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Distribution, workshops, offices and shops
A corridor of tall buildings in a climate that cools off properly every evening, and almost none of them set up to take advantage of it.
Every unit found, and a week of readings to go with it
Every unit located and identified by model and serial number, matched to the area it actually serves, its measured condition recorded, and dead or abandoned plant marked as dead. Then the commercial readings: airflow and static pressure, refrigerant charge, economiser operation, filter condition and the pressure drop across it, belt and bearing condition, condensate drainage, and combustion analysis on gas heat.
And on any building with a heat complaint, loggers at working height for a week. On a tall building in this valley the interesting number is not the afternoon peak — it is the temperature at seven in the morning, because that tells you whether the building is shedding its heat overnight or carrying it forward.
A building that starts the day hot has a fabric and ventilation problem. A building that starts cool and gets hot has a capacity or a solar problem. They are completely different bills.
Four kinds of premises, four different problems
Distribution and storage
The warm air is at the roof and the people are on the floor, so cooling the whole volume is expensive and mostly wasted. Destratification, ventilation, roof treatment and spot cooling at the pick faces move the number at head height further than plant would. And in this valley there is one more option most buildings never use: purging the building overnight, mechanically, so it starts the day cool.
Workshops and light manufacturing
Here the heat is made inside the building, by machinery, compressors or process equipment, and extraction at the source beats cooling the room it escapes into every time. Radiant heat near a hot process needs measuring as its own quantity. Where extraction is dealing with fumes or dust rather than heat, that is an industrial hygiene question and we will say so.
Offices and medical suites
Usually zoning rather than capacity, and worst on a west elevation in the late afternoon — which in this town is a genuinely severe exposure. We measure the zones separately at that hour. Clinical spaces get documented filter changes and measured ventilation in a form an inspector will accept; certification to a clinical standard is a specialist engagement.
Shops and restaurants
A door standing open is a trading decision and not ours to argue with; we will put numbers against an air curtain, a schedule change and simply accepting a figure on the bill. In kitchens the first measurement is make-up air against hood exhaust. We do not clean hoods and we do not certify fire suppression.
What we do in premises
- Written plant survey
Every unit found, identified, measured and mapped to what it serves, with abandoned plant marked as dead.
- Temperature and humidity logging
At working height, for a week, reported as the working day — including the morning start temperature.
- Night purge and ventilation
Mechanically flushing a building overnight so it starts the day cool. Measured before and after, and only where the numbers support it.
- Repair and replacement
Repair diagnosed and costed first. Replacement sized from the load the building carries now.
- Destratification and spot cooling
Moving the air that is already there, and cooling the people rather than the volume, where that is the better answer.
- Planned maintenance
Scheduled visits, the same readings each time, written specifically enough that a lease obligation can be shown to have been met.
Work we turn down
| We decline | Who it belongs to |
|---|---|
| Central chiller plant and cooling towers | A different discipline with different tickets, and we are not going to learn it on your building. |
| Proprietary building management systems | We will work with the controls in front of us and tell you what a schedule is doing. Programming a manufacturer-locked system belongs to whoever holds the licence. |
| Commercial refrigeration | Walk-ins, display cases and ice machines are adjacent and are not the same trade. |
| Hood cleaning and fire suppression | Separate licensed jobs. We do the air balance around the hood. |
| Process extraction for dust or fumes | Where extraction is a containment question rather than a comfort one it needs an industrial hygienist, and we will say so before starting rather than after. |
| Air quality certification of any kind | We measure and document. Whether a result satisfies an obligation is for a code official, an engineer or a hygienist to say. |
Tell us the building
What it is used for, how many units are on the roof, and what the temperature is like first thing in the morning. 1972 N Texas St, Fairfield. Monday to Friday, 7am to 4pm.