Justification for Warehouse Ventilation

If you were looking for financial justification to do something about your uncomfortably hot warehouse, ASHRAE has provided it. In an article in the December 2018 ASHRAE Journal entitled Thermal Comfort in Heated-and-Ventilated-Only Warehouses, the authors concluded that “The lost productivity and wages from high PMV [predicted mean thermal comfort value] conditions represent a large opportunity for financial justification of incorporating thermal comfort measures into the design of warehouses.”

Warehouse Simulation

In their simulation, the author’s modeled the annual operations of a 50,000 sq. ft. heated and mechanically ventilated warehouse that was compliant with 2016 ASHRAE standard 90.1 on energy efficiency levels. Because the ASHRAE standard does not specify air change rates, they assumed an air change rate of 1.5 per hour which they explained was more typical of minimum construction codes. Based on this air change rate, the table below shows the percentage of time workers would experience uncomfortably hot working conditions and the annual cost of the resulting productivity loss.
 

 

Conclusion

The conclusions that can be drawn from the results of this simulation:

1. An air change rate of 1.5 does not provide adequate ventilation to reduce thermal discomfort for workers in a warehouse.
2. The cost of productivity loss from inadequate ventilation provides justification to invest in additional ventilation equipment.

This simulation supports Eldridge’s long-time experience of recommending to our customers a significantly higher air change rate for a warehouse ventilation system in these climate zones. Let Eldridge help you to design and install a ventilation system for your warehouse before the hot summer season is here. The investment will pay for itself!