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Welcome to the Cool-Tech Blog

In our blog, we will have regular updates on all Cool-Tech Ltd news, projects and services we’ve been working on throughout the year
10 Apr, 2024
Following a long and successful corporate career, our MD Collen Baker spotted the opportunity for a business specialising in green low energy business solutions. A strong engineering background helped seal the deal. These days evaporative cooling systems, energy-efficient heating and low-energy lighting are big news for businesses, with more organisations taking the plunge than ever before as the climate heats up and energy costs soar. So why should you do it the Cool-Tech way?  A complete carbon neutral solution tailored perfectly to your needs We have expertise across a range of innovative low energy electric, solar and infra red systems, from heating and cooling to the latest-generation low energy LED lamps, thermal solar and photovoltaics. If you need cooling, we can do that for you. The same goes for heating and lighting. And we can combine the best technologies in every area to give you a completely carbon neutral solution for your premises. Supporting our recommendations with science No size fits all in our world! Every organisation is different, which is why we provide rock solid, sound advice about which products are most appropriate and cost effective. Our quotes contain all the detail you could possibly need. We support our recommendations with full statistical and data analysis, site visits and plans. We can arrange finance if you need it, and we’ll help you apply for government grants or loans. Then we’ll install your new system, commission it, and maintain it for you going forwards. Specialists in extremely energy-efficient cool, heat and light We’ve been providing environmentally friendly cooling, heating and lighting systems to the private and public sectors since 2006, not far short of two decades. Within that time we’ve seen things change dramatically as more organisations wake up to the threat of ever-hotter, less predictable temperatures. With energy prices rocketing to levels higher than anyone could have predicted, the need for low-energy, high-efficiency systems is growing faster than ever. We’ve kept pace with progress, identifying the most efficient and effective systems to keep people comfortable and business going. Our entire business model revolves around technologies that drastically reduce energy consumption in everything from huge organisations to SMEs. Our tech is naturally climate-friendly since it uses so much less energy than the traditional systems that were invented before climate change became an issue, and before the cost of energy became a problem. Proper engineering expertise Right now we’re the UK’s biggest evaporative cooler specialist for servicing and after-care. We hold a huge range of spare parts in stock and have all the right equipment ready and waiting. Our engineers are fully trained in every aspect of servicing and maintaining evaporative coolers, including the relevant IPAF qualifications. Reduce your CO2 footprint, lower your overheads We all want to cut our CO2 footprint to the minimum. We all want to slash our energy costs. That’s what we do. Contact CoolTech now for a free, no obligation discussion. We reckon you’ll find it inspiring.
08 Apr, 2024
The University of Cambridge does it. Ford does it. The NHS does it along with Matalan, Go Outdoors, the Metropolitan Police, Rolls Royce, Gillette and many more household brands, as well as smaller businesses. Everybody’s using evaporative cooling, the single most cost-effective way to slash your cooling bills while keeping your premises the perfect temperature. But what happens once the system is fitted? Evaporative cooling units come with surprisingly low maintenance, relatively simple tech despite their high efficiency, and brilliant effectiveness. Once your new evaporative cooling system has been fitted, we recommend you arrange an annual maintenance check. Here’s what it involves. Twenty years’ experience fitting and maintaining evaporative cooling systems We’ve been installing and maintaining evaporative systems across the UK for almost two decades, with a long list of maintenance contracts nationwide. In our world after-sales service is just as important as the sales part of the equation, which is why we’ve invested in a fully qualified maintenance department staffed by experts, with all the specialist equipment needed to provide the best support and ongoing service for evaporative cooler maintenance. With our help your coolers will achieve the best results with minimum interruption. We’re confident in saying we provide an unbeatable standard of service, experience and knowledge. We recommend indoor coolers are serviced once a year, and outdoor coolers twice a year, simply because they’re out in the open air. Here’s what we’ll do for you. How does our evaporative coolers servicing work? We provide full maintenance and servicing agreements for every brand of evaporative cooler, including: Accessing the units wherever they might be fitted, if necessary using our Cela 22m (72 foot) boom lift, ladders and crawling boards. All our engineers have the right IPAF documentation to operate the lifts and are fully certified for working at height Isolating the water when units are outside. In autumn our engineers will isolate the water supply to your roof and/or coolers, and drain the system safely down to stop the pipes, vales and other parts from freezing. In spring we’ll reconnect the water supply ready for the cooling season Cleaning the units thoroughly , if necessary using a pressure washer and vacuum cleaner. We clean the fly screens or, if they need replacing, change them for clean screens. Being keen on being green we don’t use chemical cleaners, just hard work! Configuring and checking the parameters and dip switches to make certain the coolers are configured accurately for optimum efficiency, bearing in mind local conditions, water quality and more. Then installing any software updates Checking every moving part including pumps, valves, solenoids and hoses, checking all the joints and replacing them if needs be Providing spare parts , most of which we have in stock, at the manufacturers recommended retail price Making recommendations around improvements to the system, potential future