Looking for some folks who whave been there and done that.
I am in Phoenix Arizona and its hotter than the back side of a boiler after climbing the long grade home.
My biggest problem is the house I am in is a rental so alot of the fixes I would do, I cant. Like install a room aircondioner. No windows to use, and I cant add one. Today’s project is to add foam to the door (which is a 16 foot wide by 6.5 feet, metal type) which should help quite abit to keep heat out, but I am working on ways to cool it down.
One thing I was thinking of and was looking for advice from those that have been there was maybe getting small evaporative cooler to use in the room.
All though I have concerns that the mostiure might play havoc with the engines and rolloing stock in the form of rust. As I know it would get quite humid in there with a room type cooler. Pulling fresh air in from the outside is wothless as it will be 115 degress. All you get then is kinda warn, wet air. The layout would be fine as it is 100% foam.
But how legitmate is the cocern about the moisture, I am being to catious, or should I go for it…
I do have one alternate plan but invles alot of time in the attic to reroute some air condtioning from the house.[}:)] into the garage, but to id so I can convert when we move it in a few years will be quite a bit of work.
I hear ya john…lol its very hot…im basicly doing the work in the morning and at night right now till .i fugure something out…like put a A/C unit in the wall of the garage 30.000 btu should do it,but ,there goes the electric bill,
Carl,
Actually, I have seen pictures of your layout. (looks great by the way) and I noticed that you have the same garage door tyoe that I do. I am in the middle of insulating that right now with foam. (wating to its cooler tonight ot finish) Even though I only have hlaf the panels done, i can allready tell a difference. Even standning next to it puttin the panles, I can feel the difference of the heat raditing off the uncovered the door.
I also have a great place to buy large sheets of the white foam cheap in Mesa, around Baseline and Mesa (McQueen) if you are interested.
Nice to see a fellow AZer on on the baord too.
Talk to you soon
John K
P.S. On your profile picture I see a BNSF Dash 9(?). Whos made that? That is the next engine I reallr, really want. Looking for opioninons on them
Hey, I know the feeling even with air, I live in Deming, which like you guys in AZ is HOT !!!
My wife gave me a room in our mobile home and although really nice, I have to work during dark or early in the morning. Sounds like you have a plan though and yes foam is a great insulator, just ask the guy who lives inside a foam cooler… LOL, well you get the point.
Yard-dog ( or johncpo ) either fits 'cause I are both
One suggestion that may work, if you can insulate the garage, get a stand alone AC unit, they vent out like a dryer. They also don’t drip water as the unit will dispiate the water back out the unit. I have one in my office that was inside of a block building, no windows, and with 10+ servers running it would get 85 F and higher. Once the stand alone AC was running it gets 70 F easy.
I bought mine at Best Buy, it was the larger one, around $650.00 though there are smaller ones.
Look at side views of a tunnel motor, then get out your chainsaw! Screen the opening and make an insulated door/cover for closing it in winter. Then put in a couple of those air operated whirling roof ventilators. Do not use a swamp cooler.
I saw two different “standalone” types of air conditioners at Costco (I am also an apartment dweller).
One has a hose, not unlike a dryer hose, that vents outdoors.
The other you fill with water and it blows air through a water screen of some sort. I believe this would most closely resemble what is known as a swamp cooler.
What a novel concept–a model railroader using foam insulation to insulate their home!!
Arizona…whew! Makes me feel not so bad about the heat in the Sacramento Valley, which has in fact been pretty mild this year. My layout is in the garage too, a detatched garage at that, and I have contemplated putting up foam insulaton to keep things cooler, at least on the western wall where the sun hits. Having a cross-breeze helps too–with a good electric fan it is bearable on all but the hottest of days.
I’d say to avoid the water-based “air conditioners” in favour of the proper type with a compressor and sealed system. A local hardware store had one of the water filled ones running last year in temperatures of about 35c as a demonstrator, it seemed pretty hopeless - the air blowing from it wasn’t noticably cooler than the air from a plain fan!
Stay away from the evaporative coolers. In a closed space, when the temp drops in the evenings you will have a wet room.
Have you thought about taking a panel out of the garage door. replacing it with wood, and installing a conventional air conditioner in that panel? Assuming you don’t have to use the door, of course. Had a friend who did that years ago and it worked quite well. Painted the rest of the panel outside to match the door and it didn’t look bad. Insulate everything else of course. Conventional units are a lot cheaper than the stand alones, but if you can’t do that a stand alone will certainly work if it’s sized right.
I heard of something called "blackout’ curtains. They are like the ones in a theater. They are thick so the heat will stay out.And the train room will keep cool. Give that a shot!
At work we have several offices in the middle of the plant. These offices all have air conditioners in the walls that pump the heat out into the factory areas. A couple of years ago we installed duct work to these and routed them up to the roof vents to dispell the heat there, it realy helped with the heat in the factory. You could do a varyation on that by using a room AC unit in the garage as a free standing unit and having some duct work made to dump the heat into the attic space and let it get vented out that way. Another possibility is to have it routed out under a partialy opened garage door. you would have to build some filler panels for the rest of it though.
We used them in work site trailers that baked in the direct sun from dawn until dusk. They really work, and have improved in quality over the 25 years I have been around them. There are many ways you could jerry rig the exhaust ducting.
Of course, if you have alot of space to cool, you will be limited. But something is better than nothing.
They can be expensive … you get what you pay for in life … buy quality. It would be a nice little lifetime investment … if you got the bucks to spend right now.
Checking a Pychrometric Chart, Zero percent humidity air at 110 degrees Farenheit can be cooled to about 60.5 degrees (by adding moisture) before it gets 100 percent humidity (where moisture will condense out onto your layout. Making this air 50% relative humidity will cool it down to about 72 degrees. Consequently, evaporative cooling should not create condensation above 61 degrees. Keep in mind, you may be able to cool the air down to 61 degrees, but the surface temperature of your layout will still stay above that temperature (heat retention), preventing condensation.
Bathroom mirrors fog up when you take a hot shower only when they are COOLER than the dew point of the air in the room. They will never fog up when you take a cold shower in a hot room.
What’s your security deposit worth to you? I’d say reroute your attic ducts to the garage.
The pipe and vent covers are cheap and if done right, your landlord probably wouldn’t even notice it ( or be upset about a cool garage ) if you just left it there when you move.
Just do it at night so you don’t turn into a baked potato.
loathar
We have had ours for over a year, and it runs 24/7/365 since the room it’s in get’s heated from the surrounding offices. I can’t remember the name, Hali-something, it has a hose that looks exactly like what you would run on a gas clothse dryer, also ther is a little tube at the bottom back that can be drained if need be, i have opened it, it will fill a cereal bowl with water after 2 months of non-stop running.
You could surely cut a hole in the garage for a dryer vent, heck the vent could be used to run auto exhuast out like a garage for the new renters but again ours is doing an excellent job, is true AC unit and not a water type exchanger, i remember seeing on and was very un-impressed.
Just my 2¢, hope you find an answer. I am luck as my layout in the basement, even with the 90 F + heat in Central Illinois, i only get a little heat from the lights, without AC in the house running, the boss won’t let any one run it i.e. the girlfriend…
Hello Here’s a simple way of trying it that I used to help keep my Grandparents living room cool. Take a normal window fan and place a cookie sheet of Ice in front of it. wont rais the humidity that much being that your starting at almost zero anyways and most people live in areas where the avg humidity is 50% or higher. This is a simple and cheap fix. [tup]
but again ours is doing an excellent job, is true AC unit and not a water type exchanger, i remember seeing on and was very un-impressed.