Beating the Heat (shop to hot to work in)

Does everyone run in a fully air conditioned shop? the current building we are in only has A/c in the offices. for most of the year thats fine, but this summer in michigan has been ridiculously hot and i expect the month of august to get worse. whats worse is our work load is going up and my personell are complaining about the heat. we have 7 industrial fans running trying to circulate air but it still seems like not enough. i am open to suggestions on how to help get air moving. we checked a pcs of stock that was in the machine with an IR temp gun and read 100°F. i am willing to add more fans but i don't think it will help.

What's the air temp? Your IR can read that from any thin object exposed to the shop air.

When my shop goes over 88F, I lose most ambition. Can you seal enough to use big dehumidifiers? Humidity is the big killer.

Dude!

We have the same problem here as well... (socal)
Sometimes it gets up to about 94-96 F in our shop... /hotface
Makes me feel like taking a nap... /sleepyface
Our shop does not have any insulation whatsoever... /angryface

ps : like my wow expressions ? /dance

Can you rent a trailer mounted refrigeration unit or a packaged unit until it cools down? The swamp coolers will increase the humidity dramatically.
Legdoc

Right now in Memphis its 102F with a heat index of 116F. Your shops sound cool
Johnl

I'm with johnl,

Outside temp is 106* and it got so hot that I had to get out of my shop at 2:00. The thermometer on my south wall said 128* ( no insulation on that wall). The fan feels like a giant hairdryer.


JAckal

RJ has it right with the humidity - try and bring that down. Can you seal up and use the office AC to try and dry the place out over night? Or are not the offices in close proximity?

and....how many sq feet of shop are we talking about here?

Tomorrow night may help - weather man says you are in for a 64 deg night.

Have you talked to your guys about changing your shift hrs. for a couple of months? Maybe working like 4:00 to 12:30, or something like that.

Currently the shop is 3300 sqft. the office a/c units are window size units only good for small single rooms. i did have a dehumidifier in here at one point but it was too small for even half the shop. and once the doors open in the morning, forget it.

Bigger, or more, humidifiers. Keep doors closed.

Crap, it just touched 100 in here, feels hotter than a french fried f.... Only plus side is that it is too hot for me to eat any lunch so my fat butt is losing a little weight. I am trying to decide if I move or bite the bullet and try to AC the place. No insulation on the doors and not enough insulation on a dark roof, so I am starting to hate this place.

Mickey_D said:

Crap, it just touched 100 in here, feels hotter than a french fried f.... Only plus side is that it is too hot for me to eat any lunch so my fat butt is losing a little weight. I am trying to decide if I move or bite the bullet and try to AC the place. No insulation on the doors and not enough insulation on a dark roof, so I am starting to hate this place.

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I have spent the last 3 hours trying to isolate a hydraulic leak on the valve stack of a machine. 140 F fluid and valves. Concrete floor is 106 F. 6 foot off the floor everything is 116 F. Roof/ceiling (galvanized steel that used to have insulation), 20 ft. eave height, 137 F.

36 in. dia. 40 in. wide squirrel cage fan 15 feet away blowing right on me. Pretty damn hot today.

suggestions

Those PortaCool units really work. They claim they do not cause rusting problems in a shop. cost about $2000, but they are lifesavers. I Think one of the biggest units would cool a 3300 SF shop, should be about $3000, They drop ship in 2 days.

Also, citrus juice will help your heat tolerance dramatically. When I knw I'll be out in the heat I start drinking citrus drinks the night before and continue when I get up. Makes a big difference. I'd suggest you keep Limeade and lemonade (unsweetened) available for all hands.

Lastly, A couple of big window units set high in the walls and pouring cool air down into the shop will make it livable. don't try to AC the whole shop like you do your office. Even an uninsulated tin building can be held to 85 degrees with a window unit or two.
In my little 1000 sf tin building, I have a window unit in the back office area. I turn it on max, let the office get good and cold, then I set a squirrel cage blower in the office door sucking the cold air out and blowing it into the shop. Ideally I point it at my work area. It takes the edge off the heat, enough to get some work done. All doors closed, of course.

I've got two industrial units. One is 1800 sqft and has a/c. The other is 2400 and doesn't have a/c yet. There is an 8' x 8' doorway connecting the two units and I use a fan to blow cool air into the unit with no a/c. I have no problem keeping the side with a/c around 78, and the side with no a/c stays in the low 80's. Hardly any humidity in either unit. The air conditioner cost me around 3k. One of the best investments I've ever made in the shop

We did have one factory that was completely air conditioned, about 25000sf. Reason wasn't for comfort, but for accuracy. The site was turning and milling integrally bladed rotors for small aviation gas turbines. 75HP lathes turning 8" dia parts with ceramic tooling Big problem was that the entire shop stank of coolant.