repairs and replacements including water pad replacement Fixing a Bond Strap to the coolers, depending on their type, age and where they’re located, so they stay put in extreme weather and people can’t interfere with them Carrying out a Legionella Risk Assessment. As long as servicing doesn’t uncover any issues our engineers will give you a Legionella Risk Assessment valid for year, fulfilling your obligations to the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) Legionnaires Disease: The control of legionella bacteria in water systems L8 Giving you advice all year round. We’re there for you if a cooler breaks down or you see alarm warning lights. You’ll have the right mobile contact numbers to get instant advice and we might be able to solve the problem over the phone at no extra charge. If we need to visit you’ll be prioritised as urgent and the extra cost will be laid out in the annual agreement between us Guaranteeing 24 Hour Breakdown Response when your coolers are in critical areas like server rooms, an extra service to your contracted visits Emergency fault finding and repair just in case you experience problems with your evaporative cooler, whatever the make. Once we know the type of problem, the number of coolers, whether there’s any extra cleaning, testing and documentation needed, plus the access requirements and location, we’ll zoom a quote over to you. And we’ll be there as fast as we can once you’ve given us the OK Providing full written Technical Reports before leaving your premises, detailing the servicing, maintenance and replacement parts, observations and recommendations. Because we use Infraspeak servicing software, you have a full maintenance lifecycle audit trail Extraordinary service every step of the way Bearing in mind the huge energy cost savings you get compared to traditional aircon, the simplicity of the systems, their legendary effectiveness and the top class support you get for years after your purchase, we think evaporative cooling systems are a no-brainer. If your place is getting too hot in summer and you want to get it sorted before climate change really kicks in, get in touch. You can trust us to do right by you now and into the future.
by Collen Baker 27 Mar, 2024
Evaporative cooling is a natural, environmentally friendly alternative to traditional air conditioning that consumes less than 10% of the energy used by ordinary aircon systems. So what’s so special about the cooling systems we recommend for warehousing and offices? A tough challenge It can be a tough challenge to keep large indoor spaces at the right temperature for maximum comfort and productivity, especially where you’ve added in a new mezzanine floor or made an effort to insulate the place to keep things warm enough in cold weather. The second things get hot outdoors the space heats right up and things start to get uncomfortable. Get astonishing cost savings Evaporative coolers help rebalance things and the cost savings are often genuinely astonishing. They use just 10% of the energy used for traditional air conditioning and your capital costs are also a great deal lower, typically just 60% of the capital costs of air conditioning. When the systems are fitted in a big space you’ll see instant financial and energy savings: much lower energy consumption, vastly improved productivity and wellness, dramatically reduced carbon emissions and cooling that provides 100% fresh, clean air A wide choice of systems and controls Depending on your context there’s a choice of control systems as well as a choice of different evaporative cooler models. Small coolers with fans tend to include a five speed wall controller as standard, and bigger coolers usually have a two speed controller. More complex system requiring EC fans, dampers or recirculation control require a CREC or Computer Room Evaporative Cooling system, something that was originally designed for use in data centres but thanks to the super-low component cost is perfect for other industrial installations needing extra functionality. CREC control systems are developed to suit bespoke climate and connectivity requirements, optimising the energy savings and performance of the best evaporative coolers, using different modes depending on the ambient conditions. For ventilation the energy efficient EC fans move fresh air through the area being cooled, taking the heat away. For attemperation the system automatically mixes hot exhaust air with cold external air to provide fresh air at a constant temperature. And for evaporative cooling air is moved over a wet cooling pad, bringing the heat down as the water evaporates. Dynamic control means you can specify both the temperature and humidity to stay 100% compliant with your sector’s cooling regulations. As a whole the systems easily achieve comfortable air temperatures of below 25°C all year in the UK. Humidity control CREC can automatically adjust supply temperatures to control the humidity or transfer the cooling to back up systems when humidity soars. Bespoke systems and monitoring is never a problem, and all the systems can easily communicate with major building management and fire spreading prevention systems. Super-powerful cooling tech used by big brands The units we recommend are more powerful than the rest, giving you more cooling per unit, and they’re also more reliable than systems made by competitors. This matters a great deal in regulated environments, for example pharma. These brilliant cooling units only use 100% fresh air, require minimum maintenance, are totally safe and very simple to use. No wonder big brands and household names like Rolls Royce, Transport For London, TK Maxx, BT, Subway and Go Outdoors use the technology. Replace an old cooling system with something revolutionary If you have an old evaporative cooling system, replacing it with the latest tech will provide a more effective solution. In one case study we saw every replacement unit providing an impressive 35% more fresh cool air than the original units, giving the client a far more efficient and effective cooling solution for their warm shop floor. We can even remove the old units for you, dispose of them safely, and make good any holes or damage left behind so you’re weatherproof. If you’d like to discover a much more efficient and economic way to keep cool than aircon could ever hope to deliver, we’d love to discuss the potential with you.
