HOT!

97 degrees at 4:30 today. Glad I got the insulated garage door. I'm in Phoenix ,Az. I should probably pull out the portable a.c. or swamp.
 
Was definitely a bit warm in the garage this past weekend/week. Need to look into a cooler unit for the shop. May involve cutting a window though.
 
Check out the portable AC units. They roll in where you need then and have a hose to exhaust the hot air. You can make an 8" wide board to fit across the garage door opening and put the exhaust through the board. Lower the garage door on the board and you are done. They work very well for such purposes. Pawn shops sometimes have them, but they are not expensive on Amazon and at Costco.
A basic 10KBTU AC unit is around $250.
A 14KBTU combo unit with AC, Heat, Dehumidifier, and fan is around $475.
 
Hot? How bout NOT! My daughter and I went out on a charter boat out of Morro Bay Ca Thursday. It was the first trip out for any of the boats there since Sunday as they had a storm on Monday. It was foggy and COLD with a stiff wind blowing. We're from the mountains no cold weannies here. We were COLD. Shivering all day long cold. Right at the very end the sun came out and that was better. The water was very rough and I would say probably half the passengers were too sick to fish. Some were very very sick, lay down and die in place sick, ya had to step over them. Fortunately we were ok with the motion. The fishing was ok but when the wind would pick up it would shut off. It was bad enough the deck hands were falling down. Literally splat! Anyhoo we had a great time.

Heading out and still in the bay, no pitching yet:

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A good Lingcod, my first and biggest of the day:

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It was the roughest water my daughter had ever been in but she did great. A Red Rockfish:

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Either the water was rough or the land was crooked:

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I'm going with the water being rough. Poor junior deckhand had to keep dragging a water hose around the sides of the boat. Anyhoo my wife stayed home as she is very sensitive to motion sickness, so she doesn't do these trips. What did she do? Killed another rattle snake just outside the shop!
 
Looks like you had a great time! I used to go fishing out in the Gulf of Mexico and just about ever time I’d get sea sick. I finally had enough of that and just stopped doing it. The only thing that will cure it is either get back to land, or a bullet. I went out for two days once and never got sick but when I got back on land I felt like I was drunk for a few hours.
 
I just put an 18kBTU mini-split in my shop, and it's turning out to be some of the best money I've ever spent. Mid 90's outside all week, and my shop was getting so cold I ended up shutting my unit off. :D Just getting the humidity out of the shop will change your whole perspective on life.

I did end up going with a "cheap" split from Home Depot. It was only about $600 during a sale, and I only needed about another $200 or so worth of misc. electrical (disconnect, a breaker for my subpanel, some romex, etc...), and I bought the wall bracket kit to get the condenser off the ground, so I might have $850 into it altogether. I think some of that $200 was a hole saw kit too.
I could have likely gotten away with a 12k for about $100 or so less, but mini-splits aren't quite as finicky about oversizing as a ducted split system would be, and with all the machines, ovens, heat press, etc... that I'm normally running, I figured a little bigger would be better, and I'd say I made the right choice.

As for the unit itself, you can tell they cut a few corners here and there (cheaper/thinner plastic, cheaper components, thinner brackets and chassis, etc....) but the parts that make it cold (compressor, coils, EXV, etc...) are likely the same as what's going in the more expensive units, and it looks like the important stuff is in fact replaceable and can be worked on.

Heck, If I only get 5 years out of it, it will have already paid for itself, but I don't see why it shouldn't last longer than that if I keep it clean. When it does go out, I'll likely just buy another (or change what goes out) and keep on truckin'.

My favorite part is opening the app on my phone, turning it on about 30 minutes before I go out into the shop, and have a nice cool shop waiting for me when I open the door. 🥶
So far I really haven't even noticed much of an increase on my electric bill.

Oh, and here's a pro tip for anybody thinking of upgrading their shop. Home Depot often offers anywhere from 12 to 18 months at 0% if you have a Home Depot card. 😁
 
My problem is my shop is a 30 x 50 pole barn with a metal roof, metal walls, three 10 x 12 roll up doors, a 10 x 10 roll up door, an entrance door and no insulation anywhere. when I built that I was at my limit and I couldn't afford insulation. but I've worked outdoors in Florida for over 40 years so with a couple fans and being out of the sun it's not bad for me. it was 100 in there today and I got to say it really didn't bother me much.

I did build an insulated 12 x 12 room in there with a loft over it for my leather work and clean room, for that I bought one of those portable A/C units and it's nice in there when I run it.
one thing I noticed with the portable I bought is it only had the discharge hose for the condenser, when I ran it, it created a negative pressure pulling air from the room for the condenser coil.
I jerry rigged it with another hose so it pulls air from the outside now.

What really bothers me, being in the forest in Florida is I get every nasty bug, wasps, birds, spiders, snakes and critters coming in my shop. and with the metal roof when we get heavy down pours it's so loud you almost have to wear ear muffs.........but, my last shop was 2/3s of a one car garage so I'm loving this place! :D
 
When I was in the southwest, the out buildings would get oven-like because of the heat. We used some aluminized mylar foil (don't know if we can post names of companies, but you can figure it out). I stapled the aluminized foil to the bottom of the rafters and it was downright cool after that by comparison. If you have a barn/shed workshop and can still get at the rafters ... that might help.
 
I can’t reach the peak of the roof, my walls are 14’ and now I have machines and all kinds of stuff in the way. Just wiring the place was tricky. I’m ok with it, it was 100 in there today and I spent the whole day out there. Couple fans and I’m good. Cold weather is worse for me, it goes down to the 20s here in the winter. It’ll be in the 80s-90s here till about October. And I always say…I’d rather sweat than shiver. :D
 
bladegrinder said:
Looks like you had a great time! I used to go fishing out in the Gulf of Mexico and just about ever time I’d get sea sick. I finally had enough of that and just stopped doing it. The only thing that will cure it is either get back to land, or a bullet. I went out for two days once and never got sick but when I got back on land I felt like I was drunk for a few hours.
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I've been in some really rough water in the Hebrides in Scotland and perhaps the worst ever was from Arran back to the mainland at Ayr. Took three passes till the Cape was happy with his approach to the stone harbor entrance. First two he veered off right at the last minute. Third one we surfed right in to quiet water.. Told my friend I was gonna go take a leak real quick before we disembarked. Went down stairs and had to step over all kind of "suits" just to take a leak. They may have used your bullet, not sure.

Jesse Latham said:
Last time we went on the ocean my wife chummed while reeling in a fish. Never stopped reeling. She's a keeper.
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We were fishing up in the bow. There was a guy on the starboard side that was doing that. Chumming and reeling, chumming and reeling! It was bad but he kept on reeling.
 
I leave the A/C on 24 hours a day in my shop during the summer. The shop is "L" shaped. The long part of the "L" stays cool, but the end of the other part gets little airflow. I'm about to correct that.
Most of the shop stays 72-74 degrees.
In the winter, the heat stays on.
I have to keep the materials and customers's work at comfortable room temperature to minimize damage from temperature and humidity.
It's also nice to work where it's comfortable.
If I were grinding out blades all day long, I might have to make changes-but for the work I do it works well.
 
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