Is Your Shed Simmering? Use These Summer Heat-Busting Tips To Cool It Down
Garden sheds are excellent for storing tools, cultivating sensitive plants, or just hanging out and reading a book. Unfortunately, the summer months can make most sheds unbearably hot and humid inside, which makes it hard to continue enjoying them. If your shed needs a cool down, here are a few steps you can take to help get rid of excess indoor heat.
Thermal Sheathing Keeps Heat Away
Insulation usually helps keep homes warm, so adding more to your hot shed may seem counter-intuitive. Thermal sheathing isn't like other forms of insulation, however. On one side, it's coated in a thin layer of heat-transferring aluminum, which vents heat outward and stops new warmth from coming in. This makes it ideal for lining the inside of typical metal shed roofs, which readily heat up in direct sunlight.
One reason for placing it on the roof instead of the walls is the natural propensity for heat to rise upward, which means it will be absorbed by your sheathing and passed out through the roof. Reflecting heat from the sun is another good reason, since you can minimize how much of your roof's ambient heat affects the room inside. Placing the sheathing on the roof instead of the walls can also protect it from being worn down by physical contact from pets and people.
Blow In Fresh Air With Convection Fans
Whether you work or play in your shed, spending long hours inside it can quickly make the air stale. This is especially true for outdoor buildings without floorboards or floor insulation, since dirt can be kicked into the air as you move around the room. One way to keep your air fresh and somewhat cool is to use a convection fan system.
To take advantage of convection, you'll need to place two fans in your shed walls. The first fan, which is low to the ground, will bring in fresh, cool air from the outside to ensure you can get plenty of oxygen. The second fan should be positioned as high in the shed as possible, and should blow outward. This will suck out the hot and stale air that naturally rises to the top of your shed, ensuring you get good airflow.
Use A Window Unit To Cool And Dehumidify
Long periods of time in your shed can also make it quite muggy inside. Both breathing and sweating introduce new moisture into the air, and this moisture can make enclosed spaces quite humid. If you have pets or other people in your shed breathing and sweating, the moisture can make you feel even hotter and more oppressed by the heat than before.
Enter the piece-de-resistance that will keep your shed as cool as a cucumber: a traditional window air conditioner. This unit will not only suck up moisture in the air, but also vent heat and introduce cold air as it runs.
Choosing an air conditioner for a shed is a bit different from choosing one for a room in your home. You need to calculate the required strength of the machine with the shed's low insulation level in mind, so it's important to buy a slightly overpowered machine. If your conditioner is just barely strong enough to cool a room the size of your shed, chances are you'll still be wiping sweat away at the end of the day.
The summer sun shouldn't force you to stay inside. If your shed is getting too hot to handle, try some of these cooling tips to help keeps its temperature down. A good fan system or window air conditioning unit could be the difference between misery and comfort.
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