Summer humidity and temps in whers I live are too high for evap coolers to do any good. I don't want to cool the whole garage, I just want find a way to ( when needed) blow cool air on me while I'm working in the garage. I have done some online searching about trying to make a windows unit portable, and I have read some about portable units; but everything I have found only discusses cooling the entire room. As I said, I just want to rig up something (real AC, not evap) that will blow cool air on me, and that I can move around the garage. Has anyone got a hack for this?
Cool air on me
- Thread starter Ctoucon
- Start date
whateg01
Well-known member
Portable AC units do this. You just have to duct the warm air somewhere else. I guess you could do the same with a window unit but it's just moving the heat from in front of the unit to behind it at that point.
CraigStu
Well-known member
I have a 28D x 32W fully insulated garage. The door is a standard 16ftW on the left side. I pull my car in diagonally toward the right rear. I have a window unit in the right wall about 8ft back from the front. I have a 24" fan on a pedestal on my toolbox in the right front corner. Fan is 7-8ft off the floor. The AC is 6-7ft off the floor and blows out to the right rear car tire area. I use the fan to blow some of that cool air toward the front of the car when I need to. It's not ideal but I just swapped all 4 tires today. Ran the AC maybe 10 min before I started. Did the rear tires first. Rotated the fan toward the front to do the front tires. In the hour or so I was working I could notice the humidity drop. So I had air blowing on me plus the humidity drop.
Hammer1963
Well-known member
Get a portable AC unit and extra vent tubing and move it around with you. Mine vents through the upper part (7 feet) of the furnace exhaust. I keep it capped off during the cold months. Mine came from Ollie's and was very reasonable
jblnut
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I’ll be that guy and ask the question …… Why not cool the whole garage ? With a decent mini split there isn’t a lot of power draw for the amount of cooling that happens. They’re not terribly expensive either. I just installed a 2-ton and 3/4-ton mini splits and the total was around $4,400 once the tax rebate and power company rebates kick in. Not bad in my book. Plus they’re in the farm shop so I can expense them so they’ll save a few more bucks.
Previously I had a 5,000btu window unit in the shop and office and they did okay but with a SEER rating of 2.5x that of the window units the mini splits don’t use than much more power for the additional cooling they provide.
If you must only cool a small area if do like suggested above and get a portable unit and a long hose so you can duct the warm air outside. They produce a lot of water as well so having a hose to a floor drain isn’t a bad idea.
Previously I had a 5,000btu window unit in the shop and office and they did okay but with a SEER rating of 2.5x that of the window units the mini splits don’t use than much more power for the additional cooling they provide.
If you must only cool a small area if do like suggested above and get a portable unit and a long hose so you can duct the warm air outside. They produce a lot of water as well so having a hose to a floor drain isn’t a bad idea.
firebirdparts
Well-known member
It seems like mini splits are perfect for this. Or, If you stay in one place, you can run ductwork to that place.
whateg01
Well-known member
I bet there are a lot of people who can't afford to shell out 5 grand for garage ac
gizardlizard
Well-known member
I installed a Mr. Cool 24k mini split in my garage two three years ago. I bought it on sale for $999.00 thru Home Depot. Installed it myself. The only thing I had to buy extra was a vacuum pump to remove moisture before releasing the charge. My garage is 1000 square feet with 12’ ceilings and this thing cools fast!!! I love it. I think the same one now is $1600.00.
No idea if this would be enough help, but friends have used similar with good results...
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PassnThru
Well-known member
It would help if you told us where you live and how big the garage is. Also whether it has insulation and is sealed off decently.
Having said that, I worked out of my fairly tight 24X32 detached garage the last 3 years I was employed. I bought a portable unit and I was able to keep the garage decent with that. I started work at 7 AM so I would go out and open the windows and turn on the whole house fan and get the temp down - even in August it was usually no more than upper 70s at that time of the day. Once I got the garage down as far as I could I would close up and turn the portable unit on.
It wouldn't cool a hot garage - but it would keep it there and drop a few degrees.
Using a long hose with a portable might be problematic as mine has an intake and exhaust in the same hose and is fairly rigid. I don't see any way I would be able to make it 'truly' portable.
Having said that, I worked out of my fairly tight 24X32 detached garage the last 3 years I was employed. I bought a portable unit and I was able to keep the garage decent with that. I started work at 7 AM so I would go out and open the windows and turn on the whole house fan and get the temp down - even in August it was usually no more than upper 70s at that time of the day. Once I got the garage down as far as I could I would close up and turn the portable unit on.
It wouldn't cool a hot garage - but it would keep it there and drop a few degrees.
Using a long hose with a portable might be problematic as mine has an intake and exhaust in the same hose and is fairly rigid. I don't see any way I would be able to make it 'truly' portable.
Rst277
Well-known member
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The portable a/c units on casters just put out a little cooler drier air from one duct, while exhausting hotter wetter air a few feet away. If you put the exhaust hose outside a wall, it's blowing conditioned air outside and sucking whatever is outside into the inside space through any gaps in the structure. Air conditioning only works if it recirculates and cools the inside air, and dumps the heat and water outside. The roll-around "portable A/C units" don't do that. They just cool a tiny spot while heating up the overall space.
Stuart in MN
Well-known member
How about a cool suit like race car drivers use? It's basically a shirt with water lines attached, connected to a pump and a cooler full of ice. You can buy them from various suppliers, or there are YouTube videos on how to make your own.
finn
Well-known member
But, sometimes you gotta pay if you wanna play. The mini split is a long term investment that can double as a heat source. The Mitsubishi units in our house are well over ten years old, and have had zero maintenance cost. We live in an area with mild summers, but I have never heard of anyone having trouble with a quality mini split.
A once and done proposition, in my book.
It’s also often a matter of priorities. Do you want to drive a new $80k pickup that gets 12mpg on expensive Diesel fuel, or is a 4 cylinder Ranger ok so you have a little cash left over to improve your comfort level in the garage? The list goes on….
kbuhagiar
Well-known member
My wife has one of those. It's more of a novelty than a solution.
She used it a couple of times but now it sits unused in a drawer somewhere.
My Old Tools
Well-known member
you need to lower the humidity as well. Close up and cool the room.
Might be a typical, one and done posters, so any help provided will be futile.
This is where insulation is going to help keep the OP cool and pay on his return. Without insulation, all his cooling dollars will dissipate very quickly. There is no "hack" it's just doing what is needed to solve the issue.
This is where insulation is going to help keep the OP cool and pay on his return. Without insulation, all his cooling dollars will dissipate very quickly. There is no "hack" it's just doing what is needed to solve the issue.