How to cool down a warehouse without AC

In extreme conditions, the human body isn’t able to be as productive or think as clearly. 

To say it’s dangerous would not be an understatement. For employers, lost productivity and a poor work environment can also mean lost profits, absenteeism, and low morale. If you want to keep your team happy and active, they need to feel cooler. 

“We need air-conditioning!” is the most common response. But is AC necessary? Is there another, perhaps better, solution? 

CAN YOU COOL DOWN A WAREHOUSE WITHOUT AIR-CONDITIONING?

One of the most frequent misconceptions about climate control is that the indoor temperature needs to be lower to feel cooler. 

To be sure, AC can drop the temperature in an overheated building and create a comfortable atmosphere where employees can be productive. But air-conditioning also comes with a very high price tag, potentially costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to install and tens of thousands to operate. 

Fortunately, there’s a much more affordable solution that doesn’t require an actual drop in temperature. Instead of asking, “How can I cool my warehouse?”, the better question to ask is, “How can I cool my employees?”. 

Making your workers feel cooler is far more energy-efficient and cost-effective than conditioning your warehouse. That’s because of an effect known as evaporative cooling. When a body gets hot, it sweats. When air flows over sweaty skin, it makes the body feel cooler. 

HOW TO COOL DOWN A WAREHOUSE WITHOUT AIR-CONDITIONING

To create a sufficient amount of airflow to allow evaporative cooling to happen, you need a fan—but not just any fan. You need a very large fan capable of circulating a massive amount of air throughout the room. 

The HVAC industry calls them HVLS (high-volume, low-speed) fans, and they work exceptionally well at creating sufficient airflow in large, hot spaces like warehouses. To cool down a warehouse without air-conditioning, all you need is the right solution: a large ceiling-mounted fan and/or an evaporative cooler. 

The optimal size of the fan that will work in your warehouse depends on several factors, including the dimensions of the interior space, the number of people inside, the type of equipment and machines inside the warehouse, and other building variables. 

HVLS fans come in a variety of sizes from 4.2m in diameter up to 7.4m. Depending on your warehouse configuration and needs, big warehouse fans are available with a wide variety of options, as well.