Air Conditioning: Production Area

[islandtees]

If the A/C can not keep up with the dryer the unit was undersized. They may have not calculated the heat gain from the dryer. Our dryer is out on the floor with the vent thru the roof. It is not covered or put in a separate room.
We had multiple compressors installed that are staged to come on 1 at a time as the demand warranted.
We have a Fusion Dryer that has 10 feet heating and 4 quartz flashes plus 4 16x20 heat presses that can all run at the same time and keep the temp at 75 degrees with no problem. The outside temp has been in the mid 90's here in Florida.

[Maxie]

We have an Adelco dryer, it is well insulated and has a 12" exhaust pipe that we put through a high window.
Ours is a gas dryer, I wanted to run before we installed the exhaust and was told that it was dangerous to do that.      Not clear to me why some dryers don't have exhausts.
The Adelco also has a exhaust at the inlet and outlet that goes through the same pipe.
You can easily rest your hand on the unit while it's operating.
I think our flashes generate more heat than the dryer.
For cooling the work area I find that fans make a big difference.

[Sbrem]

Though I don't have any particular solutions, we are in the position of having to move, and the place we have 99% settled on has full AC. We were walking through it Friday afternoon, and totally empty, it was 65°, I imagine a couple of dryers will change that. I'm really looking forward to it, as I'm old, and have been in heat since '75, though mostly I'm in the office for the last 20 years, I'm no stranger to nights and weekends out there. I'm sure a lot us have had new hires magically disappear after a day or two...

Steve

[LuckyFlyinROUSH]

Just understand you will spend thousands in electric/ac to try to out cool flash units and dryers. Just pipe a 12" pipe over each station. We have 6 pipes for 6 stations. Keeps it 65-70 right under the station...but 110 in the rest of the shop. 10 Ton AC.

See pic of pipe from ceiling.

[GKitson]

Though I don't have any particular solutions, we are in the position of having to move, and the place we have 99% settled on has full AC. We were walking through it Friday afternoon, and totally empty, it was 65°, I imagine a couple of dryers will change that. I'm really looking forward to it, as I'm old, and have been in heat since '75, though mostly I'm in the office for the last 20 years, I'm no stranger to nights and weekends out there. I'm sure a lot us have had new hires magically disappear after a day or two...

Steve

We've had a couple new hires that left for lunch and did not return due to the heat, AND we tell them at least 4 times during site visit pre-hire visit that it gets really hot.  All pre hire site visits are at 2 PM on a hot day and they still don't appear to listen.  BTW it gets hot in our production area, did I mention it gets hot?

[GraphicDisorder]

I forget how hot it is down in our shop at times, I did 3k impressions Saturday...I remember now. Haha.

[tonypep]

This facility was built/engineered for screenprint production so of course air temp/flow was a consideration. Two five foot high velocity fans pull air through louvered vents from west to east. And to industrial 20' Casablancas made from helicopter blades. So no........no AC but it can get pretty breezy if we want it to.

[GraphicDisorder]

What kind of temps are you seeing with that stuff done Tony?

[tonypep]

Maybe 5 degrees cooler than outside but we're just moving air around. It especially helps when we get the ludicrously hot/ humid standing weather. But sometimes too much breeze can cause production issues of course.

[Sbrem]

Though I don't have any particular solutions, we are in the position of having to move, and the place we have 99% settled on has full AC. We were walking through it Friday afternoon, and totally empty, it was 65°, I imagine a couple of dryers will change that. I'm really looking forward to it, as I'm old, and have been in heat since '75, though mostly I'm in the office for the last 20 years, I'm no stranger to nights and weekends out there. I'm sure a lot us have had new hires magically disappear after a day or two...

Steve

We've had a couple new hires that left for lunch and did not return due to the heat, AND we tell them at least 4 times during site visit pre-hire visit that it gets really hot.  All pre hire site visits are at 2 PM on a hot day and they still don't appear to listen.  BTW it gets hot in our production area, did I mention it gets hot?

End of day Friday "So, see you Monday then?", reply, "Well yeah, of course." No show on Monday. It's not for everyone, that's for sure.

Steve

[alan802]

Next Update:  I came up to the shop on Saturday around 10:30, it was 93 degrees in the shop with nothing on.  I cranked the AC down to 75 and started doing some work without the dryer running.  It took an hour but it got down to 83 and by 3:30 it had held steady at 84 but it felt great.  The humidity was 35%.  So now I think if I can continue to insulate the bay doors and search for cracks and areas where the heat is flowing in or cold air is going out, I'll just need to fix the dryer.  The dryer doesn't put out much heat from it's shell, but it won't take much work and money to slap some insulation around it and also duct the infeed/outfeed and also insulate the ducts that should keep it below 90 fairly easy.  And saturday was absolutely brutally hot.  Heat index was 107 and I'm not sure about the humidity but it's never dry.  I also covered one of the three air outlets on both units so that the air coming out of the other 2 is travelling much faster and further. 

I like having the high ceilings but I think a drop ceiling, maybe compromise to a 12' ceiling, properly insulated along with doing the work on the dryer it might keep it below 80.  But looking at how much work would need to be done to put in a ceiling I bet it would cost as much as the AC did.  Maybe next summer. 

[Prince Art]

MUCH smaller space here, but I insulated this past year, and it makes an obvious difference in interior ambient temp. Before turning on a/c or dryer/flashes, the space stays noticeably cooler than years past. Once everything's running, it's just a battle between my current a/c (which is underpowered) & all the heat producers. The heat wins by early afternoon, but still, nothing like no a/c or insulation. Next "to do" here is to better insulate the dryer and vent to evacuate heat and fumes - the fumes are a much bigger problem now that our doors are closed.

[Sbrem]

Next Update:  I came up to the shop on Saturday around 10:30, it was 93 degrees in the shop with nothing on.  I cranked the AC down to 75 and started doing some work without the dryer running.  It took an hour but it got down to 83 and by 3:30 it had held steady at 84 but it felt great.  The humidity was 35%.  So now I think if I can continue to insulate the bay doors and search for cracks and areas where the heat is flowing in or cold air is going out, I'll just need to fix the dryer.  The dryer doesn't put out much heat from it's shell, but it won't take much work and money to slap some insulation around it and also duct the infeed/outfeed and also insulate the ducts that should keep it below 90 fairly easy.  And saturday was absolutely brutally hot.  Heat index was 107 and I'm not sure about the humidity but it's never dry.  I also covered one of the three air outlets on both units so that the air coming out of the other 2 is travelling much faster and further. 

I like having the high ceilings but I think a drop ceiling, maybe compromise to a 12' ceiling, properly insulated along with doing the work on the dryer it might keep it below 80.  But looking at how much work would need to be done to put in a ceiling I bet it would cost as much as the AC did.  Maybe next summer.

If you put in a drop ceiling, check your local fire codes, you might have to lower sprinkler heads through the drop ceiling.

Steve

[mimosatexas]

Broke down and bought a little cheapo portable AC today.  Worked pretty well to keep me "cool enough" when the rest of the shop was hovering around 110.

[alan802]

It's been brutally hot this week.  We bought the ducting for the in and out feeds.  Double-walled, high quality stuff it looks like.  We have a small ridge vent in the middle of the building and the AC guy told us the air flow up there is strong enough that if we get the exits within 5 feet or so of the ridge vent opening the hot air will be gone.  It will also act as a pull to extract the air from the ducts.  I just put a 5' piece on just to see what the airflow was like out of it and there is a lot of hot air coming from it.  I really hope this makes a big difference.  I'll keep everyone updated as we progress.