Best Way to Cool a House Garage to Work In (fit in, codes)

[shaxs]

I do quite a bit of work now in my garage- mostly on my 64 Falcon. Holy moly does it suck working out there right now. I was looking at the ducts in the hallway in the house right inside the garage door to the house. I think it would be pretty easy to modify the ducting to put a vent in the garage.

Has anyone ever done this? I wouldn't keep the vent open at all times, just open it prior to going out to work on the car. This may be a pipe dream, but man it is very uncomfortable working out in this heat.

Are there other options that may help keep the garage cooler to work in?

[atxcio]

You could install a cheap window unit if you have a door/window to the exterior... or places like Home Depot and Lowe's sell an indoor portable unit that has a large flexible duct you can put temporarily in a window/cracked door.

Finally, if it's like my garage, the problem is air circulation. It gets hotter and so much more stuffy than even the outside air. So a couple of box fans will help enormously.

[10scoachrick]

Yep, in order to bring IN cool air, you must exhaust what's already there. If you could somehow insert an exhaust fan high in a wall or window, that would help. On the other hand, just having some cool air blowing on you would be of benefit...it's just that the already hot air needs someplace to exit. Of course, you DO NOT want to recirculate garage air into your home HVAC; but, you already knew that.

[LittleCityATX]

How cool do you want it to get in there and do you want to seal it up or be able to work with the door open?

You could route your house AC into the garage, or just use a wall-unit, or open the doors and use a swamp cooler.

[shaxs]

Something like 20 In. High Velocity Floor Fan - HV 20S at The Home Depot might work?

I dont have a window in my garage. I also do not like the portable AC units. I had one that never worked well. Maybe I had a bad unit.

[shaxs]

Im torn. I like working with the door open, but I really dont want to come out of the garage feeling like I took a swim in a hot tub.

[RevMen]

My garage has a tap from the house's AC. I just keep the vent closed most of the time. If you spend a lot of time working in your garage you should look into doing this. Probably less than $50 in parts and some time in your attic will get you there.

When I was in a band our practice room was upstairs in a hot house with no AC. We pitched in and bought a portable AC unit (the kind that sits on the floor). Our drummer built a vent for it that fit in the window and it worked really well. The key is making sure you duct the exhaust outside, even if that means just running the duct under a slightly raised garage door. I think the floor units are better than window units for this type of application because you can set them up where ever you need them. I think ours cost around $225 and it was worth every penny, even for our poor selves.

[woodinvilleguy]

You don't want to use you house AC for the garage. fire codes exist for a reason :-)

My plan is to insulate the attic above the garage, insulate the garage doors and then use a 24000 btu unit for the garage.

In order to get airflow alone, I would suggest something like a whole house fan that sucks air from the garage into the attic which should already be vented, that will draw air from your open doors through the garage. whole house fans for above the garage aren't cheap because of fire codes but they do work.

Good luck.

[eileenkeeney]

I would just open the door that goes from the garage to the house, and then use a fan to blow air from the house into the garage.
Not very energy efficient, but for a short term project, it could work.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by woodinvilleguy

You don't want to use you house AC for the garage. fire codes exist for a reason :-)

My plan is to insulate the attic above the garage, insulate the garage doors and then use a 24000 btu unit for the garage.

In order to get airflow alone, I would suggest something like a whole house fan that sucks air from the garage into the attic which should already be vented, that will draw air from your open doors through the garage. whole house fans for above the garage aren't cheap because of fire codes but they do work.

Good luck.

I have a lot of experience with building codes and do not believe that installing an AC vent into the garage is a violation. You definitely do not want to return air from the garage into the house, as that cold draw gas, exhaust and other fumes into the house. You could install a fire rated damper to make sure, but typically the only fire separation between a house and a garage is a 1/2" layer of sheet rock and an unrated door.

when adding an air supply to the garage, you need to make sure there is someplace for the air to exhaust, a window or crack the garage door o pen a small amount. Leaving a door open from the house is not a good idea as it will draw all the warm air and possibly noxious air from the garage into the house.