A garage can be a really hot place to work. Most are not built to stay cool, and some bear an uncomfortable resemblance to a solar oven. Your garage probably doesn’t have air conditioning installed, and if it did, you’d probably realize that the garage is too leaky to be cooled effectively by AC.
So you need another technique for cooling your garage, and you’re probably wondering if a fan will work. Here’s the bad news: fans don’t actually do any cooling. Fans just move around air. Most of the time, this means they’re just moving hot air around. Sometimes, you might be able to bring some cooler air into your garage. A fan can also help your body cool itself off. Most of the time, though, if you’re working in the garage, you’re probably not in a position to take advantage of a fan’s help.
Fans don’t cool air. If they are able to provide any cooling for your garage, it will be because they are able to draw cooler air in from outside to drop the temperature inside.
It’s true; garages can get hotter than the outside air. Sun streaming through windows or hitting the tar or metal roof can heat up the garage. Add to this the heat from engines, grinders, welders, and more machines, and it can keep your garage much hotter than the outside. Through the winter, a fan might be able to draw in enough cool air to keep the garage comfortable, but summer is a different story.
If it’s 110° F in your garage, on paper, there’s a benefit to drawing in the 95° to 100° F air, but you won’t feel the relief. All you’re going to feel is the heat.
You can’t cool your garage with a fan, but you might be able to cool yourself. That’s because the moving air from a fan can make it easier for your body to cool itself.
Cool air moving over your skin can help your body lose heat. This is most effective when the air temperature is below 75° F, and by the time the temperature reaches 95° F, the air itself can’t take heat away from your body. Instead, your body must rely on sweat to cool off. Sweat on your skin evaporates, taking heat from the air and your body, helping you cool off.
But this doesn’t necessarily help you in the garage. If you’re wearing coveralls, you won’t have much skin exposed to the moving air to allow you to cool off with a fan. Sweating also works less when you’re covered with oil and grease. The water just can’t evaporate very well.
If you really want to cool off your garage, you should get a solution that actually cools the air. Evaporative coolers work using the same principles that sweat uses to cool you: it evaporates water. Essentially, an evaporative cooler sweats for you when you can’t for one reason or another.
Now, instead of drawing in 95° or 100° F air from outside, you’re dropping the air temperature to a cool 72° to 76° F. That makes all the difference for your garage. That air is cool enough to help you feel comfortable even in coveralls, and you don’t have to sweat ridiculously to stay comfortable.
A large portable evaporative cooler like Portacool can be wheeled out when you need it and moved around the garage to make sure you’re getting cooled off wherever you are.
Knowing that an evaporative cooler puts water in the air might make you worry about corrosion in your garage. However, there are many professional racing teams and custom shops around the country that use Portacool evaporative coolers in their automotive garages without problems.
Portacools have been made in the USA since 1990, and we back up our American-made quality with best-in-class warranties and customer service.
Please contact a local or online retailer to learn more about how a Portacool can make a big difference in your garage.
