Upgrading Our Shed For Conditioned Storage

Shed Exterior

Our 1920s bungalow has always been a little lacking in storage. But we’ve taken some big steps to change that by upgrading our shed to be on-site conditioned storage.

Why conditioned storage? We live in Florida where the humidity is over 90% most of the year and our proximity to the water makes the air both muggy and salty - not great attributes for storing things that you care about.

When my wife and I moved into our house two years ago, we rented a conditioned storage unit nearby at a cost of $130/mo (scheduled to increase to $140 in 2020). The plan was always to create more storage on our property by repairing & upgrading our shed, creating storage space in the attic (for things that didn’t mind the conditions) and upgrading our living area storage space by adding shelving and organization. So far, we have added some outdoor storage with a storage bench on the porch and bicycle covers in the backyard. We have also added a 9ft brass bar for hanging clothes in the closet office and additional built-in shelving in the bathrooms and in the bedroom and hall closets. But our most recent (and our most significant) storage upgrade has been the shed.

When we purchased our home, there was an aluminum shed in the backyard on a concrete slab. The door didn’t shut, the door window was long since absent, there was a crank louvered window in the side that didn’t shut, the roof leaked (curtesy of something heavy that fell on it a long time ago), and there was a hole in the back wall that you could stick a hand through. Aside from that, it was in relatively good shape. But it really wasn’t something you would want to use for storing anything you cared about.

Shortly after we moved in, I replaced the absent window in the door with plexiglass that I cut to size and then glued and siliconed in place. However, we still had the issue with the roof and the window on the side. And it wasn’t powered or insulated. So, a couple of months ago, I recruited a couple of my builder friends to fix the rest. 

AC + Power In Shed

I drew up a diagram for how I wanted the shed powered. Essentially, I wanted 3 non-GFI plugs on a single circuit. Two of the plugs were to be on the outside (one high and one low) and one plug was to be on the inside. That would allow me run an extension cord from the 20A outdoor outlet (that was GFI protected) on the back of the house to power the shed and I wouldn’t need to wire it into my home’s electrical system. Effectively, the shed would be an appliance that could be connected or disconnected at will.

Inside of Shed

In addition to power, we had the hole in the shed repaired, a thick framed insulated roof installed. And we added 2” of foam board insulation between the supports all the way around the inside of the shed. Finally, to take advantage of that power and insulation, we had a window AC unit installed in place of the louvered window. The shed was finally ready for storage.

We’ve now been running the shed AC for about 5 months, keeping it at 72-degrees in “dry” mode. The AC runs enough to keep it cool and dry, but not enough to have a significant impact on our electric bill. It costs us about $5/mo during the summer. Compare that to the $130/mo we pay in storage and it’s not hard to see the long term savings we will realize from upgrading our shed. And the best part is, instead of having to drive down the street to retrieve and/or store our items, we can now just walk into the backyard.