#hvacr Archives | Page 3 of 3

September 1, 2017 by United CoolAir

Improving Indoor Air Quality

Most air conditioners recirculate indoor air during the heating or cooling phase. While this saves energy, there is a very serious health cost to pay when people breathe indoors air versus outside air. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indoor air quality is two to five times MORE TOXIC on average than outside air. This is true even in the most heavily polluted United States metropolitan areas. In fact, in metropolitan areas, some inside air contains one-hundred times more toxic than the outside air.

Why Is the Inside Air So Toxic?

It’s a combination of a great many factors, some of which we’ll discuss below. For now, just know that the toxins found in the inside air contain mostly all human-made elements. These toxins are heavily concentrated during seasons when we don’t open windows, such as the warmer seasons when we run air conditioning. Furthermore, newer buildings that are “better insulated” tend to have inside air that is more toxic than older “drafty” buildings.

Toxins that Diffuse Out of Common Indoor Items

Many buildings have carpet and furniture that absorb and emit toxins. The foam on the back of the carpet and in the stuffing of the furniture provides a constant source of volatile organic chemicals. These (VOCs) are well-known carcinogens and irritants and are found in many other indoor items. This includes fixtures such as drapes and shower curtains. Do you know that funky “new odor” you smell when you hang the new shower curtain? That’s VOCs leaching out. They continue to leach out into the air even when you don’t smell them anymore. Needless to say, your nose is not the best guide when it comes to toxins in the inside air.

We Bring Other Nasty Chemicals Indoors That Contaminate Our Air

We use pesticides that emit toxins into the air we breathe. Popular industrial cleaners contain toxic chemicals like phthalates, perchloroethylene, or “PERC), triclosan, ammonia, chlorine, and 2-Butoxyethanol. There’s paradichlorobenzene in mothballs. Flame retardants found in mattresses, clothes, electronics, and the composition of polybrominated diphenyl and ethers–PBDEs, both highly toxic. These same nasty chemicals plus PCBs (phthalates) are found in many plastic products. This includes toys, plastic plant pots, food containers, lamps, picture frames, eyeglass frames, and plastic organizers. Particleboard furniture emits formaldehyde for as long as you have it in your space!

Does your carpet, furniture, clothes, or other products state they are “stain-resistant?” Does your cookware say “non-stick?” If so, these items contain perfluorinated acids (PFAs) which cause birth defects! Then there are all the nasty chemicals in our building supplies such as the methylene diphenyl diisocyanate. These chemicals find their way into spray foam insulation along with resins found in paint, varnishes, and tiles. There’s also radon gas from your flooring and toxins released from the mold.

What Are Health Costs?

We’ve already mentioned cancer and birth defects but other health hazards occur from toxic indoor air. For example, scientists now believe that toxic indoor air may be partially responsible for the soaring rates of autism and Asperger’s in children. It can also cause nervous conditions like ADD and general anxiety. There has been linkage to Heart diseases due to many of the nasty chemicals found in toxic indoor air too. Asthma and allergies that have been on the rise are also thought to have a toxic indoor air linkage. In fact, many chronic illnesses occur due to or exacerbated by toxic indoor air. These include sinus issues; skin rashes; dizziness; runny nose; persistent cough; achy joints; digestive issues; irritated eyes; nausea; poor concentration; memory loss; weakened immune system; and general fatigue.

OmegaAir and Alpha Aire — DOAS That Pull 100% OUTDOOR Air

When it’s hot and or humid outside, it can be just miserable if you don’t run your air conditioner! However, since most air conditioners recirculate toxic inside air, it can be a difficult choice on what to do. Do you open your windows and just try to bear the hot sticky feel? Or do you close your windows and feel comfortable while knowing you’re breathing in all that toxic air?

The design of Alpha Aire and Omega Air 100% outdoor air systems like all UCA air conditioning equipment are for indoor installation. Air handlers and condensers require no exterior mounting space, which is critical in multi-floor, urban applications. Indoor unit mounting preserves the architectural integrity of the building by keeping the roof and perimeter free of obstructions. In addition to eliminating the roof loads, installation and maintenance costs are lower. In this way, the equipment protection from the elements, and security enhancments happens because of limited outdoor access.

July 28, 2017 by United CoolAir

Advantages of Portable Commercial Air Conditioners

Therm~Air portable unit produced by United CoolAir — Portable Commercial Air Conditioner

There are many advantages to a commercial portable air conditioner. We discuss some of the most important advantages below, some of which you may not have thought of before.

How Does a Commercial Portable Air Conditioner Work?

Before we get into the advantages of these systems, let’s examine the basics of how these units work. Air from the room draws in and is first passed through a filter to prevent dust from entering the unit. This helps reduce the maintenance needed for a commercial portable air conditioner and extends its overall life as well. The air then passes through an air conditioning coil to cool the air to the appropriate temperature. Next, the internal blower shoots the cool air through supply air tubes back out into the room.

The temperature of cooled air that comes out is usually about twenty degrees cooler than the air that went in. As the temperature of the air in the room lowers, it can go through another twenty-degree drop. Thus, a room temperature beginning at 100° starts lowering to an ambient temperature of about eighty degrees cooler. Then, eighty-degree air converts into sixty-degree air. This assumes that you have bought a powerful enough unit for the room size you are cooling.