19 Mar, 2024
Factory cooling is a big deal. A large interior space isn’t necessarily prone to overheating per se, but when you add moving parts and production lines to the equation, things can soon get too hot for human comfort. When the temperature outdoors keeps on rising, components and products can suffer and production lines can start to struggle. In a world where the climate is heating up fast, how do you achieve effective low-energy cooling for your factory floor, whether it’s a new build or an existing building? A complex cooling challenge for a large factory Imagine you’re an international supplier of precision machine components with a great reputation to maintain and a target market where high quality and fast reaction times absolutely essential. You’ve built the business on meeting customer needs perfectly every time. Maybe you run a print works where the industrial printing equipment itself generates vast amounts of heat, leaving people unable to work comfortably in our hotter springs and summers. Or a bakery where intense heat can affect the ingredients as well as disturb the natural processes needed to create beautiful baked goods. In the past the heat generated from the production process and the people operating machines and lines was easier to handle. But with outdoor temperatures soaring to heatwave levels more often than ever, you need to manage the temperature indoors so conditions are comfortable for workers and visitors whatever the weather. When ordinary aircon isn’t man enough for the job Ordinary air conditioning-style cooling can prove challenging and expensive when there’s an enormous open space to keep cool. Add a large number of employees working on the shop floor, plus heat-generating machinery, and the solution clearly needs to be man enough for the job. You want to keep intensive machine-generated manufacturing areas cool as well as keeping people fresh, lively and alert. When you also want to meet government legislation around reducing emissions and bring better corporate social responsibility to the party, a workable solution can seem like a big ask. Luckily evaporative cooling ticks all the boxes. Innovative, low cost evaporative cooling The best way to cope with the extra heat you’ve started seeing in spring and summer turns out to be eco-cooling, a system that’s surprisingly simple as well as extremely cost effective to run. It’s affordable in the first place, it cools factory floors efficiently, can be zoned to suit different areas, costs very little to run, and can easily scale up as the company grows. Imagine you’ve had the perfect evaporative cooling system designed specifically for your factory. It has been specified and fitted by an experienced installer who first carried out a detailed survey of the facility to pin down the ideal number of units, ensure the correct airflow and deliver optimum performance. The new system gives you complete control of the air temperature and humidity levels in assembly and manufacturing machine areas. You enjoy reliable, refreshing cooling via evaporation and fresh air during summer, when clean cool air is ducted into the premises through acoustic lined flexible ducting and four-way diffuser grilles. In winter the system re-circulates fresh air. The conditions indoors are comfortable for employees even on the hottest days and your production lines run smoothly whatever the weather. Evaporative cooling systems deliver massive energy savings The energy savings you get from your fully controllable evaporative cooling solution are significant, clocking up just 10% of the energy used by traditional air conditioning. The eco-benefits are just as significant bearing in mind a single EcoCooler, rated at 35kW, can deliver CO2 savings of up to 10,000kg a year. A perfectly natural way to produce refreshing cool air, your evaporative cooling systems future-proofs the premises and the business while your competitors are having a hard time coping with ever-more frequent heatwaves. It costs nothing to talk Would you like to discuss the potential of low cost, low energy, high efficiency cooling with an expert? We’re always glad to talk things through and while a discussion won’t cost you a penny, an evaporative cooling system could save you a fortune.
