AC Not Cooling Garage

[Hustler388]

I have a window 16k btu 110vt that is not enough to cool my garage.maybe gets it to low 80's at night.And loud as hell

It started out as a carport,the entrance to the house is inside the garage to the right,then a door going to the back yard and a door by the garage door going to the drive way. It has 2 windows,The garage and the x utility rooms are overall 26x23.The garage door is insulated and metal inside and out,The wall to the right (house wall)is insulated, the back wall we insulated it when we closed in the car port, the wall on the left were insulated at the same time,the walls are 3/8 plywood,the attic is NOT insulated and is already floored,I don't really want to pull up all the decking to insulate.

The garage is not shaded,the sun sets facing the garage door, So its cooking the garage door.When I open the garage its hotter than the outside temp'

I have a lot of lights making heat,3 high output 8 ft, 2 HO t5's above each bench.The room to the left(utility room) has a upright deep freezer,which is opened up to the garage. Tv and stereo system,heres a few picks of the garage,

The house backs up to woods and there's a real bad bug problem,really cant work at night in the garage with the door up and lights on.I have to turn the lights off when I open the garage door,sux.

I've been looking at the split units,But not sure about them.or the all self contained unit that just goes outside?

Thanks for any suggestions

Rob

 

[DirtRoad]

16k btu is nothing, that's meant for like a small bedroom at best. Between that and not having an insulated ceiling your pretty much screwed.

I hear ya about the bugs, I can't open the door at night either without turning off the lights first.

 

[pattenp]

I know you realize this but insulating the ceiling will go a long way in keeping the garage cooler. If your garage was fully insulated the 16K btu unit should cool it fine. The mini splits are great, but you will need to oversize it because of the uninsulated ceiling.

 

[pattenp]

A 16K btu window unit is nothing? It can handle 900 to 1000 sqft. You must have very large small bedrooms where you live.

16k btu is nothing, that's meant for like a small bedroom at best. Between that and not having an insulated ceiling your pretty much screwed.

I hear ya about the bugs, I can't open the door at night either without turning off the lights first.

 

[Hustler388]

the house has central air,When I bought the ac I figured it would cool it some, I guess I could get one larger and on 220vt.

When I get home around 6.30 I can turn the ac on and fans and around 8.30 its taken the humidity out,better than mid 90's

what about spraying that foam looking stuff on the bottom side of the roof? when spraying it does it get all over stuff in the attic?

In the winter I can turn on my gas heater get the chill of and then run a little electric heater and its just fine.

The biggest window unit I've seen is a 25000btu

 

[brihvac]

Insulate the attic and get a gable fan or something to get that heat out. Put the door back on that room. 16K BTU is plenty for that space.

 

[Gary S]

Insulate the attic or enjoy the heat. Your choice.

 

[Falcon67]

>the attic is NOT insulated and is already floored,I don't really want to pull up all the decking to insulate.

And there is your primary problem. If you want to cool the place, get to emptying the attic and fishing bats between the joists.

 

[kenfath]

What's the temperature of the discharge air? Is your window unit dirty? That's an amazing amount of bugs. Could there be any in the AC?

 

[pseudorealityx]

a) the ceiling is really hurting you.

b) all of the heat producing stuff is hurting you.

c) the "16kbtu is good enough for 1000 ft!" is nonsense for this application. For a bedroom with a pair of lamps, it's fine. For a garage with a bunch of lighting, a deep freezer, and no ceiling insulation? No... it's not enough.

d) Gable fan isn't a bad idea if you have a way to draw make up air in through soffits or other non-garage space.

 

[JakeKohl]

Uggg...those look like mayflies...you must be near the great lakes? I used to visit Put-In-Bay often and they make quite a mess.

I have an 18kbtu unit (mini-split) in my 24x36 and it is plenty sufficient. It will drop the temp from 90F to 76 in a little less than 10 minutes. But, my ceiling, and the rest of the structure, is well insulated.

Without an insulated ceiling, you are going to buy a larger AC unit (an 18kbtu minisplit will cost you about $2,000-$3,000 installed and that may not be large enough) and you still going to pay utilities to extract all that heat coming down from the ceiling as you use it. Depending on how much you use it, that uninsulated ceiling could end up costing you an extra $20 or $30 per month in extra electricity to heat and cool it. Hiring a contractor to pull up the decking and insulate will probably be cheaper than just buying a bigger AC unit. After that, your existing AC unit will probably do the job just fine.

 

[hoffman912]

Uggg...those look like mayflies...you must be near the great lakes? I used to visit Put-In-Bay often and they make quite a mess.

ah.. good old southbass is.

 

[DTE]

Would you have enough height to insulate from the bottom and put in a suspended ceiling ?

 

[Hustler388]

Thanks for the suggestions,I do not have a gable, the roof has 2 swirly bird vents,the house has powered roof vents,

no room to drop ceiling,

The bugs are a form of mayfly,ive been spraying for years with no good,the leave a hard black/green turd on everything,especially the cars and boat in driveway.

Ill ck the ac temp and make sure its not dirty

Its going to be more than just decking,alot of stuff up there, I just ran air lines and drops all thur the attic,

What do you think it would cost to insulate the garage attic? and what kind? blow in style?

we really don't have cold winters,so the heating is not a big deal,the little space heater does a good enough job when I'm working in the garage.its never froze in there,

On average I'm in the garage around 4 hours a night 4-5 nights a week.

Rob

 

[JakeKohl]

I don't know what you are dealing with in the attic as far as storage goes - but you could just blow insulation ontop of the decking if you didn't need the storage space. It would accomplish the same thing.

 

[Tim The Tool Man]

As said above, use blown in insulation but either go from below or above (whichever is easier) and cut holes to pump it in the joist cavities. Then plug them up when done...

 

[superspec]

I run a 10,000 btu window unit in my 2 car garage. it hold 70* all night and during the 100* days itll maintain 74-76* no problem. I can work all day long with anything running and not heat it up UNLESS my air compressor comes on. 1 cycle is fine but after 3 or 4 cycles you can really feel the temp coming up.

 

[Hustler388]

Im going ck see how much the insulation cost,that blow in might work

 

[No Sweat Photos]

Some how I don't think you can have a 16k A/C on 110 volts

 

[bczygan]

Dehumidify
Wait for winter
Move north

 

[brihvac]

Some how I don't think you can have a 16k A/C on 110 volts

Yes he can. They have them

 

[Zeke]

Hang a shade in front of the big door. Insulate the under side of the roof. Do the blow in if you can.

 

[raceman17]

You can rent the blow in insulation rigs from lowes or home depot. Most will let you borrow them for free if you buy enough insulation. Reguardless buy what you have to buy to get the blower for free and then take back the insulation you don't use. It shouldnt be to hard to blow insulation under the floor that is already in the attic. I would just remove a section big enough to stick the hose in the hole and push it all the way down the opening and turn the blower on and slowly pull the hose out as your cavity fills. Also, you need to look at insulating the garage door.