Garage Storage of Class A

[KC593]

Good morning,

I apologize if I should have posted this question in another area on the forum, but couldn't find one that was specific to my question. Here is my issue, we are having a house built with an attached RV garage to store our DP which is currently on order. My current coach has been kept in a covered RV lot that has a roof but no sides protection, not great but it does protect it from direct sun, because it is open air it also is cooler than a closed garage. We live in the Phoenix metro area, so it gets hot in the summer, like surface of the sun hot and I am wondering if keeping the coach in a hot and closed garage will damage it. Its not uncommon to have 60-90 days of 100+ and maybe 2-3 weeks were it is above 110, which will drive the temps in a closed garage even higher. So if anyone has experience with storing a MH in a garage in extreme heat I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Thanks

Kip

[10 fan]

Use the best and thickest insulation you can. Light colors on the outside, plant trees to block the sun from hitting the wall if you can. That is what I did and the inside stays a lot cooler than outside temp. A friend gave me two new swamp coolers but haven't used or needed them yet. I get a few 108 days but not like you do.

[GCSuper]

We're in the same situation. Coach will be here soon and concrete for the Motor home garage is being poured this week. I'm in Texas so we get hot. Building is light tan. We're going to spray foam insulation and then paint the foam. People we talked to say on a 100 degree day it will be in the low to mid 80's. We also get cold and this will keep us from having to winterize. We plan on fans to circulate the Air during extreme heat.

[Mr.Mark]

Kip,

If you decide to not put in a swamp cooler, I would at least have some type of way to 'vent' the heat out at night. Since the temps in the desert go down at night, circulate the cooler night air into the garage then turn off in the morning (timer).

Mark

[Leonandlisa]

I have a 36x45x16 high steel shop that I built last year in Vegas, I had it spray foam insulated and it keeps it cooler than the outside temps. I also added (2) ton mini splits that keep it in the low 80s without an issue, but even without the AC it is cooler than the outside from the cool concrete floor, but the walls and ceiling need to be insulated or it will just be a hot box.

My opinion on the swamp coolers is it adds lots of moisture to the air, which is ok as long as you have good air circulation, but if the building is closed most of the time it will create a musty smell after awhile. We use swampers to cool our warehouse, but we have all the drive bay doors open while they run or you just get too humid in the warehouse so you sweat constantly.

[ron930cab]

Kip, we live in Queen Creek, east side of Phoenix. Our coach is stored in a 56 by 34 garage. We do use a swamp cooler for working in the garage, not for cooling the coach. As mentioned, lots of insulation including the garage doors. We also have tree's shading the west side. I haven't measured the inside temps much, but the garage will equalize to the outside temp, so the overnight low, say 80 during the hot months, then rise during the day maybe 20 degree's if you don't open anything on those super hot days. Given the ceiling is 16 feet, we do trap a bunch of hot air, you could try to exhaust it, but keep in mind your make up air (incoming air) will be the outside temp unless you cool it. One of the things we did not plan for was black/grey sewer gas, it takes a bit of tank flushing to get it clean enough to not smell, the heat makes it much worse. Our sewer dump is right outside the garage mid coach. Best of luck

[KC593]

Thanks Ron,

Our home is being built in Queen Creek so we will be pretty close. I think we will go with the insulation and maybe add AC later (the damn builders overcharge on everything). Thanks for taking the time to respond.

[ron930cab]

Kip, no prob. Thought I'd take a quick temp reading. It's about 100 degree's outside right now. The RV garage is 85.5 and inside the coach is 86 or so. I haven't been in the garage till just now. The overnight low was about 70, so could have opened up earlier to bring the internal temp down. Couple of other things to consider, I thought I could just leave the main 14ft door open to "air" things out, well you really can't , the birds here almost immediately fly in and get stuck. Same for the ground based critters mostly rabbits, they come in and stay awhile. I place a dog fence across the opening if I'm not watching for some reason. I tend to open the main doors to about 6ft clearance to keep the birds out.

[Isaac-1]

I keep my coach in an uninsulated metal shed with roll up doors on the family cattle ranch about 15 miles from my house in western Louisiana. My climate is a little cooler and a lot more humid than yours, but it does certainly get hot in the shed in the summer. my suggestion is if you don't climate control, consider powered ventilation / rood level exhaust fans, don't forget air inlets to let fresh air in.

[Crasher]

If I were building a new home with an RV garage in AZ, I would also add a central air unit. Our home in Lake Havasu does not have an RV garage but does have a 3 car one. We have 3 central air systems. One for the upstairs, one for the ground level living area and one for the garage. It's so nice to have a comfortable area to work on projects during the hot weather. We are back in WI during the summer, but set the thermostats at 88 degrees. The AC in the garage is appreciated in Oct, Nov, March, April and May. It would be even more appreciated June through mid Sept.

[clhjsh]

Having designed hvac systems for more years than I want to admit I can give a bit of insight. Refrigeration system are great but they are expensive to buy and depending on electricity costs they can be pricy to operate. Evap coolers are much less expensive to buy and cheaper to operate but they do not cool as well.
Personally I would go evap but the trick is you have to have a large relief opening to let the air out that the cooler puts in also put the air in low and relieve the air out up high.

[KC593]

Hey, thanks for that. We have a number of options and I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

[sbleiweiss]

Our garage is in Sodona so somewhat cooler than yours. We put in a large, wall mounted ac unit and cool to 81 degrees with a thermostat. Can't say whether letting it get to 90 or 100 would hurt anything, but didn't want to find out. We also have a furnace, and if I had to do it over would probably put in a mini-split instead of both.

[Ivylog]

Insulating the garage door is impossible if it’s a roll up. I made the pivoting door below out of 2X6s so it’s well insulated. Pivots on 2” pipe nipples and floor flanges... moves easily.