Air Conditioned Garages for Dummies

A garage air conditioner

If there's one thing that makes the average DotD candidate stand out in our staffers' minds, it's probably the inability to understand the topics they've been charged with covering. This lack is especially common when it comes to eHow and the niche sites that Leaf Group is currently populating from its vault. Take, for instance, repeat awardee Kelsey Childress, who clearly had no idea what she was talking about when she attempted to explain "How to Air Condition a Garage"¹ for HomeSteady.com.

Based on Kelsey's answer, which is nothing more than reworded instructions for sizing an air conditioner to your kid's bedroom, we realized that Childress is either unfamiliar with garages or unfamiliar with HVAC; and probably both. She starts by telling us,

"Spending most of your time out in the garage on a hot summer day can be exhausting. With no way to cool down, you will not be able to work as hard. Putting in an air conditioner is a simple project that will make a world of difference in your work environment. With so many styles, brands and sizes it will be easy to find one that will solve you're [sic] overheating problem."

Sure, Kelsey, "easy"... so let's see how she says to do this. First, Childress, tells us, measure the garage. Once that's out of the way, she explains that

"A good rule of thumb to follow is that a 12,000 BTU unit will cool a 500-square foot room or garage."

Gee, thanks for that: but what if my garage isn't a 500-square foot garage? Shouldn't you have pointed us to someplace with a table or chart? Anyway, once that's out of the way, Childress sends us to Home Depot or Walmart to buy a window air conditioner, and then uses almost 200 words to recap the instructions that would come with a new window air conditioner. Gee, thanks again...

Unfortunately, Kelsey just gave us instructions for air conditioning a room in the house. What she did not take into consideration ("consideration" is a favorite word around eHow!) is that a garage is different from a bedroom, i.e.: A garage probably has a higher ceiling -- nine or ten feet instead of eight.  Garages often aren't insulated like interior rooms.  A garage has a gigantic, poorly-sealed door leaking hot air.  Many a garage doesn't have a window.

We have some thoughts on the issues Childress ignores:

• A good sizing chart will take into consideration cubic footage of a room, not square footage (though it will still underestimate need)
• You could insulate the walls and ceiling, although the ceiling is probably insulated if there is living space above it...
• A good sizing scheme will take into consideration the R-value of the door and the quality of the seal(s)
• Without a window, you will probably have to buy a through-the-wall system, perhaps a mini-split. You probably want to do that anyway... or, perhaps, a portable air conditioner would do the trick. Research it -- Kelsey's post is just plain stupid.

A 12,000 BTU unit very likely will not cut it, and anyone who knows anything about garages and/or air conditioning would know that. Childress had no idea whatsoever she was talking about, yet spread her incompetence all over the internet anyway, just to pick up a few bucks from Demand Media. That, in our humble opinion here at the Antisocial Network, makes her a perfect Dumbass of the Day.

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/how_5681334_air-condition-garage.html

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