and a gas water heater. If you have a gas water heat it may be a power vented one for intake and exhaust.
 

manwithtools

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Joined
Aug 24, 2015
Messages
14,159
Location
Lebanon, TN
I'm guessing the vents you saw in other houses were required due to gas water heater. Our house garage build in 2006 has a vent up high and one down low and a gas water heater. If you have a gas water heat it may be a power vented one for intake and exhaust.
Last house in Southern CA had a gas tank style water heater and no vent's in the garage. Current home in TN has gas tankless with no vent's in the garage. If the garage has enough cubic feet of air volume, no external air admittance is needed. I've really never seen vent's in a garage that I can recall. Garages are not that air tight typically.
 

wssix99

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Joined
Mar 2, 2011
Messages
5,162
Location
Chicago, IL
Hopefully this thread will assist you with some perspective. It also has a number of ideas I have employed (and many great ones from others that I have not had to resort to yet) for cooling down things in the summer: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/ventillation-in-an-energy-efficient-garage.337783/

Vents contradict the insulation in the room but, as pointed out above, they are needed to address any carbon monoxide concerns. The HRV allowed me to address my municipal concerns with CO from cars. Heavy use of our EV vs. ICE vehicles also helps bring the heat way down. My summer mod to remove the heat exchanger from the HRV addresses the rest.

I expect that in AZ, using one of the timer and fan combos mentioned in the thread could get you some great passive cooling at night.
 
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