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Factory and warehouse owners need to have a majority of their property cooled. You are likely aware of spot coolers, but they may not cover the area you require. For a greater means of commercial cooling, there are evaporative coolers, also known as swamp coolers, that building owners should consider buying or renting.

How Does An Evaporative Cooler Work?

Evaporative coolers work by evaporating moisture and absorbing heat. These coolers draw outside air into a pair of proprietary, hydrated pads, where air evaporates and gets cooled. This air later gets circulated throughout the building. It is like how an air conditioner draws in hot air into icy-cold coils and disperses it through a room, but evaporative coolers draw in air from outdoors and cool this air in a different and simpler way.

Evaporative coolers generally work well in hot weather, but they work best when there are high temperatures but low humidity. That isn’t to say that evaporative coolers don’t work in humid buildings, but hot and especially dry conditions can be best answered with cool, moist air that an evaporative cooler can provide.

There are many kinds of evaporative coolers available to rent or buy, ranging from smaller models for the home to industrial coolers that work in junction with a building’s ventilation systems for wall-to-wall complete cooling.

Examples of businesses and locations that use evaporative coolers include:

• Workshops
• Warehouses
• Commercial kitchens
• Industrial plants
• Laundromats
• Construction sites
• Sporting events
• Farms and greenhouses
• Outdoor pools
• And more.

From goods to machinery to human beings, almost everything inside a workplace benefits from air that is no longer warm or hot. When all these things are exposed to hot air, they do not work their best.

What Happens When An Evaporative Cooler Runs?

Evaporative coolers are very simple when it comes to performance. They come with low-power motors designed to pump water from the bottom of the cooler’s body to two or more sponge-like filter pads. Another motor operates a fan from inside the cooler that pulls outside air inwards. This air travels through the cooler and back out into the room.

The cooling effect is created when air passes through cool water, thus evaporating it. Water evaporation is a simple and natural process that becomes more effective when a powerful fan moves the evaporation throughout the space. It’s only a mere fan and pump that could help a hot and sticky building become cool.

With an evaporative cooler, the air inside your building can be reduced by 30 degrees Fahrenheit. If your building currently suffers from 100-degree heat all the time, an evaporative cooler can help reduce the heat to room temperature.

But not only does an evaporative cooler make the air inside a building colder, but it also makes the air moister. If your building is already moist from being sweaty, an evaporative cooler won’t make the air drier, but it will definitely feel more pleasant by being cooler.

How Does An Evaporative Cooler Compare To An Air Conditioner?

Unlike evaporative coolers, air conditioners do make the air drier in addition to cooler. This is because there is no evaporation of water or moisture involved when the air conditioner provides a space with cooler air.

There are many drawbacks to air conditioners when compared to evaporative coolers that many building owners overlook. The first downside is that they can use over four times the power as an evaporative cooler to run, thus making them more expensive. Thus, evaporative coolers can be used to replace air conditioners in the facility as a cost-cutting measure.

Air conditioners also require more rigorous installation and maintenance, making the evaporative cooler easier to manage. Air conditioners require careful attention and must be taken care of often to ensure that they run well without any trouble. Evaporative coolers can be looked after less frequently.

Finally, air conditioners do not draw in any new air from outside. It circulates and cools the same air over and over again. If you do not have any means to draw in the new air, the air quality in your building will decline. But because evaporative coolers continuously draw in new air from outdoors, this would not be a concern.

This also means you can have a few open windows with an evaporative cooler. With an air conditioner, that cool air would exit the home, and thus it would work harder to meet your expectations. Windows can still be open if you have an evaporative cooler running as it constantly brings in new air to cool.

What Else Should I Learn Before Buying An Evaporative Cooler?

Like spot coolers and air conditioners, evaporative coolers are designed to cool a space of a certain size. A cooler too weak will not sufficiently cool a large room. A cooler too strong may be too expensive for the room or building that you wish to cool.

Instead of BTU, like with air conditioners, evaporative coolers rely on CFM (cubic feet per minute) to determine how much air the cooler can blow into space.

Simply determine the cubic feet of the room you want to cool by multiplying the square feet by the ceiling height. From there, divide that number by two and you would get your CFM. Evaporative coolers can range from 750 to 7,500 CFM, so choose a cooler with a CFM that would be closest to your room’s CFM for optimal results.

Evaporative coolers also have water tanks that provide your outdoor air with moisture. You will have to refill this tank with water when it becomes empty. Evaporative coolers have tanks as small as one gallon for small rooms to as large as 16 gallons for spaces like warehouses. Be sure to keep this capacity in mind when choosing an evaporative cooler.

Conclusion

Evaporative coolers are simple and effective utilities, helping hot and dry rooms become cool and moist for a multitude of different purposes. Consider leasing or buying a cooler to provide your space with cool air as soon as possible.

