Bigger Would've Been Better

[04 Navi]

Well I've had the AC in for almost two weeks and I do love it, however I wish that I would have had more cooling capacity. It is 96f today and it keeps up okay, but it can't pull it down very well even on a cooler day. When you open a door and pull a truck in it bumps up a couple of degrees and takes a long time to come down to the set temp of 78f.

It's a two ton unit with a 800cfm blower, cooling about 1500 sq ft with 9' ceilings and two and a half of the walls are outside walls. Probably should have done a 3 ton and a 1100cfm unit.

 

[JohnHenrys48]

I'm sure there must be a calculator around here that would tell you the ton per sq/ft. But also, if you pull a hot vehicle in the whole thing needs to be cooled to ambient...that might be why it seems to work for quite a while before reaching the set temp.

Good luck,

Jim

 

[Kevin54]

It's a two ton unit with a 800cfm blower, cooling about 1500 sq ft with 9' ceilings and two and a half of the walls are outside walls. Probably should have done a 3 ton and a 1100cfm unit.

What kind of lights do you have in there? And if they are not on and you have windows, do you have blinds to keep pulled? It can be 95 outside and my garage will stay around 10-15 cooler on the inside with no sunlight coming in the windows. But I also have R30 insulation in the ceiling, R19 in the walls, and 6' overhangs at the front and side of the garage. It makes a huge difference. Do you have any ceiling fans to circulate the air around? Also if the garage is pretty much airtight, try cracking a door or window slightly at the opposite end of where your air is coming out. You would be surprised the difference just doing that makes. And if you shut the air off at night or just turn it on when you are out there, try turning it on first thing in the morning before it gets extremely hot. The air conditioner will not have to work so hard to cool it down. Just a few suggestions.

Kevin

 

[04 Navi]

What kind of lights do you have in there? And if they are not on and you have windows, do you have blinds to keep pulled? It can be 95 outside and my garage will stay around 10-15 cooler on the inside with no sunlight coming in the windows. But I also have R30 insulation in the ceiling, R19 in the walls, and 6' overhangs at the front and side of the garage. It makes a huge difference. Do you have any ceiling fans to circulate the air around? Also if the garage is pretty much airtight, try cracking a door or window slightly at the opposite end of where your air is coming out. You would be surprised the difference just doing that makes. And if you shut the air off at night or just turn it on when you are out there, try turning it on first thing in the morning before it gets extremely hot. The air conditioner will not have to work so hard to cool it down. Just a few suggestions.

Kevin

Temp is set at 78f and there are some windows but the blinds are pulled and the garage is insulated very well.

 

[kdubaz]

I'll tell ya, I live in Tempe, and my 2 ton'er was barely cooling my 600 sq ft garage. We have a 3.5 ton on the house which is 1300 sq ft, so when my garage a/c finally gave up the ghost we got a good deal on a 3.5 ton 12 seer unit for the space. It's being installed as we speak.

From what I understand, it's a ton per 400 sq ft, for high traffic areas, it's 200.

 

[oldgoat]

I put a 18000 BTU widow unit in the wall of my 22 x 26 that is insulated. Takes a lot longer than I thought it would for it to cool it down. From what I have read that a concrete floor and especially a car inside makes for a heat sink. My garage does stay cooler than the outside by usually 10 deg unless it is really cold or hot for several days and then it will finally soak through.