Window A/C Question

[Shawn F.]

I have a 3000 Sq Ft shop with roughly a 350 sq ft office. The shop used to have an A/C unit but was ripped out by previous owner and all the insulation was just ripped out today by me because it was old and crumbling down. Later I plan to run an A/C unit throughout the entire shop but this year it will not happen. I do however need to cool the office but have a question about this... The building is all brick with no exterior windows or anything and I'd like to keep it this way for safety reasons of people wanting to break in.
My question for you guys is about running a window A/C unit on the office which is built inside the shop and 2 windows face the bays. Do these unit need to be outside or will one facing into the bay work just fine? I do not want to cut a whole through the 2 thick layers of brick and trying to decide what I can do to have at least 1 area of the shop cooled for lunch breaks and to keep important stuff temp controlled...

Thanks for any info, suggestions or comments here guys!

 

[olytdi]

No reason you couldn't do that but realize that all of the heat removed from the office will be deposited in the shop area. So while you're cooling your office, you'll be heating your shop.

No free lunch.

 

[Shawn F.]

Hmm... What to do, what to do... Can one of these be mounted on the ceiling of the office by any chance instead of the window and the vent channeled through the ceiling? Any other alternatives?

 

[rlitman]

Don't forget that the side that's supposed to be outside will drip lots of condensation.

 

[General Lee]

Maybe one of those portable AC units would be better? They come with an exhaust hose, could you route the hose outside somehow? Plus you could always make the hose longer to reach where you need it.

 

[Shawn F.]

Yes I could possible make it go outside or even drill a 5-8 inch hole to the outside with a hard line running out to it. I seen one of these units at a bar one day and thought about that but do not have a clue what they are called or a good brand or anything on them...

 

[General Lee]

Yes I could possible make it go outside or even drill a 5-8 inch hole to the outside with a hard line running out to it. I seen one of these units at a bar one day and thought about that but do not have a clue what they are called or a good brand or anything on them...

For just your office, I think you can find the smaller units at Lowes, Costco, etc.

 

[Shawn F.]

I will do a search for one now online. I appreciate the info! If anyone else has any other suggestions, please throw them my way. I'd love to cool the whole shop but someone ripped out the part that was inside which I believe was the blower unit. The outside unit is there with the copper line with wires inside cut off. The square galvanized metal duct work is all there in the ceiling and runs down the wall. 6 feet up the wall where the duct stops and to the floor is nothing as if there was something there but I do not know anything about HVAC so am clueless.

 

[General Lee]

You may find for the amount of money a large portable unit costs for 3,000+ sqft, you could a hire a pro to get the existing A/C up and running for probably less.

 

[slip knot]

I bought a rental unit a while back that had a similiar situation. The tenant had a window unit that discharged into a shop area. He had a 5 gallon bucket under the AC unit to catch the condensate. He emptied it every day and no problems. Said he had been doing that for several years. The shop was used for storage and no-one worked in it.

 

[HAP]

SMF, I did exactly what you want to do in my shop. I installed a Friedrich 6000BTU window unit in my 180 sq ft office with the unit rear in the shop area. Works great and it should last a long time... BTW, this unit is a 12 SEER unit amd after using it for the past 5 years in NE NC, I have never seen even one drop of condensation drip form the drain hole. I installed the unit driectly over my shop sink so the condensation would drip into the sink and I would not have to do any additional drilling or plumming. I bought the highest quality unit at the time knowing that it would pay-off. I wish Photo Bucket was not acting up so I could post a pic.

Good luck,
HAP

 

[green.bubbly]

How about a mini-split? Would require about a 2" hole drilled though the brick and a little electrical work.

 

[Shawn F.]

green.bubbly, What is a mini split and how much will it cool? Tomorrow I may run to Lowes and pick up a small portable A/C unit to cool the office for now. The shop has no insulation so putting A/C in the shop area right now will not help much until I can afford to reinsulate the ceiling again.
I did find a portable A/C unit that supposedly cools 3000 sq ft of space on Craigslist for $3000. Expensive but the nice thing about it is that if I leave this place next year then I can take it with me or sell it. The land lord is a complete *** so I'd like to try and NOT give him much of anything if at all possible. I've already put a few thousand into the joint that I will never get back.

Any info on that mini split would be great!

 

[Shawn F.]

Ok, tomorrow I am picking up my 10,000 BCU portable A/C unit from Lowes for my office. The office measures out to about 12X12 (smaller than I thought) and the unit will cool up to 350 sq ft of space which works great for me. As for venting, I am going to vent it out into the shop. For now I will have to have fans in the shop running but with the bay door closed most likely because I will be buffing on cars and cannot have outside dust and dirt blowing into the work space.
Is there any harmful things to worry about coming out of the exhaust part of the a/c unit or is it just hot air that blows through the condenser? It says on the box to make sure to vent to an outside source, but I do not understand why if there are no harmful fumes or anything...???

 

[green.bubbly]

Sorry for the delay in responding. A mini-split is just like a typical central AC unit. There is a separate indoor and a separate indoor unit. They are somewhat portable in that it is not that hard to yank it all out and bring it with you. They come in various sizes.

Below are some links with more info.

http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=94308&highlight=mini


http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=127401&highlight=mini

 

[Shawn F.]

Thank you very much for this info. I am going to keep my eye on Craigslist for a used one if at all possible. If it lasted me 2-3 years I'd be very happy since I doubt I will be at this shop after 3 years. If things go as planned/well then I will be into a much bigger shop by then (fingers crossed). The portable for the office will hold me over for month or two and hopefully by then I can afford insulation and a mini split unit or such...

 

[green.bubbly]

All it blows out is hot moist air. No harmful fumes to worry about.

 

[Milton Shaw]

What kinds of airborne dust and stuff is going to be coming from the shop into the a/c condenser unit. I saw some in a boat factory that would clog the outside coil up in a couple of weeks from fiberglass and from sewing lint. The were trying to cool offices that sat above the work floor. Eventually they had to go with mini-split systems with the condenser on the roof as they were having to clean the outside part of the a/c about every three weeks to keep any air flow. This boat factory was very nasty inside with heavy dust build up on everything, I don't know how the employees kept from having lung problems from all the airborne **** they were breathing.

 

[6768rogues]

I have a window unit installed as you suggested. It cools the relatively small room well and its heating effect on the much larger shop is negligible. The side vents must also be open. New units are built so they do not drip as much condensation as older units. They have a slinger wheel on the outside of the fan, so rather than drip condensation they sling it onto the condenser, evaporating the water and making the condenser more efficient. In extreme humidity, though, they can still drip. It is easy to fabricate a pan to catch the drips and run a tube to a drain or collection point with a small inexpensive condensate pump. I have seen some with a drain connection point.