Portable A/C For Shop

Anyone ever use a portable A/C unit in a shop? I have oddly shaped windows in my shop that make using a window A/C unit close to impossible. These portable units just run a duct hose to the window to let the hot air out, and I can deal with that. But I'm an A/C engineer (mobile), and the ratings on some of these units seem optimistic to me. Have any of you used this type of A/C unit? If so, I'd like to know what brand, the rated output, the size of your shop and how well it worked and held up. Actually, ANY information would be useful. And yes, I know the performance depends on a lot of factors - I'm just trying to get any information I can that may help in making a decision. Thanks! Jim

I've got a water cooled portable unit. It is very good, plus you get to water your lawn with the cooling water.

And it not a swamp cooler, it proper AC with a water cooled condenser.

In reply to Streetwiseguy:

What brand/kind of A/C unit is it?

My grandpa took a huge window unit, and put it on a wheeled base. He then made a block off that spanned his roll up garage door. Line the unit up with the garage door, close door on top of unit, block off sides. Instant garage AC with cheap CL window AC units. For more fun line up 2 or 3 of them to really cool it off.

Take a look again at those cheap little window units at Walmart and such. They fit in some tiny windows.

And if that doesn't work, put it on cart as previously suggested.

bravenrace wrote: In reply to Streetwiseguy: What brand/kind of A/C unit is it?

Buffalo Package Equipment ltd is the sticker, but google comes up with a lot about Buffalo, New York. Its like this one: http://www.rsl.ca/CAT2009/page302.pdf

we have a stand alone that we use on extremely hot days at the house. It works great. Room is 15x30 and the unit does OK. Love to put it in the garage, but the garage door is always open. So I just use a ceiling fan.

Way back in the day we had a small ac mounted on roll around cart with piping off the front . We could put it in the floor board of the car and tinting a car in the back seat was easier . you could force the air right in your face . in da face

Karl La Follette wrote: Way back in the day we had a small ac mounted on roll around cart with piping off the front . We could put it in the floor board of the car and tinting a car in the back seat was easier . you could force the air right in your face . in da face

IN DA FACE!

Sorry, had to fix that.

Lots of good information here, but how about more details? I'm pretty set on the portable units unless they are for some reason no good. But what kind do you have and what can you tell me about it? I guess any additional details would help.
Thanks!

In reply to bravenrace:

The problem with most portable units is they have no means of make up air so they draw hot outside air in though cracks so they don't provide nearly the cooling they advertise.

Even if you get a 2 hose unit so it draws air from outside you are still trying to cool hot outside air.

A window unit is far better for cooling. If you have to set it on a table amd run insulated duct work out a window.

Lots of review of portable units on consumer reports and epinions.com

You could always cut a hole in the wall and mount the window unit there.

I need to be able to move it around. There's no way I'm going to get a little unit to cool my entire shop (1200 sq ft with 12' ceiling), so I want to be able to move it around with me. I have four evenly spaced slider windows that I can run hoses through but window units will not fit in. I understand the inefficiency of the portable units, which is why I'm asking. I'm open to other suggestions, but how is running a window unit on a cart any better than the portable? It's still going to take air out of the shop through the condenser, right? The water cooled condenser is interesting, but how does that work with supplying and getting rid of the water?

In reply to bravenrace:

We have a 12,000btu DeLonghi at work for emergency use and it works.

Is it a portable?

bravenrace wrote: There's no way I'm going to get a little unit to cool my entire shop (1200 sq ft with 12' ceiling)

I disagree. Based on my own experiences with cooling larger spaces than that with small units, they can darn well do the job. And that includes some of the garages I work in that are cooled with little window units.

I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but how can you disagree when you don't know what you would need to disagree? Heat load? Insulation? Window area? Pulldown requirements? I do this for a living, I'm just not familiar with portables and window units. No single window unit is going to pull down my shop from 100F to 70F on a sunny day, as the BTU requirements are too high.

bravenrace wrote: I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but how can you disagree when you don't know what you would need to disagree?

Well, you did tell me the foot print and height of the shop, and I know this planet reasonably well. That gives me quite a bit of information.

If you believe it's impossible for a single window unit to the the job, I'd have to toss back to you then, what are you actually basing it on? Is this shop secretly a greenhouse? Interesting combustion sources of heat in the shop? Need it down to 40 degrees? What?

Otherwise, the area to be cooled isn't that large, the planet isn't that hot, and a window unit can cool it down quite well.

Without knowing the R-factor in the walls and ceiling, sun load and window area, you don't really know anything that can even get you close to knowing what I need. I also have constant heat loads from inside the shop. It calculates to 18k BTU's. Do you know of a 18k window or portable unit? There are calculations we do that, believe it or not, are more accurate than your personal experience. The units I've looked at don't have the components to do what their manufacturers say they can. I know all too well how A/C mfgrs test their units under non-standard conditions so they can claim certain BTU ratings. There is no industry standard that all companies are held to, so the numbers are all over the place. So if anything, they perform at a lower level than rated, not higher. My thinking was to buy a portable unit that I can move around to the area I am working in. If I had the time and wanted another project, I'd just design and install my own system, but I don't. So let's stop talking about if a window or portable unit will or will not cool my shop to my satisfaction - it won't. What I would like to know is if people think the A/C unit that they have performs as well as they expected in both capacity and durability.

My shop is 60x32 but I only cool 2/3rds of it. I use a 220v window unit very similar to this one. http://www.lowes.com/pd_317022-2251-LRA257ST2_4294859075+4294830825_4294937087?productId=3199371&pl=1&currentURL=/pl_Window_4294859075%204294830825_4294937087_

says it's 25k btu

It's 100 degrees right now and I have it set on 77.....feels nice in the shop. FYI it's a cinder block shop with 10ft ceilings and blinds on all the windows.

I have another, smaller, window unit I plan to use to cool the other 1/3rd of the shop. Eventually I hope to go with a central unit.

Not that I feel like debating it, but my degree in mechanical engineering and years of experience in the field let me figure out some things pretty darn well. But I don't need it for this discussion.

If you wish to assume that no window ac unit can cool your shop, fine. Having spent years in shops cooled with window ac units, I know for a fact that they can.

You could just sweat it out with a box fan from Goodwill like us little people

For us little people:

http://www.gmilburn.ca/2005/06/15/the-black-beauty/

http://lifehacker.com/5568311/five-effective-diy-alternatives-to-running-air-conditioner

Many years ago, I worked at a hardware store that was also a Carrier dealer. My boss was country as grits, and loved to mess with people, in a good-natured way. Sometimes a customer would ask how many BTUs they needed for a certain space, and he would reply, "You need enough B-T-U to cool off a B-U-T as big as a T-U-B."

Suprisingly, we sold a bunch of 'em.

In my small shop, I just cut a hole in the wall for a 5000 btu cheepie unit. When it craps ouot, I feel certain I'll never find a unit the same size, but I don't use it too much; hopefully it will last as long as I do.

foxtrapper wrote: Having spent years in shops cooled with window ac units, I know for a fact that they can.

Yup.

My attached garage (being attached helps): 1 extra deep bay... and a small unit at the end will get the space downright cold...

The g/f's detached garage: 2+ bays (about 900 sq ft) some insulation and 8' tall doors that face west (this creates a nasty heat-load in the late afternoon) and is much more challenging to cool, but one standard window unit will make the space tolerable to work in. Not cool, but it takes the edge off the humidity.