Advice needed on an underground shop

Lived in florida. The kilowatt charge there was 6 cent a kilowatt. Here it’s more then double

You can argue with the national weather service, I've never been closer than the four corners. Those are average lows for the month. That's where the mass helps.

It's a rough world, do it your way if you want.

Delmer said:

The average low for Phoenix is 75 in June and Sept, and 80-81 for July and Aug. You're not talking about huge temperature differences for 6 months like cold climates. There's a reason you probably don't have a lot of frozen food warehouses in Phoenix, but I bet the AC bills are not as bad as parts of FL and TX, at least they wouldn't be with any effort to reduce them. This isn't anything new, just look into underground houses, and scale up from there. Let us know what you estimate for numbers, I'd guess you'd have a hard time doing it on under a million.

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These are daily observations from 2017 July. They are temp humidity dew pt and wind .
10:51 PM 95 F 63 F 34 % NW 3 mph 0 mph 28.71 in 0.0 in Cloudy
11:51 PM 95 F 64 F 36 % NNW 3 mph 0 mph 28.70 in 0.0 in Mostly Cloudy

Nase88 said:

Wow def not 1 million in my bank. But. I can bet any amount of money to anyone. It is Not 75 in phoenix in June - sept. I lived here for 20 years. Try 100 degrees at. Midnight. 100% guaranteed

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can back you up there I have seen 107 at 4am in that burg.

So regardless we are looking at trying to use a below ground structure to solve a problem, I'd propose building it above ground and filling all around it before I would dig a hole and add all the ground pressure. Wood isn't much of an option with a 16' height being required. I would look at poured walls for the rot resistance and the increased strength.

20 to 30k is a lot? Your underground idea will probably cost 100k plus.

skata said:

20 to 30k is a lot? Your underground idea will probably cost 100k plus.

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And that's just for the bearing walls

Insulation works for heat as well as cold. Remember a commercial for a thermos... "How does it know?" Do you need it cool all the time or just when you're working in it? A Porta-cool or 2 might be an option to consider.

Your Idea is definitely cost prohibitive while a fully insulated turn key building will run you a 100 grand an average basement on a house starts out at 25 grand here and that is only 10 foot deep you will easily have 100 grand into the footings and retaing walls that doesnt include excavating or the cost of a slab for the floor

If you dont cover it with at least 2 feet of dirt 3 would be better you will still have to have a coller on it to get below 95 degrees inside to much cubic footage you lose the advantage of being below ground

Putting in geo air tubes would be a big plus but that works just as well on a normal steel building and it would take a lot of them to make a dent in a building that size

It's not uncommon to see the temps here hit 115 in early june I have seen a week or more where it didn't get under 105 at night period i have seen 120 in the shade it just gets hot you learn to deal with it the joke goes most places you bury water lines deep for frost here you bury them deep to keep the water from getting hot

Your best bet is a steel building that's spray foamed a friend of mine built a 40 by 40 12 foot tall he put 5 inches if spray foam on every wall and ceiling sheeted it over and all his exterior sheets had the expensive heat rejection paint his electric bill to cool that place in the summer to the high 70s is about 200 hundred bucks

In Australia a lot of sheds and commercial buildings are concrete tilt up structures which go up quickly and could easily be engineered to resist the pressure from the earth against the walls.
Assuming you have these structures in your state get a quote from a company that builds them. If you have a concrete plant nearby and decent sized cranes your cost might not be too high.
There are opal mining towns in the hot Australian desert where most people live underground to avoid the heat. Works very well.

Concrete walls and roof built into hill or covered with dirt. One open side on shady side of building for doors. Must be engineered. My cost estimate 200000.00+.

Sounds like a deal to me BLS We have done buildings in the city going down 25-30 feet to install a parking garage under an existing building and they cost *way!!!!* more than that just for the walls yes.... I know a mass excavation project would save money over working from the top down... but I still know what the walls cost on a building that size to hold back the dirt forces.