No retailer in their right mind wants to close up for the day because their air conditioning is broken. You lose potential revenue every second your doors are closed, your employees lose hours, and if you sell food or perishable products there is a high potential for loss due to spoilage in high temperatures.

The good news for retailers is a solution exists to keep your doors open and prevent any perishable goods from spoiling: portable spot coolers. Here are just a few of the ways renting portable spot coolers can preserve your revenue and product in the event of an HVAC failure.

1. Customers Stay Cool In The Heat

People don’t want to spend time in an unbearably hot store, and most will leave without making a purchase or get only what they need and leave immediately. It’s not just the heat either, but also the poor air circulation and humidity that accumulates when your ventilation system is out of commission. Keep your customers comfortable with portable spot coolers, and you won’t see a decline in business or sales.

2. Employees Stay Cool And Can Continue Working

Workers don’t want to be at work if the air in their workspace is stifling. Being hot and sticky from high heat and humidity does not put anyone in a good mood, and it is difficult to maintain a high level of customer service when you are physically miserable. Having spot coolers up and running while your HVAC is repaired ensures you don’t lose business because your workers are cranky, or because they are calling out sick to avoid the heat.

3. Keeps Your Store Safer For Customers And Workers Alike

Personal comfort aside, it isn’t safe to run a retail establishment in the summer heat without some sort of cooling solution. Customers may come in dehydrated or suffering from heat exhaustion and pass out or suffer heat stroke. The same could be said of employees who are forced to work in extremely hot conditions, and an environment like this can quickly lead to formal complaints and surprise visits from OSHA inspectors. Using a temporary solution like spot coolers reduces the chance there would be a safety hazard or an incident caused by a safety hazard in your store.

4. Reduces Product Spoilage

Most portable electronics that run on batteries are not supposed to be stored in environments over a certain temperature, and if you sell chocolate bars or other candy, you can be certain large quantities of both will need to be thrown away should your HVAC fail for an extended time period. Putting in spot coolers keeps everything at safe storage temperature, reducing potential losses due to spoilage.

5. Minimizes Lost Revenue

Losing potential sales dollars and revenue because your air conditioning broke down in the middle of summer can be catastrophic for small businesses. Renting spot coolers may incur some expense, but it is often far less than the financial loss due to closure and spoilage.

If your retail business has an air conditioning failure, contact the spot cooler experts at Preferred Climate Solutions. Our team has all the experience and knowledge you need to get your store cooled down and open for business again. Call or visit our website today for more information.

To make your outdoor event a success, it’s important to make sure that you have the right size spot cooler for the job. Most event planners don’t have a tremendous amount of experience with making that determination, and this can drive up the cost of your event by ordering a unit bigger than they need.

Worse still, some planners do not rent a spot cooler that can effectively keep a tent or other area cool, and end up with little or no return on their investment. Preferred Climate Solutions can help. Here’s a quick guide to choosing the right spot cooler for your next outdoor event.

What Are Spot Coolers?

A portable air conditioner that can easily be moved to different locations, a spot cooler is an excellent way to keep a room, tent or building with no air conditioning cool even at the height of summer. Many have built-in generators or can run off their own power to keep areas cool even if there is no electricity available or your venue loses power.

Spot Cooler Sizes

Rated cooling power for spot coolers is anywhere from 1 to 5 tons, or 12,000 BTU (body temperature units) to 60,000 BTU to put it in home air conditioner terms. One or two people are generally fine with a 10,000-14,000 BTU for average summer temperatures. If the area where you need cooling tends to get up above 100 degrees Fahrenheit outdoors and it’s a large volume room, you will need significantly more cooling power, potentially as much as 34,0000 BTUs. Spot coolers come in all different sizes, but knowing which one is right for you depends on the space and how many people or the type of equipment that will be used.

Choosing The Right Size Spot Cooler

The first thing you need to do is determine the volume of the area you need to keep cool. If you don’t have access to that number, you can estimate the square footage of space by counting ceiling tiles (squares are usually 2ft. X 2 ft., rectangles are 2 ft. x 4 ft.), and then finding the height of the ceiling. For tents, just measure the height, width, and depth of your tent. Dimensions are usually marked on the package or storage container, and it may even have a measurement in cubic feet in the manual.

Once you have the cubic feet calculated, you can estimate how many cooling BTU you need to keep the temperature comfortable in a given space. For example, a 400 square foot office space with a 10 ft. ceiling with just a few people in it needs about 12,000 BTU or 1 ton of cooling. Changing the square footage while using the same ceiling height and adding equipment and people, you will need an estimate of 1 additional ton of cooling per 250 additional square feet.

Scratching your head at the math? Worried you might order the wrong spot cooler? Contact our team at Preferred Climate Solutions to get an estimate from our experienced professionals. We’ll make sure you’ve got the right spot cooler for your space and event.

