It's that time of year again when I convince myself that I will get work done in the garage if it isn't 100+ degrees and muggy as heck in there. Bonus is that I can also use it to heat in the winter.
I know we talked about these before. There are sub-$1000 options with free shipping. I have access to 230v. Probably looking at 18,000 BTU.
Who's done this? Looking for true DIY, even if it means me getting a cheapo set of H-F gauges and a vacuum pump.
Subbed. Now that my role in primarily office, and my office is my shop, i need to do something about the heat/humidity/cold
In reply to 1988RedT2 :
I've done my home with 3zone LG mini splits. But for just a garage Think about using a Window A/C . But not in a window, stick it through the wall. It's really easy to do, ( ready to use as soon as you plug it in), very cheap, and a lot more efficient.
A big window A/C will cool a 1600 sq ft area. Cost $2-300 and take you a morning to cut the wall open, frame it up, trim it and put the unit in.
I'm thinking of doing the in wall window unit in my garage. Need to peel of some of the vinyl siding and find just the right spot so I can re-side around it without too much trouble.
Are there any window units that also heat though?
Home Depot has a bunch of units that also have heat. Most require 220 electrical service and the heat is described as "supplemental"
My brother is in the middle of doing this on his house. Check out Gree brand equipment. I'll try to post back as it goes together.
Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:Are there any window units that also heat though?
You don't want an A/C unit to provide heat .
Hot air rises
Cold air settles.
Air conditioners are most efficient up high.
heat is most efficient when it's down low.
The Mr Cool DIY line comes with precharged line sets if you don't want to mess with the cheap harbor freight gauges and pressurizing the system on your own. They're something like 25' long though, so you have to have a plan for routing something that long.
I'm planning on a mini split at some point for my garage too. The 240 and fused disconnect are ready and waiting. There are quite a few YouTube videos that I've found helpful if you haven't already seen them.
I helped a buddy do a 7 zone one at his lake house. We then did a single zone in another buddy's garage, and a dual zone at my house. The 3 of us had never done them before, and had no issues. It's pretty easy.
the guy with the lake house is the guy that researches everything wayyyyy too long, and it led him to only want and recommend a Mitsubishi one. They are supposed to be the best. My research consisted of "Dave here are the room sizes, your thoughts?" And waited for a link to buy :)
I could give a rat's butt whether the heat comes out low or the cool comes out high, as long as I get both. The area of interest is a zone of maybe at most a 20' radius.
Something like this could work, and probably more suited, since I don't really need to wonder what I'm going to do with a precharged 25' line set when all I'm doing is literally going through a wall.
In reply to 1988RedT2 :
That's a hotel room unit. I know them well... It would probably work, but it would depend on the wall space you have available, which down low tends to be at a premium in a garage.
Oh - and there are Code concerns when mounting something like that in a garage, so make sure you do some research before potentially making an error you may have to fix before selling the house. Hint: Electrical devices and connections need to be a minimum height above the floor in a garage.
In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :
Fair enough. Thanks for the heads-up. Higher would be better given that there'd be (generally) less dirt and clutter the higher you get.
PTACs are a good option if you don't mind having that big ass hole in the wall.
In reply to STM317 :
Most mini splits come with precharged line sets. Easiest way to plan with the routing if it doesn't go under into a crawl space is to just move the outdoor further away from where it goes inside.
Grizz said:
In reply to STM317 :Most mini splits come with precharged line sets. Easiest way to plan with the routing if it doesn't go under into a crawl space is to just move the outdoor further away from where it goes inside.
It's probably not ideal from an efficiency standpoint, but that's my plan as well. It seems like it might work out well for me as I can keep the outdoor unit closer to the electrical panel (requiring less heavy gauge wiring), and just run the line set along the wall so that my indoor air handler is pretty centered.
Given that the aesthetics of the situation would be pretty irrelevant in my case, I'd probably be inclined to mount the indoor unit on the West-facing wall, run excess line length indoors, then go through the North wall where the outdoor unit could be in shade.
Ah, shoot. Wiring would be much easier right there at the West-facing wall.
frenchyd said:Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:Are there any window units that also heat though?
You don't want an A/C unit to provide heat .
Hot air risesCold air settles.
Air conditioners are most efficient up high.
heat is most efficient when it's down low.
Very true, but that can be solved with a $5 yard sale box fan. Set it on a couple rafters pointing down in the winter and set it on the floor leaning on a toolbox in the summer.
When I added A/C to my floor-ducted furnace I was concerned so I bought a box fan to stuff in the corner. Turns out, with 84" ceilings it's a non-issue. The HVAC fan does an excellent job of keeping things mixed up.
For drafty garages, I am a HUGE fan of radiant heat. Heating the air is futile. Heat you and surfaces with radiant. I picked up three 1500-watt radiant heaters at HD one year and they do a great job. I think they were $35 each and designed for overhead installation.
If I were doing it, I would do overhead radiant heaters and a window-style A/C cut into a wall.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
Tell me more about these mysterious 35-dollar radiant heaters. All I can find on the H-D website for $35 is a bathroom heater with a single IR heatlamp. I must not be as good at this as you are! All their other radiant heaters start around 500 bucks.
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