Back in '76 I worked in a ceramic tile factory for the summer. '76 was a heatwave in the UK. Temperatures were in the high 90's outside that year, but the working area had the biscuit kiln running down all one side and the glazing kiln running down all the other side. Inside temperatures 110 to 120F. The workforce voted to work 4:00 to 12:00 with no breaks, to reduce the number of heatstroke cases.

whats the cost of running the a/c units? ultimately i guess they would only be used on the really hot days, but do they outweigh the cost of running the cncs? my electric bill is about $600 a month, i'd really hate for that to double. but what kind of increase am i expecting? also do they offer a seperate service for just A/c in industrial areas? i know my house has a dual service so the a/c is iinteruptible.

It is 110 in sunny Tucson and I hate it I have been wanting to move for years now, I am stuck here at this point. I have no ac in the shop but that is gonna change soon because I cant take the heat any more it is killing me. I am thinking of buying a cheap house and moving my shop into it.

May 30th Just moved to Texas. Now this is a state that knows how to live!!

Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. Mountains and deserts blended together. What a place! Watched the sunset from a park lying on a blanket. It was beautiful. I've finally found my home. I love it here.

June 14th Really heating up. Got to 100 today. Not a problem. Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun every day like this. I'm turning into a real sun worshipper.

June 30th Had the backyard landscaped with western plants today. Lots of cactus and rocks. What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing for me. Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

July 10th The temperature hasn't been below 100 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? Too bad it's not a dry heat. Getting used to it is taking longer than I expected.

July 15th Fell asleep by the pool. (Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body.) Missed two days of work, what a dumb thing to do. I learned my lesson though: got to respect the ol' sun in a climate like this.

July 20th I missed Tabby (our cat) sneaking into the car when I left this morning. By the time I got out to the hot car for lunch, Tabby had swollen up to the size of a shopping bag and exploded all over $2,000 worth of leather upholstery. I told the kids she ran away. The car now smells like Kibbles and shit. No more pets in this heat!

July 25th Dry heat, my ass. Hot is hot!! The home air-conditioner is on the fritz and AC repairman charged $200 just to drive by and tell me he needed to order parts.

July 30th Been sleeping outside by the pool for three nights now. $1,500 in damn house payments and we can't even go inside. Why did I ever come here?

Aug 4th It's 115 degrees. Finally got the air-conditioner fixed today. It cost $500 and gets the temperature down to about 90. Stupid repairman pissed in my pool. I hate this stupid fucking state.

Aug 8th If another wise ass cracks, "Hot enough for you today?", I'm going to tear his throat out. Damn heat. By the time I get to work the radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell like Roasted fucking Garfield!!

Aug 10th The weather report might as well be a damn recording: Hot and sunny. It's been too hot to #@*& for two damn months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Doesn't it ever rain in this barren damn desert?? Water rationing has been in effect all summer, so $1,700 worth of cactus just dried up and blew into the damn pool. Even a cactus can't live in this heat.

Aug 14th Welcome to Hell!!! Temperature got to 123 today. Forgot to crack the window and blew the God damned windshield out of the Lincoln. The installer came to fix it and said, "Hot enough for you today?" My wife had to spend the $1500 house payment to bail me out of jail.

Aug 30th Worst day of the damn summer. I'm not leaving the house. The fucking monsoon rains finally came and all they did is to make it muggier than hell. The Lincoln is now floating somewhere in The Gulf of Mexico with its new $500 windshield. That does it, we're moving back to California for some peace and quiet.

This here is the part that makes me

We git some hot weather - and while the radio is requestiong everyone to turn down (up) the A/C so's not to blow the grid - those are the days when those that don't normally run them are digging them out of the starage and shoving them in the winder and hoping to GOD they still werk since that last summer a few yrs back when they were dug out last.

Or even going out and buying one to either replace one that died last yr and aint got replaced yet, or even in addition to what is already in place.

And then they think we can stand electric cars on our grid yet too?

Does everyone run in a fully air conditioned shop?

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You kant really be serious? How many shops of any real size doo you spose really ar A/C?

I did try to buy a 12K+ foot building about 13+ yrs ago that has an A/C on it - but I kant imagine the cost to run it?


My shop makes enough heat on it's own to not need additional heat untill the average daily temp hits freezing, so cooling would seem a real feat! Yrs ago when we ran screw machines primarily - we would open the walk-in door many days in the winter to let some heat OUT!


My doors/winders and all are open 24hrs all summer and still is hot in the morning. (of course I've had some jobs running 24's as well) Just this morning I placed a big skwurell cage fan outside pointing in on the west side. I usta doo that most summers, but haven't in a number of yrs. Today was the day to dig that back out. Should really start to help overnight.


Now - the quick fix here really is to just take some time off and watch fishing movies. I always liked this one when it git's too hot out.

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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

SDConcepts said:

whats the cost of running the a/c units? ultimately i guess they would only be used on the really hot days, but do they outweigh the cost of running the cncs? my electric bill is about $600 a month, i'd really hate for that to double. but what kind of increase am i expecting? also do they offer a seperate service for just A/c in industrial areas? i know my house has a dual service so the a/c is iinteruptible.

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It wasn't for comfort. It was to control the temperature of the factory for precision reasons. Factory was insulated and quite well sealed. Coolant temperature control as well, obviously. If you don't have externally vented chillers for the machines/compressors, then doubling or tripling your power consumption is probably a fair guess.