How to Cool the Bonus Room Above Your Garage in Rochester, NY

The bonus room above a garage can have many uses: A home office, a spare bedroom, a rec room for the kids, and so on. But, if you don’t have a way to keep it cool, it won’t be all that useful during the summer. In this article, we’re looking for the best way to keep this part of your home cool. Your top three options are:

• Ceiling Fans
• Window Air Conditioner
• Ductless mini split

Here at Airquip, we’ve been installing more and more mini splits for homes in Rochester, NY, and across Upstate New York. These systems hold plenty of benefits, especially for a room like this. However, they’re not perfect for everyone. So, we’ll also look at the pros and cons of two other options. Meanwhile, if you have any questions, or want to find out how a mini split would work in your home, call or email us.

Ceiling Fans and Window Air Conditioners

First, we’re looking at two more traditional solutions: Ceiling fans and window air conditioners. These are both relatively inexpensive to install. The question is whether they can handle the job and whether you want to deal with higher electric bills.

Ceiling Fans

If you’re handy, you can install a ceiling fan yourself. Even if you hire someone, it shouldn’t cost more than $350. Then, you’ve got a silent cooling device that won’t even use that much electricity. The only question, however, is if it will do the trick. Ceiling fans work best when you can establish airflow by opening two windows on either side of the room. This way, air flows into one and out the other, with the ceiling fan creating the circulation.

If your bonus room doesn’t have two windows, this won’t work as well. Or, if it gets particularly hot, the fan may not be up to the task.

Window Air Conditioner

Window air conditioners have long been a quick way to cool down a single room in your home. And, if the room over your garage doesn’t have any heating and cooling, it’s a viable option. The costs vary, but you can spend under $200. And, while you don’t need to have a professional install it, most people don’t exactly look forward to the process.

You have to lug it out of storage, clean it, drag it upstairs, and position and fasten it in the window. Then, you deal with sky-high electric bills and a loud unit in a small room. Some similar options are new portable units, the kind you can roll in and easily set up in the window. But, this should be a last resort. They don’t work nearly as well as regular window units. They also use a lot of energy. The other option is a through-the-wall AC. It’s essentially the same as the window AC, but you cut a hole through the wall and permanently install it. Before you go that route, however, consider a newer alternative.

Ductless Mini Split Cools Bonus Room Above a Garage

Ductless mini splits offer benefits to any room in the house. In particular, they come in handy when you’re looking to treat just one part of the house, such as the bonus room above your garage.

Mini splits work using two components: A heat pump outside and an air handler in the room. The number of air handlers you use depends on how many parts of your house you’re treating.

If, in this case, you’re looking to handle one room, then you’ll only need one air handler. That’s even if your bonus room is large or has a high ceiling. To connect the two, you only need a small lineset housing cable, refrigerant, and condensate line.

The trick to the system is that these only take up a few inches. So, it’s very easy to run them through a wall without a big, costly installation that affects the look and feel of the room. Once it’s in, the system uses state-of-the-art sensors and fans to detect hot and cold spots in the room. Then, it directs the treated air right to those areas.

They’re also whisper-quiet, unlike traditional AC. Odds are, you’ll never hear it working unless it dead silent, and you’re standing right under the air handler.

Energy Efficiency

Ductless mini splits are also much more energy-efficient than traditional air condensers. They use a fraction of the electricity that a window unit or central air does. This happens in large part because of the inverter technology they use. It’s similar to cruise control on a car: Instead of stopping and starting like central air — or just blasting continuously like a portable or window unit — these systems spend most of their time in a low-power mode. This way, it uses hardly any electricity to maintain the temperature rather than correct it when it fluctuates. The room is more comfortable this way, and it costs less to achieve that.

Supplemental Heat

One other great benefit for bonus rooms especially is supplemental heat: Unlike traditional AC, a mini split can also heat the room. The system uses a heat transfer process that removes warmth from your home and puts it outside. When it’s cold, it works the other way: Drawing heat from outside, amplifying it, and sending it into the room via the air handlers. You get the same excellent circulation and the same lower energy bills. From here, you can choose a regular model that usually works as long as the temperature is above freezing. Or, opt for the Hyper Heat model that does the job even in sub-zero temperatures. So, if you’ve been using a space heater or similar device in your bonus room, you can get rid of that as well. You have a few options to choose from, depending on the average temperatures in the room, how often you use it, and more. To help you decide, you can start with a free consultation from Airquip to find the model that’s right for you.