Renting a tent for outdoor events is always a sound plan, but how you keep that tent cool in the Texas summer heat is less obvious. Here are some tips for keeping your tented event cool even in summer.

1. Stay In The Shade

A tent may be a portable shelter to create shade, but if the tent itself is not in a shady spot it can get hot quickly. Some venues and rental companies won’t allow you to set your tent up underneath a tree due to damage liability in a storm, but as a rule, it’s the best source of shade possible. Should the rules forbid setting up under a tall tree, find a berm, embankment or hillside that will keep you shaded for at least part of the day. You want to keep the landscape between you and the sun as much as possible, so grab your compass and set up your tent on whichever side will be in shadow during the heat of the day.

2. Asphalt Is Not Your Friend.

Level paved surfaces are great in a basement, but building a tent over asphalt makes it hot to walk to your tent. Worse still, asphalt radiates heat even if it’s not directly exposed to sunlight, so you are basically setting up your tent on the heated floor. To stay cool, set up on a grassy surface if you can.

3. Good Air Circulation Is Key

Don’t “batten down the hatches” on your tent. You want to keep ventilation panels open and allow for cross ventilation. Otherwise, you are trapping all the hot air inside, and when people start filling up the tent it only gets worse. Be smart, and keep that air flowing through.

4. Use Ceiling Fans

Nothing keeps air moving briskly like a fan, and you can actually install ceiling fans in some larger event tents. If ceiling fans are an option (you’ll need electricity), don’t hesitate. Texas summers are no joke and any additional circulation matters.

5. Rent a Spot Cooler

If you have electricity available (and even if you don’t) you may want to consider renting a spot cooler, also called a mobile air conditioning unit. Spot coolers are both air and water cooled systems that are great for cooling off the interior of tents or outbuildings with no air conditioning like barns and stock halls.

As hot as Texas gets in the summer outdoors, it’s wise to invest some of your event budgets in spot coolers to keep everything in your tent or outbuilding at a livable temperature. Preferred Climate Solutions specializes in spot coolers, and we have the knowledge and experience to get you the best unit for your event needs.

6. Evaporative Coolers

These inexpensive tent coolers to keep interior temperatures low in the summer by using a fan to circulate air over ice or ice water. The cold air blows through the tent and lowers the temperature and keeps the tent noticeably cooler. In the dry Texas heat, this is an excellent solution for cooling off your tent or tents at a summer event.

7. Misters Work Well Inside or Outside a Tent

These devices cool the air by spraying a fine mist of cold water, lowering the air temperature without creating excessive humidity. This is the ideal solution for Texas summers as the air is extremely dry and hot. Misters are so effective because they help restore humidity and keep people cool inside and outside of your tent.

Regardless of what solution you choose, it’s important to be smart and prepared to keep tents cool at outdoor events. It’s safer for you, your staff, vendors, and visitors.

A successful wedding day takes extensive planning and preparation, and making a reception just as successful is an even greater challenge. Outdoor receptions are especially complex because the weather plays a large role in how the day plays out.

Hot weather, cold weather, and precipitation are luck of the draw depending on the season of the year, but there are some ways you can minimize the effects of Mother Nature on your big day. Here are some tips for making your wedding reception successful even in bad weather:

Make Plans For Your Plans

Sometimes Plan B is not enough to contend with the curveballs and problems that life throws at you on your wedding day. Have a plan for everything from refreshments and food to seating and music, and then make a backup plan for each of those plans if everything goes wrong, especially the weather.

Tent Up

Get a tent for your outdoor reception. Even if you are hosting a wedding and reception in your own backyard or the backyard of a family member, you need a sheltered space where people can retreat from the weather so your schedule of events can continue uninterrupted. Another advantage of putting up a tent is it allows you to control the temperature with portable heating or cooling units. If you are getting married in the summer in Texas, these are a must-have item.

Make Sure You Have Some Type Of Climate Control

The ability to cool or heat a tent at an outdoor event should not be undervalued. If you get an unseasonably cold and wet day, having some upright propane heaters in or around the shelter allows your guests to keep warm and not need heavy coats over their formal wear. If your reception days is a real scorcher, having portable misting coolers running will help your guests stay cool even in an event shelter or large catering tent.

Set A Theme

It may not seem important to some, but a theme help cements your ideas together to create a memorable day that will be treasured forever. If you’re the bride and groom, it should be a meaningful theme to you both, even if it’s based around a favorite film or TV show. Wedding and event planners should take a similar approach when planning outdoor receptions, too.

Following these simple tips can make all the difference when the day of your wedding and reception finally arrives. If you take nothing else away from this, at least plan on having a tent and some sort of heating/cooling system in place for your outdoor reception. Your guests will be grateful for your foresight.