An idea for cooling the garage while charging

[hydbob]

I suppose I can make a hole thru the wall, but not really want to deal with stucco repair if I can avoid the hassle.

Run the pipe through the garage vent

 

[Coltonw011]

I suppose I can make a hole thru the wall, but not really want to deal with stucco repair if I can avoid the hassle.

A properly sized bit for the condensate line and drilling from the outside wall into the interior wall will require no stucco repair. Do this all the time for work. Obviously verify you have no electrical in the wall you’re drilling through, and a measurement for stud locations, which if hit would require some stucco repair

 

[EVCar]

A properly sized bit for the condensate line and drilling from the outside wall into the interior wall will require no stucco repair. Do this all the time for work. Obviously verify you have no electrical in the wall you’re drilling through, and a measurement for stud locations, which if hit would require some stucco repair

Good to hear. Know anyone in the business for my area?

 

[Coltonw011]

Good to hear. Know anyone in the business for my area?

Any ol plumber should be able to handle it with ease. A lot of condensate and even interior plumbing in AZ is ran in CPVC, pretty simple for them to run. A condensate line ran w/copper would corrode so it’s recommended to use PVC or CPVC

 

[Steveinarizona]

Any ol plumber should be able to handle it with ease. A lot of condensate and even interior plumbing in AZ is ran in CPVC, pretty simple for them to run. A condensate line ran w/copper would corrode so it’s recommended to use PVC or CPVC

Agree. Once you find a plumber to do the install of a heat pump water heater, the plumber should be able to handle the condensate line. But beware...many plumbers don't care about damage so check out her policies and references.

 

[hmp10]

We have two 80-gallon Stiebel Eltron heat pump water heaters in our ~2,000 sq. ft. garage with insulated garage doors. We're in south Florida where garage heat and humidity can get intense. How much cooling and humidity reduction you'll get from the water heaters depends somewhat on how much hot water you use. With only two people in the house most of the time, we don't use enough hot water to get a lot of heat and humidity relief in the garage, although some is detectable.

However, when one of the water heaters is running, the air blowing off the condenser coils into the garage is quite cool and dry. So a heat pump water heater in a small, well-insulated garage of a house that uses a lot of hot water would probably make a significant difference in the summer in that situation. (Remember, though, that such a water heater pulls heat from ambient air to heat the water. In a garage in a wintry climate, the heat pump will have to work harder and will actually cool the garage down further.)

My take: heat pump water heaters are the best environmental answer for non-solar water heating. They are only marginal contributors to climate control in most garage installations.

 

[DaveyBoyGT]

I would imagine the IRS would do it by zip code but maybe town, maybe who knows. I goggled Scottsdale it was was 90K or so. But there are areas higher and much lower. Typically the rules are to come. And there goes your credit.

Here's how:
Homeowners will be able to collect a maximum of $14,000 total in rebates. Household income cannot exceed 150% of the area median income as calculated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in order to qualify. (Here’s an Area Median Income Lookup Tool from Fannie Mae to see what your limit is.) According to the bill itself, rebates start after December 31, 2022.

You just input your address and it gives you the median income.

Hope that helps.

 

[Coho]

We have two 80-gallon Stiebel Eltron heat pump water heaters in our ~2,000 sq. ft. garage with insulated garage doors. We're in south Florida where garage heat and humidity can get intense. How much cooling and humidity reduction you'll get from the water heaters depends somewhat on how much hot water you use. With only two people in the house most of the time, we don't use enough hot water to get a lot of heat and humidity relief in the garage, although some is detectable.

However, when one of the water heaters is running, the air blowing off the condenser coils into the garage is quite cool and dry. So a heat pump water heater in a small, well-insulated garage of a house that uses a lot of hot water would probably make a significant difference in the summer in that situation. (Remember, though, that such a water heater pulls heat from ambient air to heat the water. In a garage in a wintry climate, the heat pump will have to work harder and will actually cool the garage down further.)

My take: heat pump water heaters are the best environmental answer for non-solar water heating. They are only marginal contributors to climate control in most garage installations.

Unfortunately, this makes good sense. Heat pumps of all types are best in temperate climates without extremes. I just cant imagine a typical household using enough hot water to actually make a difference in a hot garage. The same climates that make for a hot garage are going to be the climates that make it difficult to cool that garage with a heat pump/ water heater system.

 

[SubSailor]

I suppose I can make a hole thru the wall, but not really want to deal with stucco repair if I can avoid the hassle.

I am thinking that my hot water heater is about ready for a replacement. I remembered seeing an episode of This Old House where they installed a heat pump water heater/ As a heat pump, of course, it draws heat out of the room to heat the water so it will function as a quasi AC system.

What do you all think? Time to replace a standard water heater with a heat pump version?

As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, living in Tucson, AZ...I had a ductless heat pump Trane/Mitsubishi AC put in my garage. I leave it at 88 and it keeps my garage perfect for charging EVs and my golf carts. Total cost in 2021 was less than $3k. I have solar and Tesla powerwalls along with a Tesla wall charger and my electric bill is less than $400 for the year.

 

[Coho]

Here's how:
Homeowners will be able to collect a maximum of $14,000 total in rebates. Household income cannot exceed 150% of the area median income as calculated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in order to qualify. (Here’s an Area Median Income Lookup Tool from Fannie Mae to see what your limit is.) According to the bill itself, rebates start after December 31, 2022.

