- My name's Aaron Massey from MrFixItDIY.com,
and welcome back to another episode of Home School'd.
For today's project I'm gonna show you how to
cool down your workshop.
(upbeat rock music)
Over the winter you may remember I installed
a heater in the workshop, and while that's great
for the two months of the year I actually need
it in Southern California, the rest of the year
the shop gets unbearably hot.
So today I'm gonna show you a couple steps I took
to cool down the workshop so that I can make
it comfortable to work in year round.
I rate these projects by how many f-bombs
you're likely to drop while tackling the project, this one
isn't too (audio distortion) difficult, but it takes a
little bit of time and some basic tools to knock it out.
Step one in this project is going to be installing
a portable air conditioning unit in the shop.
My friends at NewAir sent me their 14,000 BTU
portable unit to install.
If you're also in the unit for a portable
air conditioning unit, make sure you stick around
till the end of the video for a promo code
to get 20% off this same unit.
This is a direct vent unit that requires either
a window or a wall space to vent it.
The only problem is, with my new cabinets
and layout, I no longer have a window in the shop,
and there's only one small space near the garage door
that I can actually install it.
Fortunately, after doing a quick test, it can just
squeeze in there and leave the garage door functional.
If it were any bigger, I wouldn't be able
to push the unit back.
This unit comes with a six inch vent hose
and wall adaptor, which requires drilling a six inch
hole in the exterior wall.
The biggest hole saw I had was four and a quarter inches,
so I went and picked up a six inch hole saw for 40 bucks.
These are also really useful for drilling ceilings
to install recessed lighting, so I'm sure I'll
use it again at some point.
If you don't wanna spend the money, you could
probably use a jigsaw to cut the hole, but it'll
be a little bit harder.
A quick note that anytime you're going to be drilling
through a wall, make sure you know what is inside it
so you don't risk hitting any electrical or plumbing.
I've gutted these walls recently so I know there's
nothing running in this area.
Also, if you're gonna be using a big hole saw
like this, remember to put your side handle on your drill,
or be prepared for it to kick your ass when the blade
bites and torques on you.
I know this because I forgot to put it on at first
and quickly remembered.
Starting with the exterior wall, measure and drill
where you want your vent to be,
and drill through your wall covering.
Once you've gone through, continue the pilot hole
through the inside wall, and then come around to the inside
and drill in the opposite direction.
Next, attach the wall adaptor to the exterior
by adding a bead of exterior sealant around the collar
and then attach it with screws.
From there, you can feed the hose through
and thread it on to the adaptor.
Feed a little more than you need into the adaptor
because when you thread it onto the back of the AC unit
you'll spin it back in the opposite direction.
You could also thread the hose onto the adaptor
before attaching the adaptor into the wall if you wanted to.
Next, I added a little spray foam insulation around
the vent hose to make sure it was nice and airtight,
and added some foil tape to the back of the machine
to help secure the hose in place because I'll be pulling
the unit in and out from time to time.
The unit came with a cap for the wall adaptor,
but I don't wanna have to pull the cap on and off
whenever I wanna use the thing, so I grabbed a dryer
vent cover from Lowe's and installed it.
This'll help keep the lizards and critters from
crawling in it when it's not in use.
Lastly I can just plug in the unit and fire it up.
On first impression, this thing cranks a ton
of air, so it'll definitely help cool the shop down
a little bit; my shop is only about 300 square feet,
so the size of this unit should be more than enough,
however, with the garage door as is, the air can easily
escape and the heat can radiate in through the garage door.
So the second part of cooling down the shop is to
insulate the garage door.
First I measured the panels on the garage door,
and then I picked up some four by eight sheets of this one
and a half inch thick R-Tech rigid foam insulation.
I sliced them down the middle and folded them in half
so that I could fit them in my SUV.
They do sell some pre-made garage insulation kits,
but they wouldn't work for my door because my panels
are actually wider, and there's only three of them
instead of four.
One side of the foam has a reflective coating on it.
This side will be installed against the garage door
to help reflect heat back away from the inside.
So next I measured and cut the panels with a razor blade.
You could use a circular saw, or band saw,
or something for this as well, but I found it pretty
easy to just deeply score one side, then snap the foam and
cut the other side like you would with drywall.
I had to remove the garage door struts on my door
so I could get the foam installed.
I worked my way one row at a time, reinstalling the strut
for that row before moving on to the next.
It was just a matter of working my way all the way
up to the top, and it took about an hour.
I chose to black out the windows on the top of my door
for a couple reasons, but you could cut around
the windows if you have them in your door.
I did pick up some foam board adhesive to attach
the pieces in place, but honestly I made the pieces
such a tight fit that I didn't end up using it.
If you do end up needing something, this Power Grab
from LocTite is a great option.
So that's it, that's how I plan to help keep the shop
cool moving forward, obviously with a giant garage door
opening, nothing will be perfect, but this will drastically
help keep the shop cool enough to work in
and record these videos, because it gets really hot
with these lights on.
I wanna say a quick thank you to NewAir for sending
over the unit I installed in this video,
and if you are in the market for something similar
for your house or workshop, I encourage you to check out
this model, it's the AC-14100E,
and if you would like to purchase one,
you can use my promo code MRFIXIT for 20% off
at the link in the description down below.
It's relatively easy to install, pumps a ton of air,
and is pretty quiet for the size of the unit.
Plus, it kind of reminds me of R2D2, which is awesome.
(robotic beeping)
If you liked this video, please hit that like
button and leave a comment down below, and if you'd
like to check out more of my DIY workshop or
home improvement projects, you can always visit
my website at MrFixItDIY.com.
Thank you guys so much for watching, I'll see you next time.
(upbeat rock music)
(upbeat guitar music)