*Cheap* Air Conditioner for your garage

The A/C unit came today. It's currently in the master bedroom, where it proceded to cool the room from 75 to 65 in about thirty minutes. It's a nice day today, so it's not really a true test of it's abilities, but still that's a nice temp drop in a short period of time.
 
SuperBee364 said:
Very nice setup. I really appreciate you taking the time to show those pictures. I've been wondering how I was going to get this thing vented to the outside, as the windows in my garage are up very tall. Too tall to reach with the short four foot hoses included with the A/C unit. I think I'm going to try to do it the way you have it. Any chance of getting a pic of what it looks like on the outside of your garage door?



The unit I bought has two venting hoses, so I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to do it yet. I might just buy some longer venting hose and vent it up through one of the (very high) windows. Supposedly you lose cooling capacity by extending the hose length, though, so I'd rather vent it through the garage door if I can.
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Superbee..the first pic in that series is from outside the garage door. The door is white and so is the dryer vent. I cut a 4" diameter (IIRC) hole in the door with a hole saw blade and fed the dryer vent through. The trap door mechanism is inside the garage door. The tube coming out of it is flanged and tapered...a metalworker did that work for me. It works extremely well..i am very, very happy with it.
 
richy said:
Superbee..the first pic in that series is from outside the garage door. The door is white and so is the dryer vent. I cut a 4" diameter (IIRC) hole in the door with a hole saw blade and fed the dryer vent through. The trap door mechanism is inside the garage door. The tube coming out of it is flanged and tapered...a metalworker did that work for me. It works extremely well..i am very, very happy with it.
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Hopefully I can find a pre-fabbed one at Home Depot. Thanks again for the info. :)
 
I would be be careful about btu rating on portable a/c… I would say 80% are garbage and provide zero cooling… I have tried a lot of portable a/c.

Remember the portable unit generates heat and some btu needs to cool the unit itself…



I had good results with only one… edgestar 12000 btu… great unit evaporates all water in exhaust… prob good for 200 sq ft to 300 sq ft room… other units u have to empty water buckets… they make a 14k btu unit but I found no difference in the cooling.





One issue if the humidity is too high (ie raining) the cooling ability drops. You also need about 2 ft of space on each side of the unit, for efficient operation.







I got one cooling my server room right now with about 8 servers in it…



AP12000S EdgeStar Extreme Cool 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner





and of course the best and most expensive portable is Portable Air Conditioners, AC, Spot Cooler, Outdoor & Computer Cooling... Serious cooling.







you can use the site below to figure out the heat load of the room… cooling depends on room size, number of windows, number of people, heat sources,etc.





Calculating The Size of a Server Room Air Conditioner





its more for IT rooms, but still useful for right sizing AC. Nothing worse the spending cash on a portable ac that doesn’t cool for crap..
 
I had never heard of the brand that I bought, "Royal Sovereign", but Costco doesn't usually carry crap stuff, so I bit.



This thing has two hoses that must be vented ouside. One is the heat from the heat exchanger, the other is humidity from the collection tank which is used to cool the heat exchanger, and then that warm moist air is vented outside. This setup allows it to run much more efficiently than single vent hose coolers., with no water tank to empty unless it gets very humid (not likely where I live).



And it works. It kicks out tons of ice cold air. I used it all night in my bedroom. I'm very happy with this A/C so far.
 
Official high in Salt Lake City yesterday: 89 degrees



Official high in my garage: 74 degrees



This cheap Costco airconditioner is worth every penny. It doesn't have the capacity to draw the temp down if the garage is already hot, but if it's allowed to work overnight (taking the temp down to 72), it is capable of sustaining that temp throughout the day. My garage is very well insulated. Even the garage door is insulated (I had that done last summer). So YMMV.
 
SuperBee364 said:
Official high in Salt Lake City yesterday: 89 degrees



Official high in my garage: 74 degrees



This cheap Costco airconditioner is worth every penny. It doesn't have the capacity to draw the temp down if the garage is already hot, but if it's allowed to work overnight (taking the temp down to 72), it is capable of sustaining that temp throughout the day. My garage is very well insulated. Even the garage door is insulated (I had that done last summer). So YMMV.
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Is 89 degrees in single digit humidity uncomfortable? In 90% humidity like here in Louisville, KY it would be rather uncomfortable but I assumed it would not be too bad in Utah. I say that from my experience of walking around Las Vegas in mid 90's it not being too bad.
 
Bert31, I don't know how you guys in the midwest put up with the humidity. 89 degrees here is quite comfortable, especially if there's a bit of a breeze. Yeah, dry desert heat isn't bad at all.
 
MDRX8 said:
The Humidity here in SC is terrible. The unit I bought dehumidifies and is exhausted in the exit vent. It also has a timer. I really like the unit.
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Yeah, mine has a second exhaust hose just to vent the water vapor outside.
 
Definitely a plus. No drain pans or water hose. The Heat Index can reach 110 - 115 on some days.



SuperBee364 said:
Yeah, mine has a second exhaust hose just to vent the water vapor outside.
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SuperBee364 said:
Bert31, I don't know how you guys in the midwest put up with the humidity. 89 degrees here is quite comfortable, especially if there's a bit of a breeze. Yeah, dry desert heat isn't bad at all.
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The humidity is no fun at all. I have read on here that SIP does not like humidity. Guess that is why I would battling my rotary the whole time trying to control the hopping. ISA wipe downs before hand didn't help the situation.
 
The few times SIP has acted up on me were during humid conditions. Most of the time, it plays nicely. The humidity is causing you guys to miss out on a very nice polish. :/
 
SuperBee364 said:
The few times SIP has acted up on me were during humid conditions. Most of the time, it plays nicely. The humidity is causing you guys to miss out on a very nice polish. :/
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I still used SIP, I just felt like I was in a wrestling match with my Makita the entire time.



The only time it is not humid in the Midwest/Southeast is in the middle of winter. I doubt SIP likes freezing temps either.
 
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