Feeling the heat? Upgrade your existing ventilation system!

Posted by Andrew Wright on 17/05/16 12:00

Colt-CoolStream-745335-edited.jpgAs a factory manager, you may find that in spite of keeping your mechanical ventilation system in perfect condition, the temperature in your plant is increasing. Over the years, the use of your building may have changed, as with the introduction of lean manufacturing practices, there may be a higher density of production machinery with consequent higher heat load in some areas of your facility. This means that the mechanical ventilation system as it was originally designed and installed no longer meets your requirements.

How to solve your overheating problem

In most cases, you won’t need to replace your existing system with a more powerful one. There is an easy and cost effective solution: you can boost your ventilation system’s cooling capacity with evaporative cooling. Evaporative cooling units are light, can be installed on any factory roof and have low maintenance requirements. The units also have minimal running costs as they rely on the cooling power of water and use little electricity. Correctly designed, this solution has the added benefit of increasing your existing system’s cooling performance exactly where it is needed, so you can target the specific areas of the building where the heat load is higher.

Case Study – improving conditions with CoolStream

Colt-CoolStream2-821949-edited.jpgOverheating in storage and production facilities can affect both people and machines. Since 1982 Colt have carried out various scheme designs and supplied ventilation equipment to a manufacturer of specialty products for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. As the factory had been expanded many times, they enlisted the help of Colt of several occasions, knowing that they could rely on Colt to come up with an effective solution.

In 2001, Colt supplied a scheme of modular, decentralized Coltair ventilation units to reduce the temperatures in the factory and to provide a supply of fresh air. However, in the years proceeding this, an increase in machinery resulted in the heat load rising from 150 kWh to 700 kWh. This meant that some form of cooling would be required to supplement the ventilation. To solve this issue, six CoolStream evaporative coolers were retrofitted to the existing Coltair units, bringing in fresh, conditioned outside air into the factory and enabling the internal air to be extracted.

The client found that with these units installed there was lower energy consumption, higher internal air quality, and above all, optimum cooling performance.

Could your factory benefit from evaporative cooling?

If you want a climate control scheme that is efficient, low in running and maintenance costs and provides comfortable working conditions, then installing evaporative coolers to your existing mechanical ventilation system could be the answer.

Factory Survey

To find out how these units could help improve your working conditions, a survey of your factory is needed to assess your current situation. At Colt, our engineers have been working with building owners and operators solving their problems related to the indoor environment and helping improve their business for over 30 years.  

Request a survey


Andrew Wright - Climate Control Area ManagerAndrew Wright is an Area Manager for Colt's Climate Control divison, experienced in creating efficient ventilation systems to achieve comfortable working environments and increasing productivity.

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Topics: Factory Survey, Climate Control, Evaporative cooling