You just input your address and it gives you the median income.

Hope that helps.

Thanks. This is helpful but strangely seems inaccurate. The area we live in Scottsdale is shown to have a median income of 88k while the area in WA 103K. And the WA area is rural with little evidence for wealth as opposed to Scottsdale. And yet Scottsdale is lower. But it would be difficult to quality with either locale. Lucid owners need not apply.

 

[Tesla2.0]

I have this small industrial fan timer in my garage from 12pm to 4am on GFCI outlet. It help make garage 5~10 degrees cooler and lesser AGT vampire drain. Small investment from Costco.

 

[RGS_AZ]

I have this small industrial fan timer in my garage from 12pm to 4am on GFCI outlet. It help make garage 5~10 degrees cooler and lesser AGT vampire drain. Small investment from Costco.

View attachment 4300

@Tesla2.0 where is it moving air to? Just around the garage or is it venting air out through a door or something else? Something like this could be an option for me.

 

[Steveinarizona]

As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, living in Tucson, AZ...I had a ductless heat pump Trane/Mitsubishi AC put in my garage. I leave it at 88 and it keeps my garage perfect for charging EVs and my golf carts. Total cost in 2021 was less than $3k. I have solar and Tesla powerwalls along with a Tesla wall charger and my electric bill is less than $400 for the year.

But you are feeding it from solar. I would imagine that the cooling loss from opening the garage door would be immense if one is paying a utility for electricity.

 

[Steveinarizona]

We have two 80-gallon Stiebel Eltron heat pump water heaters in our ~2,000 sq. ft. garage with insulated garage doors. We're in south Florida where garage heat and humidity can get intense. How much cooling and humidity reduction you'll get from the water heaters depends somewhat on how much hot water you use. With only two people in the house most of the time, we don't use enough hot water to get a lot of heat and humidity relief in the garage, although some is detectable.

However, when one of the water heaters is running, the air blowing off the condenser coils into the garage is quite cool and dry. So a heat pump water heater in a small, well-insulated garage of a house that uses a lot of hot water would probably make a significant difference in the summer in that situation. (Remember, though, that such a water heater pulls heat from ambient air to heat the water. In a garage in a wintry climate, the heat pump will have to work harder and will actually cool the garage down further.)

My take: heat pump water heaters are the best environmental answer for non-solar water heating. They are only marginal contributors to climate control in most garage installations.

Thank you. This is very helpful. Two 80 gallon hot water heaters for two people? I would imagine that you rarely need to make more. If you had one 50 gallon tank (that is my regular water heater right now for two of us) do you think you would get more cooling since you would be making hot water more often? My garage is insulated but is a regular sized two car garage so I would be cooling a much smaller space.

 

[Steveinarizona]

I have this small industrial fan timer in my garage from 12pm to 4am on GFCI outlet. It help make garage 5~10 degrees cooler and lesser AGT vampire drain. Small investment from Costco.

View attachment 4300

My hot water heater is in a closet. While I would take the door off (or leave it permanently open) for my hot water heat pump, I was thinking about a fan to move the air around to help out since it is not in an entirely open space.
Fans cool by blowing air by a person but don't cool the room directly (to my belief). So how do you get a ten degree drop from just running a fan?

 

[hmp10]

Two 80 gallon hot water heaters for two people?

Two reasons:

(1) We need the capacity when the house fills up with company. (We had eight people sheltering in the house for over a week in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in 2017 and frequently host hordes of extended family, especially in the winter. This is Florida, after all.)

(2) I designed this house to handle the care needs of my partner who had posterior cortical atrophy (an early-onset form of dementia). He was incontinent for the last couple of years, and we were doing 35-40 loads of laundry a week which we often had to double wash; thus I put in a laundry room with two large-capacity washers and dryers. And we also had two live-in caregivers due to having to keep eyes on him 24/7, so our hot water usage was pretty high. (Unfortunately, he died two months before the house was completed.)

 

[Steveinarizona]

Two reasons:

(1) We need the capacity when the house fills up with company. (We had eight people sheltering in the house for over a week in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in 2017 and frequently host hordes of extended family, especially in the winter. This is Florida, after all.)

(2) I designed this house to handle the care needs of my partner who had posterior cortical atrophy (an early-onset form of dementia). He was incontinent for the last couple of years, and we were doing 35-40 loads of laundry a week which we often had to double wash; thus I put in a laundry room with two large-capacity washers and dryers. And we also had two live-in caregivers due to having to keep eyes on him 24/7, so our hot water usage was pretty high. (Unfortunately, he died two months before the house was completed.)

This is a terribly sad story. At least, it sounds like you are handling it well!

 

[hmp10]

This is a terribly sad story. At least, it sounds like you are handling it well!

Thanks. I've been very lucky in my life with the people in it, then and now.

 

[Tesla2.0]

@Tesla2.0 where is it moving air to? Just around the garage or is it venting air out through a door or something else? Something like this could be an option for me.

Garage door is closed, I don’t have exhaust vent. In late afternoon, I will open a little garage door. It give general cooler feeling wheh air inside is circulated.

 

[borski]

Garage door is closed, I don’t have exhaust vent. In late afternoon, I will open a little garage door. It give general cooler feeling wheh air inside is circulated.

You could install a “whole home fan” in the garage. It’s super easy and would really help pull hot air out in the afternoons.