Just be careful with the large fan swamp coolers, they work pretty well in low humidity(you are in a high humidity area lol) if you're in front of it, but they will rust up any exposed metal in your shop pronto.
I put in a 36k btu window unit in 30x40x12 well insulated (closed cell) and only got to run it couple times in early Oct last year with temps in 90s.. Ill know more about it soon when the weather heats up but so far it seems to be enough for my shop. Heat comes from a pellet stove which I like a lot.
I put in a large Frigidaire 36k btu window unit last fall in a well insulated 30x40x12. Ran it on a couple hot days in early Oct last year. It did pretty good.
I have a central heat unit inside that runs from propane for instant heat, and a double barrel wood stove that takes over once it starts heating. We have lots of hardwood trees on the place that are constantly losing limbs, so wood is free and plentiful.
Interested in how well your unit cools the shop once it warms up. A window unit would probably be the way I'd want to go. I can install it myself and if it needs repair, just take it out and to a shop.
My 30 x 40 shop is basically an old barn, insulated but not very well. A 220 v 36000 window unit through a wall does a pretty good job and less expensive than a split. On the 2nd unit, first one died last summer after 17 years, look for sales when they are cleaning out for the fall but a little late.
I don't know how well its going to work because I just finished sheetrock phase but I put a 2 ton mini-split in my garage. 1600 sqft, 14ft ceilings, spray foamed. By summer I should have an idea how it does.
My 30 year old shop is fairly similar in size (25x55), but is standard old wood frame construction and insulation instead of metal. It's split with a rear wall into two areas, a front "dirty" area of 900-1000 sq ft for grinding, welding, blacksmithing, knifemaking, woodwork, and general noisy/dirty work, and a 300' "clean room" (in relative terms) in back for electronics and computer-related work. I cool the back with a little 8K window unit which keeps up ok unless it gets near 100 outside, when it struggles some. Probably needs a 10-12K, but I've been too lazy to enlarge the window opening. I tried an18K window unit in the front area, which actually worked fairly well if I ran it hard (24K would have been better), but the problem turned out not as much cooling but keeping grinder residue, welding/sanding dust, etc. from overwhelming the filter. I finally gave up and used a couple of hefty 24" pedestal fans in a push/pull configuration on opposite sides of the area for circulation, and left the doors open in warm weather. Works fine. If it gets over 95 I'm going in the house anyway, ha. Heat in front is 75K BTU commercial (Dayton) heater hung overhead in one corner. A full 250 Gal LP tank will get me through winter with thermostat at 60 degrees without a refill. Heat in rear is a single 8' baseboard electric. Shop is on it's own meter, and OG&E for that meter runs about $60-$80/month year round. Propane is another story, hasn't been too bad up to now but next winter I might need to get a second mortgage to refill that tank. I can always turn off the shop heat completely if LP gas price gets out of control (house is all electric on a 5 ton heat pump), but I feel for those who must do everything with propane.
I suspect unless you are raising very little grit and dust in your shop work (pretty hard to do) or invest in an expensive high-zoot air filtering setup, that dust and dirt might be more of a hassle than trying to stay cool.
Lots of great replies, so thank you for all of them. Wife and i were thinking and came up with an idea. the prior owners, for some reason put in a pretty large mini split in the main house garage. Not really sure why other than they had a bunch of dogs and when they were away would crate them in the garage, thus keeping them cool. When we first walked the house they kept two of their dogs in crates in the garage. Anyways, the mini split is only a couple years old so since we are ding a full remodel and don't need an AC in the main house garage we'll take it and have an HVAC guy install it into the shop building. I'll get details on the size and once installed will let you know how it works.
They make mini-splits now with multiple heads that are serviced by one single condenser. That would work well in a cross divided 30x40 shop. I installed a 120-volt mini in my 20x20 shop last year. It works quite well.
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