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  • Shop Upgrade

    After bragging about having AC in the shop Ol' Trusty, of course, bit the dust. It didn't owe us anything as we first bought it 15 years ago as the first AC unit for ME's music studio. When it turned out to be too noisy (noise is a big thing in a music studio) we repurposed it to the shop and put in a mini split for the studio. It's just too hot and humid here to work without AC so I hopped on the computer and turned up the locally available candidates.

    I wanted all the cooling I could get and didn't need the heating capability and I turned up 2 candidates - a GE made in China and a Toshiba made (probably) in Japan. It might be made in Thailand but couldn't find a way to tell which. Anyhow.....I went with the Toshiba. Getting it up and over the workbench by myself was a real trick but between the cherry picker and the port-a-power I get 'er done. If it wasn't the Covid thing I could have asked my neighbor to help but things are what they are right now. I had to open up the wall another 1 1/2" as this guy is taller than the old Maytag. Not easy in a steel building but I get 'er done.

    Anyhow, this sucker kicks butt with 18K BTUs - I think the old one was 12,500. It's also WAY quieter. Sorry I had to do this but glad I did.

    Click image for larger version  Name:	New AC Shop.jpeg Views:	0 Size:	1.02 MB ID:	1273979

    Dan
    Last edited by DanStokes; July 7, 2020, 02:44 PM.

  • #2
    That's nice , that's real nice ! ( that a quote from a movie I think . Not sure if I ever saw it but a friend of mind must have because he said it all the time . ) Now I'm going to have to Google it.
    Previously HoosierL98GTA

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    • #3
      Look's like it was Eastwood in Heartbreak Ridge
      Last edited by Dan Barlow; July 7, 2020, 08:16 PM.
      Previously HoosierL98GTA

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      • #4
        I wonder if I should upgrade? I have an evaporative cooler in my shop. I guess if I put AC in there, wife will want to sleep out there on humid nights

        My fabulous web page

        "If it don't go, chrome it!" --Stroker McGurk

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        • #5
          it hasn't gotten above 80 here this year. won't next week either...
          Doing it all wrong since 1966

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          • #6
            My shop sure is nicer (usable) since I replaced the PTAC unit in it.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by squirrel View Post
              I wonder if I should upgrade? I have an evaporative cooler in my shop. I guess if I put AC in there, wife will want to sleep out there on humid nights
              I WISH I could get anything out of an evaporative cooler! Our humidity, sadly, renders them useless. But we DO have an ocean!

              Dan

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              • #8
                Yeah, you have to live in the right place for a swamp cooler to work. And then, you have to be able to ignore the month of rainy weather, when it doesn't work very well.

                My fabulous web page

                "If it don't go, chrome it!" --Stroker McGurk

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                • #9
                  Dan I am surprised you didn't get a mini split for the shop? My shop is not very big or well layed out but I have HVAC covered. (Was a home office so it has its own heat pump)
                  http://www.bangshift.com/forum/forum...-consolidation
                  1.54, 7.31 @ 94.14, 11.43 @ 118.95

                  PB 60' 1.49
                  ​​​​​​

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Russell View Post
                    Dan I am surprised you didn't get a mini split for the shop? My shop is not very big or well layed out but I have HVAC covered. (Was a home office so it has its own heat pump)
                    This was cheaper - $600. Given that I have the hanging heater all I needed was cooling so a mini split would have been overkill. Besides, this more or less fit the hole I already had with some modification.

                    Yes, your set up is excellent! Folks - Russell has the only home shop I know of with a shower in the shop.

                    Dan
                    Last edited by DanStokes; July 9, 2020, 06:12 AM.

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                    • #11
                      It does have a shower, I have never showered in it. It's normally full of car parts
                      http://www.bangshift.com/forum/forum...-consolidation
                      1.54, 7.31 @ 94.14, 11.43 @ 118.95

                      PB 60' 1.49
                      ​​​​​​

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                      • #12
                        Interesting - my shop even after the 28x36 addition thanks to good insulation stays above freezing with the radiant tube in the original shop set to about 45 (as low as the thermostat will go) and it's been pretty economical ( I don't open the doors often in the winter - only when I need to use the tractor to plow snow).
                        I have a smaller window AC unit (left by a tenant at one of our rentals - have to look up the size) for the days it's just crazy hot (and mid-western humid) it's nice to take the shop from unbearable to mostly bearable.... as long as I don't have to use the torch or welder.... then I wish I had real AC.

                        For those of you with mini-splits - how do you like them? Considering one for an area of our house that is just too far away from the forced air furnace (and wood stove) to stay at a good temperature without some help.
                        There's always something new to learn.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by milner351 View Post
                          For those of you with mini-splits - how do you like them? Considering one for an area of our house that is just too far away from the forced air furnace (and wood stove) to stay at a good temperature without some help.
                          John - We have a mini split in ME's music studio and it's excellent. Like all heat pumps the ability to heat is limited by the outdoor temp - the colder it is the less well it heats. You can get them with a heat coil in them but they are a bit expensive to run. We solved this in the studio by installing a small wall heater that we fire up when it gets too cold. I'd recommend them.

                          I should mention that, depending on the situation, there may be another option. Our upstairs bonus room was WAY too hot to use in the summer and our excellent heat/air guy suggested that, rather than another mini split, he could zone the upstairs with a separate thermostat and some mods to the duct work. Works great and was about 1/2 the price of a mini split.
                          Last edited by DanStokes; July 9, 2020, 12:27 PM.

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by DanStokes View Post

                            ... he could zone the upstairs with a separate thermostat and some mods to the duct work.
                            Dan
                            We got that when we had the package replaced. It's a great concept and it would probably be grand in almost all applications year-round and is perfect for us in the winter. Not so for our house in the summertime. In the master bedroom the biggest wall and the ceiling IS the roof facing southwest, so it's a huge passive solar panel. Man it gets hot up there, mid 80's. The zone can't cool it running wide open so we have a big window unit in that room. The zone could cool the other rooms upstairs but we don't live in those rooms.
                            Charter member of the Turd Nuggets

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                            • #15
                              I wonder if they gave you enough outlet area in that room. Brian (our heat/air guy) did the calculations and found that we needed another cold air outlet for that space. He added that when he created the zone and we can set the thermostat wherever we want it and it will maintain that temp. In that room over half of the ceiling is the bottom of the roof (there's insulation over the ceiling but not much) and it still does fine. Probably just a difference in the setup between yours and ours.

                              Dan

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