Temperature control in a pole barn

[JimmyC]

Hey guys, I've got a problem that I'm not sure how to handle. My shop is in a pole barn that is 40'x32' , it has a center wall seperating it into two almost equal halves. Two bay doors that are 10x12 (non insulated) , OSB interior walls, and a dropped ceiling (about 11.5 feet high) pretty much round out the picture.

I love my shop, It's at least twice the size of anything else I've ever had, but it gets hot in the summer and cold in the winter. I've got an A/C wall unit on one side that helps, but it is expensive to run. Portable heaters don't work very well in the winter either with the ceiling.

Does anybody have any good ideas for insulating this beast, and getting better heating and cooling in it.

Thank you for any input.

Jimmy

[NCPete]

for heat, I would use radiant in the floor. With as much ceiling clearance as you have, you could pour a couple more inches for the thermal in-floor lines.

For cooling, trying running sprinkler's on the roof, and see what that does to your temp....

[CarlaG]

you might try blown in insulation,they have it at lowes,along with the machine to blow it.not sure if they rent it or let you borrow it when you purchace the product,this would probly be the easiest rout,since you allready have the interror walls done,is there a floor in the attic? if not then just roll out some of the thickest batts of fiberglsss ,r-19 or so. my shop is 32x32,with osb on interior walls i have r-11 in them,nothing in the attic.sure wish i did,as i loose heat in winter and gain heat in summer,no ac but i do heat it with a wood heater that i built,and it dose a good job of keeping it warm.also a good means of getting rid of scrap wood,and the occasional mistakes that i make so many ofhope this helps

[JimmyC]

Pete,
I agree with you about the radiant floor, but for the amount of time it would be used it is cost prohibitive. When I lived up north it would have been something to think about, with the long winters and all.

Carla,
Being a pole barn does not allow me to blow in insulation at all, and I've thought about ceiling insulation but I'm leery of putting it on top of ceiling tiles and fluorescent lights.

Does anybody have any ideas about insulation on a dropped ceiling, any input would help.

Once again I thank you for your ideas.

Jimmy

[Travis Porter]

I have seen fiber glass batts on drop ceilings a lot when I used to do wiring work. It is very common, and it is going to be your most cost effective insulation IMO. As for heating and cooling, I would check out some of those small combo type units that have a separate condensor and fan assembly. I believe Mitsubishi makes some. They are supposed to be very efficient, and you can get programmable themostats so you can time when it runs.

[scsmith42]

Jimmy, consider a combination of Tekfoil, foam boards, and fiberglass batts.

Tekfoil is commonly used in agricultural pole barns. You can learn more about it at http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies...nsulation.html

I would recommend the foil, bubble, bubble, white poly on the walls, with the white poly facing inside for aesthetics. If it's practical, install 1.5" foam board behind the tekfoil.

For the ceiling, you can either run tekfoil above the dropped panels or use the fiberglass batts as Travis recommended. In commercial applications, it is common to see dropped ceilings with fiberglass batts above them and no further insulation in the roof/ceiling.

If you insulated the entire building with Tekfoil, either one or two electric oil radiators (such as the delonghi units) would probably keep it comfortable in the winter. That's because the Tekfoil is extremely effective in terms of managing emmissive heat loss.

I also like Travis's idea about the timer on the AC/heating.

Regards,

Scott

[macdaddy]

Did you ever consider a woodstove for winter? They are great for heating large open areas. Also it is a great way to get rid of scrap wood. Unfortunately AC always requires expensive electricity.

[junquecol]

I see the problem- You have a South American barn. Right now it is cold down there, and the heat would be appreciated. If you have shalow water table, a jetted well and sprinkler would be the way to go. Fiberglass batts over lay-in is the standard. Unfortunately, with outside temps near 100, not a lot is going to help right now. It was a miserable 81 degrees in my shop today. Unfortunately, tommorow I have to roll up the doors and do quite a bit of ripping on plywood for a current job. At least, install is in the AC.

[JimmyC]

I thank everybody for their input and I think that I will try insulating (eventually) first. The tekfoil product looks good Scott, thanks. Now if I can only find some way to justify $1200 for it, I know my wife will understand ( Ha! Ha!).

Then I will go on from there as needed.

Once again, thank you everybody!

Jimmy

[scsmith42]

Jimmy, a few more days like today, and it seems to me that justification would be a no brainer!

Scott