Small Warehouse Cooling

[bash_brannigan]

I have a small warehouse attached to my office, and use it for storage. The space is about 20x35 with high ceiling (18ft?). I recently bought an old car and want to work on it when I have some time. This is in Houston, so it gets really hot in there. The space is leased, and I can't justify paying for a commercial A/C unit, and the landlord won't allow anything like a mini split system. No windows, rolling metal door, metal roof with some spray on insulation, but old and unlikely to be doing much. Either side are other warehouse spaces, all without A/C. I have a small hole in the wall used by a previous tenant for drainage (low down, maybe 4 inches across?), but no option to make any more holes in the wall.

The only option I can see is a portable unit, or maybe two units, but the vent pipe becomes a problem - I guess I could put a screen over the vent pipe, but this is an industrial area, so there are rodents outside (hopefully not inside!). There wouldn't be enough of a hole to accommodate two vent lines for 2 units.

I started to think about it, and hot air rises, cold air sinks, and I am only really interested in the bottom 6 feet. The building is a total of maybe 20,000 sq ft. and I think that there is a clear path across all of the units at the roof. If I put the vent pipe straight up the wall, going up as high as possible, would that be enough to get the hot air away from the low level area I am working in? Maybe a stupid idea, but I was out there the other day and thought I would pass out I was sweating so much! I don't think something like a swamp cooler will work because we have very high humidity. Any other options I haven't considered?

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

How much money do you want to throw at it? I have used swamp coolers in a similar setup (Arizona, 30k sft, seldom-used warehouse). They work better some days than others, but even when the cooling effect is not great the large fan does wonders. Sure, it isn't great, but the cost is hard to beat. If you want to skip the swamp part of it, the industrial fans also work well.

 

[bash_brannigan]

I'm looking to spend as little as possible! I can't justify spending thousands on "real" a/c. I'm thinking a few hundred dollars would be worth it, but much more and I will just need to forget it. My understanding of swamp coolers is that they work somewhere dry like Arizona, but they don't do much where it is already humid. I can try fans (I have a couple of decent fans from when I helped some people after Harvey sitting in the warehouse), but when I tried similar in my garage at home they just blew hot humid air at me!

Thanks

 

[Farmall450]

You're not going to do any better than industrial or high velocity fans for a few hundo.

 

[MattT]

I've been around portables, and window shakers, in hot/humid warehouses. They work pretty well when they're blowing on you but don't have much of a range. And your plan to duct the hot exhaust up as high as possible should definitely help.

 

[CAAnderson]

Without putting in a ton of work I'd agree a portable unit or just a really strong fan would be your best bet.

Bear in mind that with any kind of cooler is going to bump up your electric bills, and then most of that cool air will get lost due to lack of insulation.

Unless you're willing to put in the work to insulate, I'd say just grab a mobile but powerful fan and an extension lead. Wheel it around with you as you work on the car.

It's a long way from a properly cooled space, but (imo) it's the best option without spending a ton of money up-front, shooting up your energy bills, or sinking your car-tinkering time into insulation installation. Hope that helps!

 

[jbwilkins]

I have used swamp coolers in a similar setup (Arizona, 30k sft, seldom-used warehouse).

With the humidity in Houston, swamp coolers will be pretty much useless........They've just become expensive fans.....

 

[fitter30]

Take a package unit like one made for a mobil home or a small roof top unit mount it on a cart and put it in the doorway then close the door block off the rest of the opening. Unit on a extension cord. Or air handler and condenser on a cart same way as as package unit close door on the lines and wiring.

 

[bash_brannigan]

Thanks for the input guys. I think I will pick up one or two portable units and see if they help. If not I can always sell them on again - air conditioning is always in demand in Houston! We use quite a bit of electricity so hopefully any additional use will be lost in the bill! Suddenly got really busy with "real" work, so it will have to wait a couple of weeks at least.

 

[mcj115]

Sounds like you need a big *** fan.......slow moving but large the move a large volume of air. https://www.bigassfans.com/fans/

 

[themiller]

Or similar.

Used.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MovinCool-...353927?hash=item2f35e04847:g:vS0AAOSwkYxdaDJ8