Hi Guys.
Thanks a lot for all of the responses so far, and sorry I haven’t gotten back in here till now.
I won’t go into a lot of detail, but I want to at least respond partially.
Please keep in mind, anytime I reject an offered idea here, I am not really hardcore against it. More likely, this is all still so new to me that I am working it out out-loud. So, please come back after I volley your way and push me on any issue that you think is really important. I will always reconsider at this stage; especially when it seems to be coming from someone with a lot more experience than me…
following with your notated structure…
First:
I totally understand and appreciate your point about simplifying. Any place where it can be simplified (i.e. less config AND less $; because if it’s just less config, it’s irrelevant to me at this point lol ), I’m all for it. However, when it comes to the outside temp, I disagree…but only slightly.
I have actually tested, and the air in this one particular spot (which is partially covered by house structure, but is still outside…and is far enough away from the heat-source inside the house as to not matter for that) is significantly cooler than the otherwise regular, ambient temp of the air outside. So, at the risk of annoying with my OCD, I’m going to stick with the plan of including an outside temp monitor in this particular location (i.e. it is also the place where the air will be taken in from).
Also note… I am already using the weather app, and it fires off warnings when we get a nasty storm in the area, etc. I like it, and it is sometimes much better than the normal weather apps out there for my area. However, it’s just not exactly what I need in this specific situation.
Second:
In light of First: above, and the fact that the driveway is a massive heatsink right up to the garage door, I will probably instead try to figure out a safe and efficient way of blocking whatever other holes and/or openings of whatever kind there are on the door to increase the amount of air that comes in through my vent instead of there.
Third:
Yep. It does indeed get cold here, and I have already thought of that. It’s just not mentioned in the plan, simply because it’s not really part of the thing I’m most trying to do here. Yes. I will cover the holes appropriately, and I do really appreciate you bringing it up, because it makes total sense to make sure to factor that in when putting this all together.
Fourth:
Good. This is great info to help me along. More questions…
I am assuming that, even if I were somehow magically able to instantly evacuate all of the heated air from the garage and replace it just as instantly with cooler air from outside, it would heat back up again fairly quickly just from all of the heat that has been radiating into and getting soaked up by the structure of the garage itself. With that being the case, would it be better to get a slower moving fan, since a fast fan will end up using way too much electricity by getting the initial job done quickly and then running and running all the time (throughout the established venting period)?
**Finally:
Thanks. Great idea indeed. I have looked around a bit before coming here, but in light of the high cost of one of those kinds of things, I could get a bunch of other things to do this a different way instead, and still have money left over to put toward the next set of gear (whatever it will be) that I will use to do this same thing up in the attic.
FWIW:
This makes sense. So, I guess I will still keep it in mind when it comes time to actually impliment this thing. Most likely, I will still do two temp monitors and only draw air in when it is cooler outside (given the explanation in ‘First:’ above.
Cool air outside at night = yes, indeed. It can be 80 in the afternoon (which means it can be approaching double that in the garage…OK, perhaps exagerating), and then drop at least 20 degrees at night…and so-on.
As for insulation, yes.
As I stated in the OP, I am also planning on insulating the currently uninsullated spots of the garage.
However, this thread on ST forum is only intended to deal with the ventilation project.
I totally agree and appreciate your input as it relates to the insulation, and will come back here to review your comments on that once I get to that project.
NOTE: I know that it would be better to prevent the heat from entering in the first place than trying to get rid of it once it’s there, but since I already have much of what is needed for this project, I’m starting here first.
Up-n-Out: Yep. That’s why that is pretty much exactly how I described it in the OP. Thanks though.
One difficulty in my case is that the highest point in the garage is not directly under roofing…there is a bedroom in the way. So, I won’t be able to go through the roof for the exit vent. Instead, it will need to be on the side of the garage…just as high up as I can get it within the workable space in the garage. It’s not a real problem though, since I’m more concerned about venting the garage than I am about where it goes to once it is outside of the house. As for HOA issues, yes. I will certainly check into all of that. For one of the holse, it is hidden by structure, and won’t matter at all. For the other, it is on a side of the house that is facing the nextdoor house where nobody really ever looks much anyway. So, it probably won’t be an issue, but I will definitely make sure of that prior.
Flamable vapors?
Hmmm…well, I do have a gas can in the garage for the lawn mower, and I suppose some of the lawn chems and other stuff might be such, but the way I see it, there is such a small concentration of that kind of stuff that I can’t imagine it would be problematic in this case. If I blow up my house, I will let you say “I told you so” to my face. lol
Linear air flow:
Yes. I see your point. That is one of the things I asked about in the OP. So, I’m glad you mentioned it.
I think the system I’m going for is more along the lines of
“well, at least with SOMETHING going, I know it will keep it a LOT cooler in here”
than
“OMG! I have to make absolutely certain that all of the heat gets evacuated immediately”
It seems to me like, if I have even a marginally effective fan going all night, it will serve the purpose at the level I’m going for here.
Shield the sensors:
Indeed. I have considered that as well, and it is a slight part of the reason I’m putting the outside temp monitor under the structure. It won’t completely keep it out of the elements, but it’s pretty close. I think the main thing I will want to do to increase the protection is to install some kind of hood over it to make sure it can totally ‘breathe’, but that it’s not somehow holding heat in the space and messing with the reading.
do not cycle the fan over the internet:
OK. I’m not completely sure if I understand what you mean, but since it sounds like it may be important, could you please give me more detail?
proof of concept:
There is only one opening in the garage to the outside, and it is the large, main garage door.
I have indeed already experimented with leaving the door open, but even slightly lets cats in, and I can’t have that.
Leaving the door open all the way would indeed solve the problem at night in the sense that it would cool it down. However, (besides the part about cats…and/or whatever or whomever else it would let in) it’s heating up all day, and I suspect that, even if I had just a fan going all day and all night without any ‘smartness’ to it at all, it would likely go a long way toward the solution I’m going for. I want to add smartness so that I can monitor it (or, rather, so that IT can monitor it for me so that I don’t need to) and make sure it’s actually functioning properly. e.g. In a situation where I don’t just have it running all day, if a big storm comes up in the middle of the day and cools the outside down, I want to be able to take advantage of that cooling and have the monitors trigger the system to turn the fan on.
Attic heat:
Yep. I totally agree, and as I said in my OP, I will indeed also eventually be working on that.
In my case though, it is so hot up there with no way of managing it even a little, I find it more palatable to start working on this kind of project in an environment in which I at least can open the big door and take advantage of the cooling that is available that way…to have a slightly cooler area to work in while I stumble through and figure things out the first time. Then, once I’ve gone through it once by doing it in the garage and worked out the kinks, I will be more educated, experienced and prepared to do it more quickly up in the attic so that I won’t have to spend quite as much time up in that unrealistically high heat (heat stroke is a very real thing to me).
Insulation a mistake?
I have heard the exact opposite from every ‘smarter-than-me’ person I have ever talked with aboutthis kind of thing.
So, in what way would insulating the garage door and the currently uninsullated portions of the walls and ceiling be a mistake?
[quote=“Robert_Vandervoort, post:5, topic:18108, full:true”]
for foaming of pre-existing walls…[/quote]
Yep. I totally agree.
More details on the garage and how it is and isn’t insulated…
The portion of the garage which is immediately below living space (bedrooms) is already properly insulated. However, since the law doesn’t require it beyond that, they left the portions of the garage that just have roof above them completely bare walls with not even any wallboard, let alone insulation. So, regardless of which kind of insulation I land on (when I eventually get to that project - see notes in replies above), the area to be insulated is clearly marked out, and it should be relatively simple.
