Energy Consumption Poll (my shop)

Leave it on?

  • Yes leave it on

    Votes: 39 70.9%

  • No turn it off

    Votes: 16 29.1%
  • Total voters
    55
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Do you have an unconditioned attic? If so, might want to do a bit more than gable/ridge venting. Helped my house in AZ some. 69*? We are in Eastern Washington. We had a bit of heat the past week or so, temps were in the low-mid 90's. Our house was 86 or so & we did not die. That was with 50% humidity. We keep the house shut up during the day, soon as the sun starts to drop open up the windows and turn on the fans. With the way Avista, our power company, rapes us there aint no way I would be having my a/c, if we HAD it, set at 69*.
 
Rice Nuker said:
Yeap, my big swamp cooler does the whole house 20+ deg cooler than outside. Ave humidity is 30 - 40 % here, so it works properly.

Add thermo control exhaust fan under eve peak, both ends of shop.

My vote, when you and the dog are gone, leave a/c off. Maybe install some sort of controllable lever operated vent in the ceiling and add some cross flow like an exhaust fan(s) or vents in the eves.
This way you can bring in regular hot outside air and exhaust the 115 - 135 deg heat from the attic or top area which will save you energy big time.

Then shut off the exhaust fan (unless you have a drop ceiling or separation level, then you should just leave it thermo controlled at 85 deg shut off) and put the a/c on 80 when the dog is there (with a circulation fan(s) as mentioned) and put it on 78 when you are there.

You will probably shi* when you see your bill from keeping it 70 deg in there.
I would, and have.
.
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inkjunkie said:
Do you have an unconditioned attic? If so, might want to do a bit more than gable/ridge venting. Helped my house in AZ some. 69*? We are in Eastern Washington. We had a bit of heat the past week or so, temps were in the low-mid 90's. Our house was 86 or so & we did not die. That was with 50% humidity. We keep the house shut up during the day, soon as the sun starts to drop open up the windows and turn on the fans. With the way Avista, our power company, rapes us there aint no way I would be having my a/c, if we HAD it, set at 69*.
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I don’t have eaves because I have a hip roof on the shop. I would however like to have some type of exhaust fan. I have a dedicated switch and wire already ran in the attic for a exhaust fan. When I wired it I didnt know exactly what type of fan I wanted to use. To be honest I still don’t know. A bathroom type fan would work but wouldn’t move enough air far as for cooling purposes. A large type exhaust fan would be nice but I don’t have windows just a access door and the garage door. I built this way on purpose because I didnt want dust (bad allergy problems) being brought in as well as keep the thieves out.

I need to mention that I have my A/C set on 70 degrees but the actual temp inside my shop isn't 70 degrees. For some reason it's always warmer in the shop. So this morning before I left for work I pumped the A/C up to 73*. Now when I got home today to walk the dog the A/C is on 73* the digital thermometer that sits on the work bench shows 76* and the outside temperature is 87* and the A/C isn't struggling with the compressor staying on all of the time. I guess if the A/C had an external thermo it would to do better I guess but this is close enough for me.

Yes I more than likely with sh*t a brick when I get the bill. This is why I created this thread is to get some options on how to make the bill cheaper (that I have not even seen yet) next time around.

pacuda59 said:
Check these guys out for ceiling fans.

http://www.bigassfans.com/
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I bet those fans have a very nice price tag! It can't hurt to look however.
 

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inkjunkie said:
Don't know what they are really called but I used Whirley Birds on my roof in AZ. They lowered the bill some in the summer. Will try to find the right name for them. They are a passive vent that is mounted on the roof deck, close to the peak.....This is them http://www.homedepot.com/Building-M...splay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051
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I have 3 of the "big bird" whirly birds on my house.They turn when heat is rising up thru them and my are always turning atleast some so attics hold lot of heat year round.
 
inkjunkie said:
Don't know what they are really called but I used Whirley Birds on my roof in AZ. They lowered the bill some in the summer. Will try to find the right name for them. They are a passive vent that is mounted on the roof deck, close to the peak.....This is them http://www.homedepot.com/Building-M...splay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051
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mopar410 said:
I have 3 of the "big bird" whirly birds on my house.They turn when heat is rising up thru them and my are always turning atleast some so attics hold lot of heat year round.
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My shop's roof is so small that if I put one on there it would look awkward. Believe when I tell you this. lol I do appreciate your suggestions however! The roof has a ridge vent at the top and perforated soffit all the way around in the boxing. It's getting plenty of air circulation. The ceilings are insulated to proper heat factor or whatever you call it. I had a company come in and blow it for me.

Here is a couple of pics of when I was building it to show the size of each roof section. They're not really that big.
 

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Apologize for the length ahead of time....Grandpa, Dad & his brother were all roofers in NJ. One of the things they pushed was as much ventilation as possible. Fast forward a decade or two and I ended up in AZ. My Dad convinced me to put more passive ventilation up then what the home had. My home had a full ridge vent, gable vents and vents in the hip sections. It also had fully vented soffits. Much to my surprise when I put the birds on the roof they spun damn near 11 months out of the year. The house had 12-14 inches of blown in insulation. When I put the birds up my electric bill was $10 less a month during the summer than the previous one. The house next to mine was built the same time. Bob did not have the birds on the roof. Last trip to AZ the shingles on my old house were all still laying flat. Bobs house needed a new roof, the houses were 18 years old. There is other passive vents available. Noticed on my way to town today that pretty much every newer home up here has passive vents in the roof. Again, sorry for the length....And your garage looks great....
 
inkjunkie said:
Noticed on my way to town today that pretty much every newer home up here has passive vents in the roof. Again, sorry for the length....And your garage looks great....
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Thanks

That's strange.

I built houses for 15 years and never installed one those birds. The ones I see around here are on the older houses and the "mill hill" houses. I know they aren't any in my neighborhood because I looked. lol
 
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