Keeping the workshop cool

Ground source heat pump working in reverse.

Build a foundry. Do an hour in the foundry and then retire into the cooler workshop.

Put a night shift on.

Go fully CNC and operate remotely from the house.

Buy an old church and move the workshop there.

Sit in the garden and eat ice cream untill the weather cools down.

Seriously I do sympathise. If only we could store the heat of the summer to warm us up in the winter.

The best idea I have heard of is plastic beads filled with wax. You create a matrix of the beads and plaster. The wax melts at around 22 C absorbing heat from the room and delaying the temperature rise. On cooling the room 'hangs' at the freeze temperature as heat is given up by the wax. Essentially you use the phase change to buffer the temperature rise in the room.

regards Martin

Nowhere in the UK is above 20C all day so there is cool time at night. As with your house you need insulation and thermal mass which you cool down at night and seal it up in the day to keep the heat out. You can also paint the roof white, spray it with a mist of water, shade the walls and windows with a lightweight frame projecting from the roofline a couple of feet covered by cardboard or sheeting that can be removed in winter to let the meagre sun provide warmth.

Martin, the wax beads idea, although probably not for me, is very intriguing and has given me something to follow up on for interests sake at least, thank you.

As I suspected, my options are fairly limited. I may have to just wait this out for the moment. Thanks for all those who were able to give some ideas, there was certainly a lot of food for thought.

Google Phase Change Heat storage or some such.

regards Martin

If you live in a stone walled house, that is the old tech version of the wax balls.

Regards Ian.

You might consider those ice-cooler machines from on Amazon

Two main issues with evaporative coolers - they don't work well when the ambient humidity is high & they increase the humidity if they are working. Do you want to raise the humidity in your workshop ?

Nigel B.

If you spend enough time in the shop you might even get used to the heat! Joking apart, I'm from Malta, current shade temperatures are in the mid to high 30s, a couple of weeks ago temps went up to 43 deg...infernal heat which is really uncomfortable to work in. I would suggest good ventilation as a starter, my workshop is a garage with two opposite doors and with the draft created I can stand 35deg. If ventilation is not possible I would invest in an ac. I intend to install one at some point, but I keep on buying tooling instead!

i put a ceiling and insulation in my workshop/ garage mainly to keep it warmer in winter it also keeps it cooler in summer. also reduces condensation. well worth the time and expence of doing it.

My workshop is well insulated in the walls and roof but has a large window facing south so problems with heat when the temp is over 20 degrees. To combat any heat buildup I shade the window and open it and place a small box type fan I the doorway which is left open, the resulting current of air keeps the inside cool enough to work comfortably. An aside to the workshop heat problem, we have a large conservatory which faces South West and was getting unbearably hot in the afternoons, so much so that it was uncomfortable to use then. We bit the bullet and earlier this year the polycarbonate roof was replaced with a white UPVC panelling which is insulated internally with polystyrene, the difference is amazing and the conservatory is now usable all the time, the underside of the roof panels are always cool to touch. Dave W

My workshop has a max-min hygrometer/thermometer just about central.

It is a fully insulated workshop, and for the last week and a half or so, the temperature range has remained between 17 and 19. Not a lot done in there machinery-wise, but I did put the dehumidifier on when there was a surplus of power available (no more than 750W, for a couple of hours at a time). So as Martin, above - insulation rules!

What are grass lawn type roofs like ? The old camping cool boxes worked by evaporating water from a plaster type of material.

if you watered the roof, would the evaporating water cool the roof. Can't say how you would apply that to walls and doors though !

I bought one of those and it was a total failure. Complete waste of time. At 25C outside temp I could not get it down more than 1 degree. Gave to a friend to try out and he had the exact same problem. I also bought a small 12v model for the caravan and that too was a waste of around £200 a few years ago at Crick boat show.

regards

Another vote for expensive insulation here!

A trick often forgotten is "free cooling" running a small fan overnight to draw in cool air and draw down the interior temperature. The same trick can be achieved with a "chimney" through the roof, just block it off in winter.

I use this in my extensions slope-insulated roof, it lets the heat gained during the day out so it stays temperate all summer and winter.

Jon, exactly how simple does it have to be to be within your threshold of acceptably easy?

Pitched roof vents

Nothing that works is very cheap, we are talking a lot of energy here, but a lot of the solutions are readily doable.