Peer Pressure

As much as I like to believe I'm impervious to the influences of those around me, I confess that from time to time I have been guilty of succumbing to my peer's influences.  A few months ago (before Nathan was born) my friends finally broke my spirit...


Over the last 6 months or so, friends and family who toured my mancave project all said the same thing...."how are you going to heat & cool your mancave?"  My response was always the same:

"I don't really think heating & cooling the space will be necessary....the entire shop is insulated (including the attic space) and I plan to insulate the walls of the mancave as well.  If it gets too cold for comfort in the winter, I'll just use a space heater."

 
After the 9th or 10th inquisition, I finally started second guessing myself.  Although the shop stays surprisingly warm in the winter and cool in the summer, I began wondering if my friends and family didn't have a valid point...after all, would I really want to hang out in this space if it was muggy in the summer or I could see my breath in the winter?  I also contemplated the advantage of having a small climate controlled area within my shop--a "thermostatic refuge," if you will--that would allow me to warm up or cool down (depending on the season) during marathon wrenching sessions on the truck . 

While having HVAC for my mancave was certainly appealing, I wasn't terribly excited about the cost and logistical headaches associated with such a luxury.  After some on-line research, however, I discovered a relatively cost-effective, simple solution:

LG Makes a combination heat/AC window unit--remote controlled, no less!!!  So for a couple hundred bucks, the mancave would be cool in the summer and warm in the winter.  The only problem now was that I needed to integrate it into the already completed stud walls....sigh.

After some careful consideration and surgically precise demolition, I retrofitted the mancave's north wall to accommodate the unit.

Heater/AC Unit installed into Mancave's North wall

Heater/AC shell in place

I settled on the north wall for several reasons.  First, I wasn't excited about the prospect of cutting through my new shop's exterior wall and also because the west and south walls are visible from the road (having a giant shop is red neck enough...I doubt neighbors and passers by want to see my low-budg HVAC).  This left either the cave's north or east walls...which obviously would necessitate venting heater/AC unit into the shop's workspace.

While venting hot air into the shop during the summer and cold air into the shop during the winter may seem like an inherently bad idea, one must acknowledge a few mitigating circumstances:

• The shop is gigantic...so the sheer volume of the shop's workspace will help offset the artificial greenhouse effect I will be creating
• I only plan to run the unit when the mancave's ambient temperature truly necessitates climate control.  
• I only plan to run the unit when I am actually in the mancave...its not like I'm going to set the mancave's thermostat at 70 degrees and just let it run 24/7.
• In the spring, summer, & fall, I usually leave one or both overhead doors open when I'm in the shop...so this will help offset the discharged hot air and help equilibrate the shop space's ambient temperature.
• I plan to insulate all four walls of the mancave...so this will minimize the time I need to actually run the unit.

I settled on the north wall because I felt the unit would be least noticeable there.  It will sit beneath the staircase which will make it less obvious when you are in the shop space and it will be out of direct line of site from the cave's main entrance.

So there you have it...documented proof I'm not immune to peer pressure.  Granted, it required some retro-fitting and compromise, but at least now I will have an answer for people when they ask me "how are you going to heat and cool this space?"  Now, just don't ask me about plumbing.