[Woodworkers] Climate Controlled Shops

[jaspertops at bluemarble.net]

I wonder what impact the on time and off time would have on the humidity
in the shop.  Here in southern Indiana, the humidity in the summer is quite
high.  My shop is in the basement of our home, so it stays A/C all the
time.  If the shop was detached, would the humidity go up at night and back
down in the day?  I would think so and I would think this would have an
impact on any wood in your shop and being used on your project.  Just my
two cents worth.

Vince Granacher

On Thu, 12 Jul 2018 15:02:55 -0700, Dave Heitstuman via Woodworkers
<woodworkers at lists.sawdusters.org> wrote:
> Here is my 2 cents for whatever it might be worth. I'm in the commercial
> HVAC business from the control or building automation side of things. We
> are in the energy saving business J 
> 
> First of all with gas heat and DX cooling I would set the thermostat and
> let it rip. (we have gas and DX in the house) We also have cheap power
> here so some of this may not be practical for you. 
> 
> There are basically 3 things to consider when trying to save energy and
> setback the temperatures.
> 
> #1 Energy cost
> 
> #2 How well your shop (or home) retains heat/cool (minimum and maximum
> outside air temp plays a huge factor in this)
> 
> #3 The equipment recovery time (how long it takes to warm or cool the
> space from setback)
> 
> #3a How long in between trips to the shop.
> 
> Backing up, many moons ago (before I was in this racket) I was told by
an
> HVAC tech that if you set your temperature back too far then the
> equipment will just run longer and harder to get the temperature back up
> (were were discussing heat recovery). His theory was that it was more
> cost effective to maintain a temperature than it was to heat it back up.
> Remember it is not just the room temp it is everything in the room
(house
> or shop). If you keep it at 50 then not only do you have to heat the air
> you have to heat the furniture and walls and….. He had a convincing
> argument at the time. Bottom line his argument was to only set back a
> maximum of 6 degrees (heating). 
> 
> Fast forward I get in this racket and as I learn I ask questions. The
> theory was pretty much debunked by just about anyone I talked to. A few
> of the older techs would ponder it and respond with something along the
> lines that it was an interesting theory. I can tell you that we have our
> controls in buildings that cannot recover from a 10 degree setback in
the
> dead of winter due to heat loss. We also have buildings that cannot cool
> themselves when the temps get into the 90's. So this proves that
> equipment sizing, system design, and insulation all matter.
> 
> Most importantly I can tell you from experience what I have learned with
> my shop. I primarily heat with wood. Due to the placement of my shop
> getting gas to it (at the time) was cost prohibitive so I put in a heat
> pump with electric emergency heat. I kept my shop at 55 in the winter
and
> 85 in the summer. These temps are the industry standard for setback in
> our area for an unoccupied building. Let's say I go out to the shop on a
> 20 degree day and don't want to start a fire so I bump the heat up;
> usually to 70 degrees. It is too cold for the HP to run so the strip
heat
> comes on. I am slightly undersized on my strip so it runs for about an
> hour to get the temp up the 13 degrees. It will then cycle on and off
> every 10 minutes or so for awhile and then the cycles start getting
> longer, every 15 then every 20 and eventually if I am out there long
> enough the furnace runs 2 or 3 times an hour for a few minutes. If I am
> working on a big project that I need to keep stabile I leave the heat at
> 68 and the furnace runs maybe a few times an hour for a few minutes. I
> started realizing a year or so ago that this seems to support what that
> guy told me all those years ago. So I am now leaving it at 62 and
> tracking the usage on our utility bill. The impact seems to have been
> non-existent this past winter. 
> 
> I recently have been living in the shop while the house has undergone a
> major renovation (Oh how Joe would have loved this tale). Because of
that
> and our bizarre spring weather I have also learned that keeping the
> cooling lower seems to keep the HP from running as much. Or best case it
> keeps the temperature more stable since the mass is all one temperature
> and it does not run at night and wake me up. This seems to have
confirmed
> what I already had surmised, the cooling will run no matter what, so how
> long do I really want it to run to cool the mass? I have dropped it to
78
> or 80(?) for this summer to see what happens with our power bill.
> 
> 2Dave 
> 
> FROM: Woodworkers [mailto:woodworkers-bounces at lists.sawdusters.org] ON
> BEHALF OF Chuck Steger via Woodworkers
> SENT: Thursday, July 12, 2018 11:05 AM
> TO: A place where woodworkers talk about woodworking
> CC: Chuck Steger
> SUBJECT: [Woodworkers] Climate Controlled Shops
> 
> For those of you with climate controlled shops, I'm curious on what you
> leave the temperature at when you are out of the shop? I leave mine at
80
> degrees in the summer and 50 degrees in the winter. I figure those temps
> won't ruin any finish or glue. If I'm in the middle of a glue-up or
> finishing, I'll leave the temperature around 70 until complete.
> 
> For those of you with HVAC knowledge …. I always bring the temperature
> up or down in 3 degree increments. In other words, I'll go out in the
> morning and bring it from 80 to 77, then when at 77 I'll take it to 74,
> etc. Same with bringing the temperature up. Not sure why I do this. I
> guess I'm basing it on when I had a heat pump, you would not want a
> drastic change or the emergency strips (electric strips) would come on.
I
> do not have a heat pump (gas furnace and regular AC) so is this faulty
> logic? Should I just go straight to 70 in either direction? Any
advantage
> to a slow clime or descent?
> 
> Chuck
> 
> Cave Springs, AR