Summer is officially here. During this season, many are heading to the beach, hitting the road, eating delicious ice cream to stay cool and going camping. The warm season is also an important one for warehouse owners and facility managers.
They have to keep the temperature regulated in their warehouses. Excessive heat can negatively affect staff productivity and well-being. What’s more, too much heat can damage both stock and machinery.
Keeping your warehouse cool during summer is essential for maintaining optimal working conditions and protecting stored goods. An effective way to enhance insulation and reduce heat is by consulting a professional roofing company. Their expertise can help you choose the best roofing solutions to improve energy efficiency and keep your warehouse cool throughout the hottest months.
As a warehouse owner or facility manager, you need to take steps to make sure that your building stays cool and comfortable during summer.
Besides installing the appropriate air conditioning units, here are other suggestions to cool down your warehouse:
1. Make Sure the Facility Has Adequate Insulation
Insulation stops cool air from leaving your warehouse during hot days. It’s worth investing in to help regulate the temperature of a building.
Top-quality insulation also comes with other benefits, including increased fire protection and noise reduction. Reach out to an industrial insulation services provider to obtain the insulation solution that suits your needs.
2. Keep Doors and Gates Closed
Even if you have proper insulation, cold air can still find a way to leave your warehouse. Dock doors and exits can become an issue when left open for long periods, especially when you don’t need them to stay open.
You can resolve this situation by installing strip doors or curtains. This will keep the air from escaping and prevent warm air from entering the building.
You can also use curtains and strip doors for warmer areas of the warehouse, such as where heavy equipment is operating. These tools also offer easy access to rooms and will not disrupt the overall productivity of the warehouse.
3. Turn Off Non-Essential Tech When Not in Use
Nearly all electronics and machinery in a warehouse generate some form of heat. Whether the device is as small as a laptop or as big as a conveyor system, you’ll want to switch them off when you or your staff isn’t using it. Switching off your non-essential tech is a practical and simple way of keeping the temperature down in your warehouse.
4. Update the Roofing System of Your Warehouse
Warehouse roofs can be a source of energy inefficiency. These roofing systems are notorious for absorbing solar heat. Although the ability of a facility to soak up heat may be advantageous in the winter, this often translates to wasted money overall.
Depending on the purpose of your warehouse, you can cool down this facility and cut down on electricity expenses by updating the roofing system. This entails installing cool roof technologies.
Cool roofs have two vital properties. The first is a high thermal emittance. This means that the roof radiates a huge chunk of energy absorbed back to the sky.
The second is a high solar reflectance. A roofing system with this property absorbs less energy from the sun.
Regardless of climate and location, cool roof technologies are highly advantageous for warehouses that have refrigeration storage, which requires year-round and consistent cooling.
Cool roofs are also beneficial for dry storage warehouses, which usually don’t have year-round refrigeration, but need a consistent temperature. Cool roofing systems in this setting can contribute to a higher percentage of cost savings.
When you are updating the roof of your warehouse, take a good look at the overall impact. Depending on your location, you could lose energy more by removing heat. When calculating the energy savings from the energy penalty from reduced winter heat gain and the energy savings from reduced cooling load, consider the increasing costs of both electricity and heating fuel.
Although cool roofing systems can cut down cooling expenses, not all products available on the market are equal. Energy Star coating and roofing products are great reflectors of solar heat. Not all coatings, however, are compatible with all types of roofs. When choosing a cool roof, make sure the roofing contractor has experience working with the product you bought for installation.
5. Use Steel Wire Decking for Storage
The benefit of wire decking is that it provides more air circulation around containers or boxers. This openness limits moisture build-up and humidity under or between containers.
6. Avoid Plastic Racking for Inventory Storage
Extreme heat can also cause the racking to bow – and worse – melt.
Instead of using plastic, opt for metal or steel racking. These two mentioned materials are more efficient and stronger for warehousing in hotter months. Just make sure that you keep this racking indoors.
These six suggestions will help you keep your warehouse cool during summer. By combating excessive heat, you can help minimize product damage and keep your facility workers comfortable while they’re hard at work.