My summer oven shop
 

When I moved 4.5 years ago, I'd had my previous shop built into a hillside with lots of shade for the roof from trees. It never got above 72*, if I kept the overhead door shut.
The new shop sits in full sun most of the day and gets unbearable to work in when the temps are over 80*, Sooo. I bought a mini split system and spent the last 3 days installing it. Dang, this isn't like throwing a window unit in. IF I had been thinking ahead 3 years ago, I would have framed in for a couple of those while I was finishing the interior for heat and been done.
Anyway, this works really well and will be a blessing to continue progress on the Camaro and my '66 Chevelle interior over the summer.


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Curious what size you went with and your space size? In terms of the DIY challenges, what were the biggest? I have been mulling this over as well as debating doing it myself.
Thx

It's 18k btu, or 1.5 ton. My square footage that I heat/cool is about 900 with 12 ft ceiling height. The challenges were the pole building having main poles at 8.5 ft. I added posts between all those when I insulated to reduce the width for standard pole barn insulation of 60". This still required a 1x12x74" backer board to be added for the evap unit to mount to. It's only 20 lbs, but at 10 ft up, it would be difficult on a ladder. I have my old fork lift and a pallet to use as a platform. The outside plumbing to the condenser needed 1x4 blocks under them because of the siding ribs. The cover is a dress up kit and the pieces are only 4 ft, so it took a while to get it all lined up and screwed down halfway straight. Measuring and planning the location of the condenser for the pre cut and flared lines was critical too. It runs on 240 volt, so I had to run a new circuit from the other side of the building for it. None of this is especially difficult but it was very time consuming. I worked on this for 4 days, but I'm old, slow and retired...:laugh:

I have a mini-split in my garage here in AZ and it's a God-send in the summertime. Very energy efficient and quiet. Bought it for my previous house here and had it moved 5 yrs ago when we moved to our current home.

"I worked on this for 4 days, but I'm old, slow and retired..."
I hear ya. Seems every project takes longer than I anticipate.

Just keep plugging away.

I've been looking at these for my small garage, but afraid the evaporator coil will lose efficiency in a body dust and primer overspray environment.

I have the same situation and am looking for a cover for when I need to spray, but so far, nothing. I'm working on getting the quilter in the house to warm up to making one...:wink:
For now, I'll have to get up there and use a piece of plastic and staple it to the wood mounting board.

That building is small enough to frame up an opening for a window unit. I believe a 10-12k unit would have you wearing a parka in a short time...:biggthumpup:

----My cave is 1,600 square ft. There's a sort of motor home/boat storage area that's somewhat apart form 3 bays, but included in the 1,600ft. It all is insulated, but a smallish wall unit from Amazon cools the whole building down to ice cubes if necessary. Even somewhat the upstairs storage area!....Bill S

Nice looking shop. When I built my shop I included a office area and installed a mini-split as it get miserably hot here in west-central TX and it works great. So... 2 years ago I put a 5 ton in my 2k sq. ft. shop for those really hot months. Figuring I had 2"-3" of closed cell a 5T would have a little reserve. Turns out that is not the case as it can't keep up on really hot days, In August of the first year I set it on about 76 and enjoyed it until I got my power bill for $972. Now, I only use it when I'm in the shop constantly and it is necessary.