Garage window fan

[minytrker]

I have a horizontal sliding window in my insulated and finished garage. I need a way to get rid of the heat after parking my duramax suburban or my yukon xl with a blower. Both vehicles put off a tremendous amount of heat when pulled in the garage. Anyone recommendations?

 

[Shiftless]

Something like this will help a little bit. Open a window on the opposite wall or leave the garage door open a couple of inches. But all you can do is bring in relatively cooler air from outdoors. Can you just park in the driveway for a while until the truck cools off to ambient temp? Even if that number is 100 degrees, it’s better than heat soaking your garage.

 

[minytrker]

I saw that one but it doesnt do exhaust. I'd rather invest in fans or some type of ventilation. Parking outside when its 100+ isnt an option either incase we go somewhere later that day. Keeping the vehicles out of the sun makes a huge difference on interior temp.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

It kinda doesn't matter (in a way) which way it moves air.

Any air you exhaust through the window has to come in from outside.

Any air you pull in from the window also comes from the outside.

 

[minytrker]

Why wouldnt it matter? Im not understanding. Im wanting to take hot air from in the garage and blow it outside through an exhaust fan. The air in my garage gets alot hotter than outside air after pulling in the garage. In my mind it makes more sense to **** the hot air out of the garage and pump it outside.

 

[pattenp]

Either way you're just doing an air exchange. When exhausting to outside, new air is pulled in. When sucking in new air from outside, old inside air is being pushed out.

 

[Shiftless]

Is there finished space over the garage? If not, you could use a whole house fan in the center of the garage ceiling exhausting into the garage attic.

I put a whole house fan in the middle of our house in the hallway ceiling to push hot air into the attic and pull it through any open window on the cool side of the house. I had to add additional attic vents but after all the work, it works great to rid the house of stale hot air when the temps drop in the evening.

 

[minytrker]

Its just attic above the garage. I added my garage temp to my home automation and been tracking the heat. It was still 105 deg at 10pm in garage and only 93 in my attic. My garage is holding heat like an oven.

 

[Shiftless]

Sounds like a good place for a whole house fan. Placed horizontally in the ceiling of your garage, you have the ability to switch it on with a thermostat or manually and pull massive amounts of cooler outside air into your garage. If it‘s 100 degrees outside and you pull a hot vehicle into your garage and the air temp inside gets hotter than 100, the fan goes on and pulls 100 degrees outside air in to cool off the vehicle. So the garage stays no hotter than outside air. You will need louvers or open windows to let air in. The big fan can’t exhaust hot air from the garage into the attic without a clear path for the air to flow out of the attic.

I have a 2000 sq. ft. house with a 24 inch whole house fan with a 2 speed motor capable of moving 5000-9000 cu. ft. of air a minute. If only one window is open, the wind is strong! You probably don’t need one that powerful. Get a knowledgeable person to size it for you and tell you how many square feet of eave or gable venting you’ll need for the attic.

OR… just spend more money and install a big mini split air conditioner in your garage and be even more comfortable.

 

[Gila Monster]

If it's 100+ degrees outside, I'm not sure if it really accomplishes all that much.
I would think leaving a fan in a window would negate the insulation. You're trading insulation away for something that cools down by itself in a short amount of time. So now your garage will always be as hot as the outside temp if you have an opening.

Probably just leaving the garage open for another 30 minutes, then closing it, would accomplish more than leaving a fan and a window open.

Is there a reason you need this? Every other garage just takes in hot cars and it's no issue.

 

[minytrker]

Most people are putting a turned up duramax and a suv with a blower in the garage, they make a ton of heat vs a stock honda. If I put my other vehicles in the garage you dont even notice the heat. On the other side of one of garage walls is my kids game room and even with an insulated wall when the garage gets 100+ for hours it is making their game room warmer. I also have a freezer in the garage and when the garage gets 100+ for hours it runs alot more.
If I leave the garage door open I keep getting birds coming in and trying to make nest on my opener or top of my freezer. I left it open the other day for an hour and they started a nest that fast. Leaving the door open works if it wasnt for the birds.

 

[Gila Monster]

Your kids game room is also going to get hot if you have an open window and the garage is 100 degrees throughout the day. I would think worse than a vehicle pulling in.

I just don't see one of those window units making a dramatic difference in pulling out the heat sourced from a vehicle engine. Not a huge amount of airflow with those things, maybe your engine cools down to room temp a few minutes quicker with a garage window fan versus no fan?

If it's really an issue, I would figure out a way to better insulate the kids room.

FWIW, I live in AZ (hotter than where you live) and have an SUV with a V8. A vehicle pulling in the garage does not warm up the rooms next to it that I can detect. I honestly think the garage opening up lets in more hot air.

 

[Old Man Roger]

Carport.

 

[minytrker]

Your kids game room is also going to get hot if you have an open window and the garage is 100 degrees throughout the day. I would think worse than a vehicle pulling in.

I just don't see one of those window units making a dramatic difference in pulling out the heat sourced from a vehicle engine. Not a huge amount of airflow with those things, maybe your engine cools down to room temp a few minutes quicker with a garage window fan versus no fan?

If it's really an issue, I would figure out a way to better insulate the kids room.

FWIW, I live in AZ (hotter than where you live) and have an SUV with a V8. A vehicle pulling in the garage does not warm up the rooms next to it that I can detect. I honestly think the garage opening up lets in more hot air.

When I kept cars in the garage we never noticed the heat at all. Before the duramax conversion I didnt notice the suburban heating up the garage like it does. The game room was added on, so its actually the old exterior wall of the garage (its 2x6 insulated and sheet rockedin garage) and then one side was exterior wall to a bedroom. I was checking temperatures with a thermal gun and just happen to notice the wall temperature difference on the garage wall vs the other walls.
Leaving the door open and fighting the birds may just be the best option. I left it open earlier and the garage stayed under a 100 after parking in it.

 

[minytrker]

Carport.

Thanks. I already have a 30x40 carport, it didnt make my garage any cooler.

 

[Old Man Roger]

Thanks. I already have a 30x40 carport, it didnt make my garage any cooler.

My point was to park the truck under the carport. It wouldnt heat up the garage, and the truck would be in the cool shade for when you wanted to get in it.

They do make screens doors for garage openings, that way you could leave the garage door open till the truck cools off.

 

[Sumboodie]

Leave the window open?

 

[racecougar]

Leaving the door open and fighting the birds may just be the best option.

Installing a whole house fan as Shiftless described above would be the best option.

 

[Innovate1]

Putting in an whole house fan requires some open windows for air intake but could work well. Depending on where the fire break is between the house and garage it make require poking a hole in that boundry. If the fire break is the wall between garage and house and goes clear to the roof then it isn't an issue. If there ever was a fire in the garage a whole house fan would make it worse if it was running. I suppose you could wire it to a heat sensor so it would shut off in case of fire.

 

[Shiftless]

Install a “firestat” which will shut off the fan if temps get really high due to a fire.