Garage Ventilation

[jmed999]

I always thought it would be a neat project and possibly a large energy saver.

 

This time of year it's real hot in the south. My wife and I both park our cars in the garage about 5:30. Since the garage doors are insulated the garage gets very very hot. I'm sure some of this heat is absorbed into the house which I pay to have conditioned.

 

I was thinking it would be great to have a thermostat automatically turn a ventilation fan on in the garage when the temp gets a few degrees above the outside temp. Then a few hours or so later when the heat has been taken out of the garage and it has returned to a lower temp the fan could automatically turn off.

 

I'm thinking if this is optimized it could save some money on the electric bill.

 

Has anyone done this? How could this be done?

 

Thanks!

[jmed999]

I'm a little surprised more people aren't interested in this. Hot garages = higher electricity bills. I would love to be able to figure this out. Not sure what cfm rating the fan should be. I'm guessing that would be a case by case bases.

[stillen_i30]

You could consider creating a program where a lamp or something is set off by insteon as a warning prior to programming your insteon garage door to close after remaining open for 30 or so mins to vent out the garage. This would move much more air than a fan. The fan could introduce leaks into your wall if not installed properly, or even bugs/critters (granted, leaving the garage door would do the same thing regarding critters but its not perfect, I know!). So essentially, after sunset your garage door would open automatically for 30 mins and then either set off a light reminding you to close it or set the light off anyway prior to it closing so you can monitor the close. Just a thought.

[jmed999]

Yeah the exhaust fan would have to be installed properly no doubt. I currently just leave the garage doors open for a little while after we get home but that leads to a lot more bugs, spider webs, and I've even found a bird in the garage. A lot of times if the wind isn't blowing I bet a forced ventilation would work better at removing the heat even though the open garage doors are larger.

[stillen_i30]

You're right...my parents once found an African Gray parrot in their garage in Florida (neighbors pet which flew in somehow).

 

Does your garage have vents? Mine has vents near the bottom and the top...I suppose that would be a great place to start since its already water-proofed i'm sure...finding a fan to fit in there would be the next task. Unfortunately, considering the size of the garage, I don't know if that vent opening is adequate enough.