Unfortunately, I just now got new information that compels me to cancel the project.
When my house was built about 1955, the carport was built about 5 1/2 feet away from the property line. That distance between the house and property line is called the setback. Since then, the regulation was changed that the setback has to be at least 10 feet. I learned about this in 1993, eight years after I bought the house, when the county almost refused my permit to build an addition. Even though the addition had absolutely nothing to do with the carport, any alteration to any part of the house requiring a permit would not be allowed because the house is no longer compliant with the setback regulation. I won't bore you (at least not now) with how I convinced the county authority to approve the permit, but I was very lucky to be able to make it happen in the period of a 10-minute conversation on the telephone.
Fast forward to the last couple of days when I suddenly remembered that the setback issue still remains. Yesterday I also confirmed that a permit would be required at least because of the 240 volt line that would have to be installed to run the air conditioner-heater. Unlike the previously mentioned construction that had nothing to do with the carport, this project requiring a permit is all about the carport. Also, I've been told by several people that the county is much more strict about enforcing regulations now than nearly 30 years ago when they gave me a break. So, I feel the likelihood that I would be granted a permit would be very small because of the setback issue.
I learned today that the county has a formal process that would allow me to apply to have the setback pertinent to my house reduced by 50%. If I was given that permission, the permit could not be declined because of the setback. The financial cost of applying would be whatever an engineering company would charge me for a new property plat plus the $910 the county would charge me to apply for the revised setback. Though I feel it is likely that the county would approve the 50% reduction in the setback, the cost and time required for such a relatively small project isn't worth it.
Instead, I'll probably assemble a plastic storage shed in the back yard and move all of the items that don't have anything to do with photography from the current storage room where I do all of my tabletop photography to that shed. No permit will be needed for the shed.
Though doing this will provide more room for me than I currently have, it won't provide as much room as the temporary space in my carport would have provided.