Cooling a Warehouse Without an HVAC System
I run a gym in Virginia in a 4500 sqft warehouse with 16ft high ceilings. Throughout the day the heat and humidity become overwhelming even through we keep the doors closed and we do not have any windows. We do not have HVAC. We do have two units on both sides of us, and a parking garage above us. The only time our cinderblock building is in the sun is from 1-5pm. We need to find an effective (affordable) way to cool the space but we are unsure where to start. Would it be more effective to try insulating some of the space, or to try a dehumidifier? Our landlord will not put in HVAC and since we do not own the space, we want to keep costs low.
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Replies
A dehumidifier will help with the humidity, but will also add heat to the space.
You may want to consider renting portable cooling equipment. Equipment is available that can air condition even large tents (and I mean really large, circus size). I’ve done this before with datacenter facilities when we’ve had to do shutdowns on the cooling plant for maintenance. “Portable” in this case often means “trailer size”, but the same companies that rent the equipment will also set it up for you.
Bill
I work out at a few unconditioned gyms in warehouses in New Orleans, so I get it. I'd say use a bunch of fans, and open the doors/windows when the building is really hot, which I figure is during the direct-sun hours you mentioned.
These gyms also have evaporative Portacool fans (https://portacool.com/). The fans have a sort of radiator that's bathed in water on the air-intake side, and the huge fans suck air through the radiator. I'm not sure how much evaporation takes place in our hyper-humid environment, but these fans feel cooler than the non-Portacool fans. In the hottest parts of the day, the relative humidity drops (even here in the swamp), so I think there's some evaporation even then.
Evaporative coolers only work in areas with low humidity. In areas with high humidity levels, evaporative coolers provide very little cooling, and actually make things worse by adding additional moisture to the air.
Bill's simple rules for evaporative coolers:
Work GREAT in Denver! <20% RH is common
DON'T work in and around the DC metro area! 80+% RH is common
Bill
I am sorry to say it but there is no magic way to cool without AC in your hot and humid climate.
If you had a large wall fan and a safe way to allow cool air to enter you could run the fan over night but it will only be cool for an hour or two.
Wild guess is you need 7 tons of AC maybe more.
Walta