Definitely the fridge. There's no way the floor near it should be 95 degrees. Check all around the fridge in your kitchen and you'll see it's nowhere close to that. If it were, your kitchen would be noticeably warmer than the rest of the house. I wonder if it's possible for the defrost heaters to be stuck on....and the compressor running overtime to make up the difference? You're probably wasting a great deal of electricity running that kind of heat source in the garage - then running AC to try to offset it...
This is a used unit anyway so it's not a huge loss if there is something wrong with it.
Just to recap a few things.
The insulation in this house is late 80's contractor grade, so ****. We've lived here 16 years and completely renovated/remodeled everything. About the only thing I haven't changed/fixed is the wall insulation.
North side: 90% of the front are the garage doors. they were replaced a couple of years ago. new ones are much better insulated. noticeable difference in the winter.
West side: walls insulated. 3/4 of the wall is shared with interior of house. rest is shared with front porch area
East side. all open to outside. hardie plank siding. one man door that is half glass. 9x9 single pane glass lites. blinds over glass inside. one window that is modern double pane glass filled, UV protection. blinds over window.
South side: 1/2 wall shared with interior of house. 1/2 exposed.
2nd floor above is mostly heated/cooled space. There is a pocket where roof pitch forms a small enclosed area that is not heated/cooled. Maybe 16 sq ft.
10k portable A/C and wall fan is making a big difference but I suspect 10k is still too small. It seems like it is just keeping up and no more. Suspect I need to go bigger -- say 14 or 15k. I think it would be better to have one that cycles on/off periodically rather than one that is constantly running.
Buddy came over Saturday and we worked on his car for about 4 hours in the morning. What a difference it made! Normally I would've been completely wiped out afterwards.
Opening the garage door does not seem to be a big deal for cold air loss. Even open for a few minutes at a time, the temps recover quickly.
Next steps:
- Shop around for bigger BTU units
- Shop around for better fridge
- I have a sub-panel in the garage. I'll probably run a new circuit for garage tools so portable A/C can be on a circuit by itself. Looks like a larger A/C will draw 10A or more by itself. I've got 30A so I may add 2 15A circuits - one for general garage tools and another for lift (future)
