Cooling industrial halls – which solution should you choose?

High temperatures in an industrial hall affect not only working comfort, but also:

• staff productivity,
• the durability and reliability of machinery,
• the quality of manufacturing processes.

Modern buildings, which are often of a lightweight construction and have low thermal mass, heat up more quickly, which further increases the need for efficient systems cooling of an industrial hall.

Cooling of warehouse buildings and logistics centres differs from that in production facilities. Here, the main objective is usually to ensure staff comfort during loading and order picking and — in certain cases — to protect temperature-sensitive goods. Although heat gains from machinery are lower, large glass surfaces, loading bays and frequent opening of doors can cause sudden rises in temperature on summer days.

The specific nature of cooling in warehouses and distribution centres:

• Large floor area, relatively low ceiling height — In warehouses with a height of 8–12 m, the temperature distribution is easier to control than in tall production halls.
• Gates and loading bays — every time the door is opened, hot air from outside enters; air curtains They minimise losses, but cannot replace a cooling system at the height of the season.
• Seasonal variations in demand — In logistics, peak temperatures occur in July–August; the system should be designed to cope with the worst-case scenario, not with average annual conditions.
• Operating costs — for areas of 5,000–20,000 m², the running costs of compressor-based air conditioning can be many times higher than those of evaporative cooling.

Cooling of the warehouse Based on adiabatic technology, it works particularly well in facilities where precise humidity control is not required (e.g. general warehouses, distribution centres, order fulfilment centres). Installed on a wall or the roof of a building, the cooler draws in hot outside air, cools it through the evaporation of water and feeds it into the building — whilst simultaneously filtering the air to remove dust and pollutants.

In warehouses where temperature-sensitive goods (food, pharmaceuticals, electronics) are stored, a case-by-case analysis is required: sometimes precision air conditioning is needed in specific zones, whilst evaporative cooling is required in the rest of the facility.

Choosing the right cooling system for a production hall is not just a matter of staff comfort, but also of the stability of production processes, operating costs and the facility’s energy efficiency. In practice, investors and contractors very often make mistakes as early as the design stage or when selecting equipment. The consequences include: overheating of the hall, high energy bills, excessive humidity or inadequate ventilation.

The most common mistakes are:

1. Selecting equipment based on the hall’s floor area;
2. Failure to take account of heat recovery from technological processes;
3. Lack of adequate ventilation during cooling;
4. Incorrect positioning of equipment;
5. Failure to take air humidity into account;
6. No division into zones;
7. Lack of regular servicing.

Evaporative cooler FRESCO OK  Installed outside buildings. An axial fan draws in hot outside air, which is then distributed through the cellulose panels. As a result of adiabatic evaporation, the air temperature is lowered, and the air is then transported to the building being cooled by the fan. The humidity of the panels is maintained by special nozzles designed to distribute water, the level of which is kept constant by topping up. In addition, the cellulose panels act as air filters.