A Commercial Portable Air Conditioner Provides Convenience and Flexibility

There’s nothing more convenient than rolling in your commercial portable air conditioner to the exact location you want it. All that remains is plugging the cord into a nearby electrical outlet, and turning on your unit. There is no limitation in location by where the windows are like you are with window air conditioners, nor can window units suffice in many spaces. Moreover, you don’t have to go to the expense of cutting a hole in the wall and there are no worries about having to install ducts anywhere. Plus, you can very easily switch locations of your unit when you want to without any hassle at all. You can even take your commercial portable air conditioner to a different location as needed.

These Portable Commercial Units Offer Huge Economical Savings To Industrial Businesses

Sometimes central air conditioning isn’t economical or even possible. The cost to install an HVAC system that would actually work in a large industrial space might be astronomical. This is often true for industrial places like large warehouses, big server rooms, or giant factory floors. However, these spaces still contain products and or workers that need to be kept cool. In fact, if spaces aren’t cooled enough the products may affect productivity in a negative way. These are the types of situations where a commercial portable air conditioner can be the perfect solution.

It is also worth mentioning that a multi-functional commercial portable air conditioner can not only cool in the summer but can also heat in the winter. Some multi-functional commercial portable air conditioners, in fact, even come with the ability to act as dehumidifiers. This is especially useful for some products such as paper-based products or textiles and where both the summer and winter produce extreme temperatures.

Are There Any Other Advantages To a Portable Commercial Air Conditioner?

One advantage that not mentioned as much is the fact that the supply air tube(s) are usually adjustable. In fact, they’re as easily adjusted as adjusting the neck of a desk lamp or work lamp. This allows you to direct the cool air in exactly the direction you want it to flow. If you have a tall warehouse where heat rises, you may want to point these adjustable air supply tubes in an upwards direction to directly cool that rising warmer air. On the other hand, if you have hard-working men and women in the warehouse that really need to cool off fast, you can direct these adjustable air tubes directly at the workers, at least for a temporary time, to give them some much-needed relief. They’ll love you for it and be more productive.

Some people actually extend the supply air tubes by attaching a flex duct with a slightly larger diameter over the top of the air tubes. This allows you to direct the cool air to a precise location. For example, if you have commercial crops that are in danger of dying in an intense heatwave, you can use these extenders to cool the air right around these crops to create a “microhabitat” of cooler ambient air. The same could affect the highly sensitive technical equipment or laboratory samples during an extreme heatwave.

June 28, 2017 by United CoolAir

Why Use Commercial Temporary Air Conditioning

Commercial temporary air conditioning is essential to many businesses. Consider the following scenario. You’re building a new facility and you brought in a portable job site office trailer for your staff. Back in March, this worked out just fine. When it got stuffy inside the space, you and your staff just opened a door and let Nature cool things down. But now… it’s summer and there’s an oppressive heatwave with scorching temperatures and high humidity. Your employees can hardly breathe and production is slowing to a grinding halt as all they can think about is the utter misery. Your secretary is threatening to quit. You’re driving thirty miles at lunchtime just to take a shower. You need commercial temporary air conditioning to get your lucrative project back on track.

What Are Some Of the Other Uses For Commercial Grade Temporary Air Conditioning?

The most common use is when the central HVAC system at a business suddenly stops working and they can’t get it repaired quickly enough. In these cases, commercial temporary AC makes an excellent “plan B” to keep business moving along at a normal pace. In most of these cases, the cost of commercial temporary air conditioning is negligible compared to the profits lost. This happens when a central air HVAC system is down and neither clients nor employees can function in the space.

There are also many other uses for commercial temporary AC that you may not have ever thought about. For example, in a heatwave, they may be used in greenhouses to save vulnerable plants. They may even be used in the crop fields combined with tarps. Staging wedding receptions, seminars, trade shows, and other special events inside a large tent or other temporary structures is another common example. This situation is where there is a serious need for commercial temporary air conditioning.

Interpretive centers inside campgrounds or parks also sometimes use commercial temporary air conditioning when the weather gets really hot. It gives campers and other users of the parks an opportunity to get out of the blistering heat while still learning about nature. Large outdoor events, where the main center(s) of activity are outside, often set up “cooling zones” with commercial temporary air conditioning. In this way people can cool off and avoid heat stroke and other maladies associated with high temperatures. It’s also useful for first aid stations at such events.

Apartment Complexes and Housing For Seniors

Many parts of the country include apartment complexes and housing for seniors simply does not have AC of any kind. In some cases, the cost is prohibitive. In other cases, it is not sensible to go to the expense of installing a permanent cooling system due to the moderate climate. However, in both of these scenarios, there are temporary times when air conditioning becomes absolutely essential to prevent illness and loss of life. We’ve all heard the horrifying stories of seniors and others dying from heatstroke because a major heat occurred without conditioning in place. In these temporary conditions, extreme heat actually becomes dangerous to human life. In this case, property managers can turn to commercial temporary AC as a method to avoid catastrophe.

Likewise, community shelters, senior centers, and disaster relief centers are all structures that may not have permanent air conditioning. This may be due to funding issues or just the temporary nature of the structure. In any case, commercial temporary air conditioning can be an economical way of dealing with the summer season.

Is There Any Advantage To Using Commercial Temporary AC Long Term?

This may sound like a paradoxical question to some but it’s actually a very practical question for many businesses that are looking to save money. If you need to cool a structure for only one month out of the year every year, you can actually save a lot of money by using the commercial temporary AC unit. Instead of going to the much larger expense of installing a permanent HVAC system with central air conditioning. The same could be true if you only need it for two to three months out of the year. You’ll need to do some numbers crunching to determine which is most economical for your specific situation.

Conclusion

There are many reasons why commercial temporary AC can be necessary, and in some cases, an economical choice. All businesses should keep this option on the table when considering air conditioner temporary cooling.