Help my cool my hot garage

[meissen]

Three vents in the roof, but today it was 100* in the garage (literally!).

Short of buying an AC unit, what would you guys recommend?

I was thinking about replacing one or all of the vents in the roof with one of these Lomanco Whirlybird Turbine Ventilator - but they're a little expensive to replace all three vents.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BPB4J0/?tag=atomicindus08-20



Any good ideas?

 

[Jazz]

If it's 95 outside it's not going to make much difference unfortunately. I think you're on the right path though.

 

[rdsk8ter]

I literally just cut a vent into my garage on the gable end and installed a fan. there are intakes under the eves to support the intake but when I'm out there I open my north facing window and it is beautiful I am actually considering installing another fan in the roof I can use for a quick cool down effect. Have you considered a window ac or fan in the window. right now your still fighting convection and that's a hard battle to win. Prior to my fan the attic was brutal when I installed the fan it turned on at 120 degrees now it can shut off at 90 and that is much nicer

 

[jshillin]

How big is your garage? I have a couple fans and a small window A/C unit in mine. It was 96 outside and stayed in the upper 70's in the garage. I knew I would be in the garage all day so I turned on the A/C when I got out of bed and worked in it for a good 10 hours.

 

[Gary S]

If it is 100 outside and you add heat inside, it will be over 100 inside. Simple physics. You can't use outside air to cool it below outside temperature.

Insulate the building well and add a small air conditioner, and you can easily have it at 80 degrees on a 100 degree day.

 

[NUTTSGT]

What you need to do is create an attic space, which will separate the "hot" from the cooler air of the garage.

Winter will be here before you know it and it will also keep the garage warm for when you out there that time of the year.

Insulate the bottom chord of the trusses and follow that with some type of ceiling material. Will it cost you a few bucks, yes but you will notice a 10-15° difference between the outside air and the inside of the garage. That is if you keep it closed up. I think I put R19 in my ceiling, 23" O.C.

Consider this, insulation is an investment (yes, I'm saying that again) and will pay for itself and recoup money over it's life. Any money spent trying to heat or cool that space will be essentially wasted by not having your garage insulated.

Once you get the ceiling done, start on the walls next. For the walls, one of the easiest things to do is pick up one of these mini rolls (R13)and cut it to length. A 10-12 dollar roll of insulation is pretty easy to swallow when you buy one here of there.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Owens-Co...s-Roll-Insulation-RF10/202585857#.UeiRVtLVCog

 

[ddawg16]

Do you have insulation and drywall? If not.....there is not really a whole lot you can do to get the temps down....

 

[nxcess]

Here in AZ, I use two 5500 CFM swamp coolers in the 26 X 40 portion of the shop. Works good until later in the year when the humidity gets really high. Also hae two of the roof vent you show.

 

[TAMPAGT07]

The best $400 bucs I ever spent in the garage was for the 18,000 btu ac unit...It's the only way to go...

 

[Exceller8]

I have three large fans mounted in the rafters all at different angles. I also have a large fan by the entrance door (mainly for flies). It isn't a perfect setup, but it's nice enough to get some work done. Been fricking hot here!