Garage workshop
- Usually works
- A single ductless heat pump — heats in winter, cools in summer, quiet.
- First
- Insulate the walls and ceiling and seal the roll-up door as well as you can.
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- Garages & workshops
Heating and cooling for garages, workshops and ADUs.
The house system can't — and usually shouldn't — reach them. Here is what works for each kind of outbuilding, and what to do before any equipment goes in.
Four kinds of building
What usually works.
General guidance — every building is different, and we'll check yours before recommending anything.
ADU or casita
- Usually works
- Ductless heads room by room, or a small ducted heat pump in a larger unit.
- First
- A permit and a load calculation — ADUs must meet the energy code like any home.
Tack & feed room
- Usually works
- Ventilation first — an exhaust fan with a fresh-air inlet — then a small ductless unit if the room needs cooling.
- First
- Keep the room closed off from the animals' space; livestock housing is outside our scope.
Backyard office
- Usually works
- One small ductless head sized for the room.
- First
- Insulation, and shade on west-facing glass.
Three approaches
Portable, ductless, or extending the ducts?
Portable units & space heaters
- Cheap to start
- No installation
- Loud, and weak in real heat
- Space heaters need care around dust and sawdust
Ductless heat pump
- Heats and cools
- Quiet, efficient, its own thermostat
- Needs an electrical circuit
- Costs more up front
Extending the house ducts
- Sometimes fine for an attached, insulated room
- Not allowed into a garage
- Usually overloads the house system
A code point worth knowing: building codes don't allow a house's heating and cooling system to draw air from an attached garage, because of exhaust fumes and fuel vapours. A garage or workshop gets its own system.
For businesses too
Warehouse offices, break rooms, inspection rooms and small workshops inside larger buildings need the same thinking: cool the room people use, not the whole building. Business services
