Looking at a cpl and wondering if any here have or have had one. Need one for trailer and shop needs one too.Thinking if will work for themm I can just swap from one to other depending on where I am working. Looking at 14000 btu units. Shop is only 480 and trailer is 32' and insulated. If all that means anything.

Get a high efficiency Mini Split. They do not need as many watts to run. (Smaller and quieter Generator!)

I have tried the portable ones and they are totally useless, don't waste your money. Your mileage may vary.

I thought about doing this also if you mean an evaporative cooler. Thought about being able to use it in the garage while reloading and then back to the shop when I'm working on the car.

Instead I finally decided to bite the bullet and insulate the shop and install refrigerated air. I have had enough of this 110 degree heat. I'm too freakin old for this crap anymore. Almost made myself sick the other day, enough is enough!!

I was talking about the 14,000 BTU portable air conditioners. Basically useless.

As for the Evaporator swamp coolers I would not use them either as they do little to cool and put a lot of moisture in the air. (Rust)

When building my shop I insulated the heck out of it and put (3) 3 ton minisplits in, best decision I have ever made. I keep the shop 74 degrees all summer (not cold by any means) but it keeps the humidity down and very comfortable to work. My electric bill is around $105-110 a month, which is awesome!

yeah I have experience with two of them.

I was having some work done at my house and staying at my folks place while they were out of town. Their a/c died and the church let me borrow a couple of 10k portable units that you duct the hot air out of a window. They held the inside temp to about 80 during the day, but if the sun was out all day/no (zero) cloud cover, it would climb to mid 80's. Well at my place I had a 15k Coleman rooftop unit and I had an idea. I set the coleman on top of an empty 5 gallon bucket, then cut a hole in the side of the bucket and ran a 4" insulated duct into the dryer vent, then removed the dryer vent inside the house and let the cool air duct inside. It kept it 77 degrees during the day and froze me at night. 1560 sq-ft house that was insulated decently.

I suspect that some of the hot exhaust air was contaminating the conditioned air because those portables aren't perfectly sealed up, plus you have to run the hot duct outside somehow (open window in my case) and then have a way for the water to get out too.

thanks for bringing this up. I need to do something in my shop. Tired of working in the heat and I've got a few jobs lined up. The window unit (1979 built GE 18,300 BTU) just won't do much with a 30x40 unless you leave it on all the time, and if you do the electric bill will run up a good bit and it'll still be 85 degrees in the shop (but 100 outside). Better'n nothing but I am still thinking about doing something different.

ok cut that idea. Will probably go with roof top for trailer and workout something for shop. SUMMER SUCK If not for big ta ta's in little bikini there would be no reason for it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wideopen231,

Our home AC failed last summer, and it was a 3 day wait for the new system to be delivered & installed. The contractor loaned us a brand new 14000 BTU portable, (made by LG), and it sucked. Put it in the master bedroom, and it couldn't keep that 1 room below 86-88 during the day, at night it would only drop it to 77-79* and had to haul it outside to drain the water out of it each day. Noisy as heck. The flex duct for hot air exhaust was not insulated at all, and just exchanged a lot of the heat back into the room. I wrapped a few towels around it, helped only a tiny bit. Worthless POS.

Don't waste your time or money.

I have three rooms in the lower house main room is 20x15- 12x14 bedroom and a full bath.
This unit https://www.lowes.com/pd/EdgeS...MfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Cools it well. On a 108 deg day it stays at 78. I am impressed with this unit. I service it every year.
Our main ac system cools kitchen, family room, great room, and three bedrooms upstairs.

Even though we have a central A/C system in our home several of the upstairs bedrooms can get uncomfortably hot during the summer months.

A racer friend in the AC Business recommended a Friedrich ZoneAire 13500 btu/115/9.5 EER stand alone unit for the upstairs master bedroom. It has a remote control (you can adjust the temperature and fan speed while still in bed). Given a few minutes to cool the room off you can't leave it run at full speed all night, the room gets too cold.

The trick is how well you seal the air ducts to the window, once that is done it will drop the room temperature significantly.

If memory serves me correctly we paid $600 for the unit. I've had the unit for about 8 years. I doubt that it would cool off a 30X40 shop if it wasn't adequately insulated.

Bob

quote:

Originally posted by RPROGAS:
Even though we have a central A/C system in our home several of the upstairs bedrooms can get uncomfortably hot during the summer months.

A racer friend in the AC Business recommended a Friedrich ZoneAire 13500 btu/115/9.5 EER stand alone unit for the upstairs master bedroom. It has a remote control (you can adjust the temperature and fan speed while still in bed). Given a few minutes to cool the room off you can't leave it run at full speed all night, the room gets too cold.

The trick is how well you seal the air ducts to the window, once that is done it will drop the room temperature significantly.

If memory serves me correctly we paid $600 for the unit. I've had the unit for about 8 years. I doubt that it would cool off a 30X40 shop if it wasn't adequately insulated.

Bob

Same here. Our upstairs is hot and the central air barely makes a dent up there. We bought a Haier 14k BTU portable and it cools it down pretty quick. We turn it on 1/2 hour before going to bed.

Not sure what it would do in a shop but was thinking of putting one in the garage.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ha...-HPND14XCT/300906410

You folks back East get a lot of humidity, we don't. A bad day here might see it in the high 60's. That might be the difference in how effective the small stand alone A/C units work.

I have an electric valve on the first floor that channels the A/C to the upstairs. Even wide open it has little effect on cooling the upstairs bedrooms.

We have a lot of Family and friends visiting us during the hot summer days. No one has ever complained about the bedrooms being too hot, even on days where the temperature exceeds 100 degrees.

Bob

Too many negatives. Going with roof top for now.If not enough trailer is wired and framed for a second unit.