Hot garage

I recently bought a house in NC and the garage is extremely hot. I want to be able to store stuff in there that could be ruined in the heat. I would like to bring the temperature down in there maybe 10-15 degrees and without putting in a portable air conditioner.

I was thinking either having foam insulation put in the attic above or an attic fan or both. Or putting one of those exhaust fans in the wall of the garage and have it pull the air out but don’t know if any of those things would do the trick.

any advice or ideas?

 

Can not see your garage from here without a picture.
Is there any soffit vents, ridge vent, gable vents?
Is there a ceiling, or is it open to the rafters?

 

First thing I would suggest is a louvered exhaust fan.

 

I also live in NC and all my garages are well insulated. Guess what... they still get really hot. The problem is when it's 90 some degrees and you pull a hot car or two inside and shut the door it turns into an oven. Insulation just holds that heat inside. Insulation does help. It blocks the heat from the sun beating down on the walls and it stops heat from radiating down from the attic. Still, the only solution is ventilation. You don't really need a fan. An outlet for hot air up high and an inlet down low to let cooler air in will let natural convection move the air for you. But, a fan would help.

Come winter it's a different story. The insulation holds the heat in so even during the coldest part of winter you're getting into a 50f car in the morning and things don't freeze (unless you forget and leave the door open).

 

Minisplit heat pump along with insulating the ceiling above the garage.

 

i don’t want the expense of putting in an air cond system like a mr slim or portable ac. There are no gables but are ridge vents and not sure about soffit vents but I assume there are. I’m out of state at this time so can’t check or get pics. .

I had an AC rep come out and suggested foam insulation in the attic. Also putting in gables with attic fan in the attic. I’m not sure about either with helping temp in garage though. Looking for a second or third opinion on that.

I did put an attic fan in a previous house and that did help with lowering the temp on the top floor during the hot seasons. But don’t know if would do same for a garage and that’s what I’m looking for.

 

Well a fan in the wall would at least help keep the garage the same temp as it is outside... and a attic fan on a thermostat would certainly help keep the attic cooler. Insulation by itself won't make the garage much cooler but it would help your fans be more effective because the insulation will slow (not stop) the heat transfer.

 

Our attic right now just has soffit and ridge vents. An AC rep came out and took a look and said it’s ok to put an attic fan up there. But I looked online and several places had said a gable with an attic fan could screw up the current airflow and I mentioned that to him. So I’m not sure if I should listen to this rep.

 

Yes it will, but what do you care if it sucks air in from the ridge vent when the power vent is on? It's still removing hot air, just a lot more if it... which is what you said you want to accomplish. And when the fan isn't on, you will still have normal soffit -> ridge airflow. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

 

A powered fan in the attic will change the air flow but I wouldn't say it screws it up. Your goal is to get hot air out and cool air in. Who cares which way the cooler air gets into the attic.

 

You can't just stick fans in without makeup air that can be pulled across the hot roof area. That is why soffit and ridge vents work. The entire area is having cooler air pulled across it.

 

thanks for all the advice