Air Conditioning: Production Area

[3Deep]

that's one thing that I hate about our place there is no ventilation except for the exhaust on the dryer and opening the back door, fumes are tough at times. does it seem like it's getting hotter every year?

[bimmridder]

You're just getting older

[whitewater]

We have 2 large garage door we open. So whatever it is outside its still a little cooler in our shop. We keep the lights off when hot, but our press is right by the one door so p[lenty of light.

We have centrel air, but we were maxed out on power so we disconnected it.

Being in upstate ny we just use the fans like Jay said.  BUT...if I was down south like some of you guys, I would absolutely go ac.

[alan802]

In Ohio, we installed a exit vent on the roof to one side of the dryer (10 ft away laterally) - keep everything shut except a filtered opening on the wall opposite the fan from the dryer. (sloped roof helps here). we rarely bust over 99, even when it's 90 outside (and also when it's 60 outside ) which I find tolerable. keeps us from sucking it too much dirt and dust, vents the dryer fumes/excess ceiling heat (12' ceilings, 3,000 sq ft). customer meet area and screen room both have window AC units dumping their heat into the production area.

my next step if needed was to investigate swamp coolers, like they use on NFL sidelines. anyone doing that as opposed to Alan's opening the refrigerator door method (you're running window units without exiting the hot air somewhere else??)?

Our swamp coolers move slightly cooler air than our regular fans but there are days we don't go through the trouble of filling them up with water because the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

[DonR]

Just moved to new space. It has low drop ceilings and full a/c via roof top units. Hope to be able to keep the a/c on. We have a large HEPA air cleaner with charcoal filter that I hope will take care of some of the fumes. If it does not work or if I see my electric bill goes wild, it will be back to printing in the heat.

[islandtees]

We are about 4400 sq feet. 12 foot ceiling. Full A/C
2 Autos and 4 flash units. Dryer venting outside and small fresh air input from outside. No fumes. We keep it at 75 degrees, no problem.
Its so hot in Fl right now my employees are loving it.

[abchung]

May be partitioning your shop floor with air curtains.
https://youtu.be/he3hN14zOew

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Doug S]

We won't be installing a/c in the production area but we are thinking of installing a decent sized shuttered attic fan. The bldg has a drop ceiling so I'm hoping that will at least pull out some of the heat.

[mk162]

We have a louvered wall fan.  It works well to pull the heat out.  It's at the top of the wall.  I'd recommend this before punching through the roof, more rain resistant.

That being said, we are still working on that dryer hood vent project.  There was a miscommunication between the guy doing the work and the company fabricating the roof curb that held it up for a couple weeks.  It should go in next week though.  That should help alleviate a ton of heat in the warehouse.  Capture it from the source.

[TH Apparel]

We have air tubes that provide AC to each station on the floor.  It's not the best, but does provide some relief when it's 100 degrees inside the building.
Step outside of the air tube, it's like getting kicked in the face.
We also have two wall fans, 3 small ceiling exhaust fans, and a ton of box fans all over the shop.

[Northland]

We have air tubes that provide AC to each station on the floor.  It's not the best, but does provide some relief when it's 100 degrees inside the building.
Step outside of the air tube, it's like getting kicked in the face.
We also have two wall fans, 3 small ceiling exhaust fans, and a ton of box fans all over the shop.

This sounds like the most practical approach for really large spaces..... why air try to condition the whole space, when installing cool zones (with higher air velocity, like an "air curtain") would use less energy.
I'd be looking at trying to get the return air from the floor height, where the air is cooler and exhausting as much air from the top of the ceiling as needed.

..... says the guy, who prints from his 400 sq' basement shop (72 degrees year round)

[ZooCity]

Those air curtains are rad.  I didn't know they were so effective.

Regarding spot cooling, our swamp run is big and effective but yes, step outside the blast zone and it's pretty rough.

[BRGtshirts]

AC for sure. We just installed a second 5 ton. unit for our production area (5 ton being the largest on-the-ground residential unit we could install, as roof units are not an option because of weight... already got solar panels up there). The second unit had been discussed for years, but I'm really glad we finally did it. Beforehand, we hit 100+ regularly during hot & humid Virginia days. It had gone on so long the printers' regular hours are 7-3:30pm to avoid more afternoon heat.

With the second unit we're still hitting upper 80's on hot days, but even with a little cloud cover we are now below that. Overall, the best thing is that I know its helping our printers. We've got one over 25 years, two at 19 and 18 years, and one pushing 10) so in my opinion, they deserved it and it was the least we could do..

The fumes are definitely an issue, and we do run two SmokeEater air filters and an outside exhaust fan when needed, but now I sometimes go down to production to cool off as my office gets the least AC in the building! Overall, I'm glad we did it. Took some research on different units, duct options, but overall I don't have to avoid my people anymore when its so hot because we both knew I was cooking them.

[Crazy Mike]

We have 3,000 sf of production and office total with 2 central heat and AC units.
We keep the temp around 73 year round. The cost of running both units in the summer
is around $150 a month and the same for gas heat in the Winter. Well worth it for the comfort.

[alan802]

Little update on the AC.  Just got it all running on Wednesday and yesterday was the first full day with it.  I need some ideas.  Does anyone have pictures of their dryer setup in an AC setting?  Right now it's literally 70 degrees in the production area (80 outside and the dryer has been on for only 10 minutes) but yesterday by 10am I opened the doors and turned the AC off because it was getting hot FAST.  We have a sprint international dryer but we don't have the infeed/outfeed hoods ducted so I want to do that, but I wonder if that's going to make enough of a difference.  I say that only because yesterday was such a colossal disappointment.  The dryer is very well insulated and it only radiates heat in the in/outfeeds so perhaps properly ducting those areas will be all we need, but something is telling me to stop farting around and go big instead of nitpicking things.  Why use a hammer when you've got a sledge.   I've got a BIG idea on the dryer but it's going to take some work and time, oh and probably some more money.  I just know Charlotte was devastated yesterday, she wanted so badly to help us after watching us melt each and every day. 

Does anyone do anything special with their dryer other than ducting the infeed and outfeed hoods?