HVAC in the shop

First, Before anything else, you have to insulate. Heating and cooling cost a fortune in a room with bare stud walls.

I don’t know where you live, but here it gets super cold so I put in a radiant Tube heater. It uses outside air for combustion and creates no humidity problems in the winter. Radiant tube heaters heat the contents of the room and seem to hold the heat in the room even if the door opens for a while.

I don’t air condition to cool because I don’t know of a system that will cool without recirculating air thereby plugging filters with sawdust. If I can find a way to do that, I will add that. For now, I open the doors int he summer and use a fan to stay comfortable.

-- making sawdust....

I agree with motthunter about the insulation. That before anything else.

Information for you and motthunter:

I have just added AC just this week. The first thing I did (months ago) was to build a small room for the dust collector. I put a electrostatic filter to filter the air leaving it and entering the shop. It has to enter
the shop or I would just blow all my cool air outside.

Since I have a 1000 SQ FT shop I added a 18,500 BTU window AC unit. I then added an additional
electrostatic filter the input of that to get any airborne dust. In addition to that I have a Delta Air Filter use
also.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Those radiant tube heaters are great but make sure you keep them dust free. I understand they have a tendency to light that sawdust up if it builds up on the baffle.

I’m trying to ween myself off of a wood stove in the shop for heat and move to hot water baseboard. It’s cheap and easy to install and you can put the furnace (I’m looking at one of those gas fired instant water heaters) in a separate room from where you make the dust so it reduces the risk of fire.

Like Gary, I have a huge through the wall air conditioning unit in a shop of about 1700 square feet. It isn’t frosty in there but it’s better than the 80 plus degrees we had in PA today.

Good luck with the research.

-- Chuck Bender, period furniture maker, www.acanthus.com

High Fireball

As others have suggested, you need to insulate and sheet rock your walls and ceiling. Then you need to insulate the garage doors. I am going to use a Dimplex, DGWH 4031 Heater, 13,640 BTU, electric, ceiling mount. Then a 15,000 BTU window air conditioner. I just got a Temp 142CX Cyclone Dust collector with 1 – Micron canisters. My new shop is only 14 X 21 so it should not take a lot to heat and cool it.

God Bless
tom

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

I’d consider the fact that you’re near Atlanta, Ga. and heating water via a solar collector then pumping it thru a Dayton garage heater might work for you. Check MotherEarthNews website for more. Another quick fix is to acquire a forced air furnace from an old mobile home. Insulation and ventilation is a priority though. I’d suggest fan venting the attic heat thru the roof…also the attic can get quite warm and serve as a poor-man’s kiln…just be careful not to stack too much lumber up there! I’d also install more windows (light and ventilation) or maybe a few skylights that you can open?

Keep us posted!

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

When I lived in Ohio, I put a vent fan in the attic of my insulated shop. It really helped to keep it comfortable in there. I didn’t add any air conditioning, but then it was Ohio, there is only about 10 real hot days there a summer.

-- Berta in NC

Fireball,

After reading your shop notes you say your ceiling joists are exposed.
If you haven’t removed the insulation from the gables then let it be. Also adding the gable fan wouldn’t be a good idea either.

The PTAC will cool and heat your shop just fine. You need to install a heat pump system though.
You could also use a couple of room A/Cs that have heat.

To size the unit correctly you not only need your square footage but ceiling hight. If the peak is 14’ you will need more capacity than you would for a 8’ foot ceiling.
What it means is, you need a 2 ton (24,000 BTU) system for 525 sq’ of space with uninsulated walls and an 8’ ceiling. If your walls were insulated you wouldn’t need more than half that size.

If you could tell me how high your roof peak is I could tell you how much A/C you need to keep it comfortable.

-- .

Thanks for the replies thus far.

I’ve added 2 new pics to THE SHOP, so maybe that will help show what i’m currently working with. The

As someone mentioned, here in Atlanta cooling is a bigger concern than heating. And I want to make sure that whatever I use has the ability to keep a constant temperature even when I’m not in the shop.

BroDave – the ceiling height is just over 8’ and the roof peak is around 12’. Also, can you explain why exposing the gable vents and installing a fan would be a bad idea?

Thanks again!

buy a cheap window airconditioner.

you will never regret it !

when it gets clogged with dust, wash it out with a hose.

-- ..... art for lifes sake

If you install the gable fan then it will suck all of your conditioned air out of the shop.

If you insulated the walls to R-13 then you can use a 2 ton system, taking the 12’ ceiling height into count.
Left as is you need 3 tons (36,000 BTUs) I based this on a 95* outdoor ambient temp and 75% relative humidity.

You probably will not be able to keep your shop temp constant with a PTAC or window units. The biggest reason is air flow, or lack of it. If constant temp is a must for you then a central system is the way to go. That means duct and less space for overhead storage.

-- .

I am lucky that my new shop never gets warm. Even when it is 80 outside the shop stays cool. I would put 4 mil plastic up on the ceiling to help keep the condtioned air in the lower section. Then insulate the wall.

I’d install a couple of ceiling fans, a thru the wall A/C unit, and a 220v ceiling mounted heater. You will need to calculate the BTU requirements. That is how my shop is setup and I can maintain pretty much any temp I want. For the most part my heat/cool units are off unless I am working in the shop. I only takes 10 minutes to get the temperature to a comfortable range.

-- Dave Herron, Boise, ID -- “That which does not crash the browser, makes it stronger”