I'm back... Need that Air Conditioner!

Hello everyone! We have gotten moved and settled enough for me to start messin' around in the new shop and even have a couple posts lined up for you. I'll slowly transition back into this (not like I was updating that much anyways, ha ha).

We have purchased our first house in south Texas. It is a LONG way from Oregon and A LOT hotter. I have my shop set up in our 3 car detached garage (wife's car is in one bay, but the rest is mine!). It isn't insulated at all and must be around 110 during these summer days. To hot to spend any amount of time out there, which sucks because it is perfect. What I needed was a cheap AC solution.

I was looking at options for AC. Almost everything was more expensive than what I was looking to spend seeing as how all the extra cash is going towards new stuff for the house. My friend from work had a 12000 BTU window AC he was willing to sell me for $50. The problem is that there is no windows in the garage, and even if there were, our HOA does not allow them. But for the price, I was going to figure something out. I read articles about how people had used them to cool grow rooms for their "plants" and how they had vented the exhaust. Working with this knowledge this is what I did:

I first cut a hole in this little partition that separates the work shop from the rest of the garage. I used some spare 2x4's to frame it out to support the AC unit.

Now the exhaust vented right back into the shop, and that wouldn't have worked, so I needed to get rid of it somehow. I used some spare 1x2, 1x3, and 1/4" paneling to construct a box unto the back of the unit and then direct it into the attic. I then covered this box and all the seams with insulation tape.

The attic isn't insulated yet. That is my next project. I only run the AC while I'm in there, but I need to insulate the shop so that I can leave it running and set at a comfortable temp. When I do that, I will vent the exhaust out through the roof. Something to keep in mind: the exhaust of the AC isn't built to push air out a duct. Depending on the length of the run it may not be able to properly remove the heat and you'll burn out the pump. What I did was take an old fan I wasn't using and place it on top of the vent in the attic to help suck the air out. It is plugged into an outlet that is wired to a switch so that I can turn it on and off when I need to use it. I also ran a drain pipe to get rid of the condensation.

I drilled a hole into the pan and attached a 1/2" pvc fitting to it using some underwater JB-Weld. I then ran some 1/2" sprinkler system hose to a 5 gallon bucket that I manually dump from time to time.

Well, hope you liked this. And maybe it gave you a little inspiration for you hot garage. This isn't perfect, mind you, but it seems to work great. I'll keep you updated on how it ultimately works out after I have the garage insulated.