06 Mar, 2024
Crypto and AI computing capacity are the two main reasons for large data centre cooling projects at the moment. It takes vast amounts of power to mine crypto currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Cardano. It also takes huge amounts of power to train and run AI systems. And in both cases using all that power generates enormous amounts of heat, which isn’t a good thing in a data context. So let’s take a tour of crypto and AI and see how the latest cooling tech is helping enable the future. Why is heat bad in a digital data context? Enterprise servers and storage equipment operate best at temperatures between 15°C and 32°C. The heat generated by the equipment means cooling is essential for data centres, usually achieved by cooling the air. When it’s hot outdoors the task is even more of a challenge. Hot weather also means increased electricity costs for cooling systems and, if there’s a heatwave, potential system outages. New, purpose built, energy efficient data centres are designed to handle a wide range of temperatures from minus 40°C to 40C. Older data centres struggle during heatwaves. But if it regularly gets hotter than 40c, which is becoming ever-more likely, even the most innovative purpose built data centres could see a drop in efficiency along with sharp rises in the cost of keeping things cool. In 2019 Computer World reported that the energy consumption of data centres is set to account for 3.2 percent of the total worldwide carbon emissions by 2025. Five years on, things are just as serious. By 2040 merely storing digital data could drive 14% of the world’s emissions, about the same as the entire USA. The combination of ongoing climate change and increasing energy use is going to affect data centre finances and efficiencies more than ever in future. How much energy does it take to mine crypto currencies and AIs? A 1000 Watt ASIC Bitcoin Miner generates around 400-500 Watts of heat. This is a significant amount of heat, making it vital to have adequate cooling in place to prevent the miner from overheating. Machine learning also uses huge amounts of energy, measured in megawatts per hour, and there’s quite a difference between training a model for the first time and releasing it for use. Training an AI is extremely energy intensive, much more so than other data centre activities. If you’re training a large language model like GPT-3, you might use as much as 1300 megawatt hours of electricity. As you can imagine the heat generated is significant and the cost of cooling things down can quickly become downright alarming. Energy-efficient, cost-saving cooling solutions for crypto mining and data centres Luckily there are some brilliant modular plug and play cooling units around, designed for rapid deployment to businesses. They deliver unparalleled cooling efficiency for crypto mining and AI training and deployment settings. Better still this is unusually simple tech that relies on natural phenomena. It harnesses natural direct fresh air cooling, known and loved as the very best way to cool data centres using air, and the cost is surprisingly low. Using efficient EC fans and proven natural evaporative cooling that’s been used for thousands of years by people across the world, these units don’t contain any refrigerants. An impressive 99% of the power used by the unit drives the fans, providing a Power Usage Effectiveness level of 1.05. Not only are they extremely efficient and effective. The units are super-simple to install and maintain, giving data centres and miners much lower capital and operational costs than old-school refrigerant and liquid cooling systems. When it’s cold outdoor the ambient air mixed with hot re-circulated air cools the data centre beautifully. When it’s a hot day or the humidity is low evaporative cooling reduces the ambient temperature therefore increasing the humidity. Bespoke fresh air cooling systems are designed with efficiency and cost effectiveness in mind no matter how large the airflow is. Bespoke systems can be designed to optimise the layout and racking for impressively low capital costs and a very low operational cost per kW. A Fresh Air Cloud Cooling Solution for your data centre or mining farm Evaporative cooling can slash your cooling costs by as much as 90% while complying with ASHRAE 9.9 and producing an impressive PUE of under 1.1. With crypto-currencies on the upward trajectory again and innovative AI eating up more power than ever before, it’s a solution without compare. It’s also a solution that cools a lot more than data centres, hosting centres and crypto-miners. Shops and factories, public transport, warehouses and sports centres, bakeries and offices all benefit from this remarkable cooling technology that’s revolutionising the way businesses work while cutting energy bills to the bone. To know more and enjoy an exciting discussion, get in touch.
a person is holding a tablet with a graph on it
02 Mar, 2024
Last year’s heatwaves in the northern hemisphere broke all previous records. Worldwide, July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded and the hottest for 120,000 years. If you went shopping during spring 2023’s record-breaking heatwaves you might have felt pretty uncomfortable in some shops and shopping centres as regular aircon systems struggled to cope. Food settings are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat, which is why so many food businesses are focusing on heat mitigation for 2024. So what can players in the food industry do to slash the heat, cool things down, keep food safe to eat and make things comfortable for customers and employees? Let’s take a look at what one particular flagship branch of Subway did to chill things out. Subway Beehive Cambridge leads the way Subway is dedicated to providing a wide range of great tasting, healthy food choices while minimising the brand’s environmental footprint and acting as a positive influence on their customers, employees, and wider community. And that means maintaining a comfortable temperature for people and a safe temperature for food. The Subway franchise at the Beehive Shopping Centre in Cambridge was designated by Subway management as a test site to create the most eco-friendly retail premises it was possible to achieve. Their brief was to create a carbon neutral outlet by bringing in the latest technologies, and as it turned out evaporative cooling tech met the need for both heating and cooling perfectly. A unique temperature challenge Subway franchises bakes their own bread on the premises three or four times each day, which is why their food is so incredibly fresh. Bread ovens are naturally very hot, the source of constant heat indoors. In hot weather it can quickly become uncomfortable indoors, and in record-breaking temperatures it can be unbearable. Having carefully analysed the existing environment to establish the amount of heat generated, the airflow and the comfort of staff and customers, an innovative yet simple system for air handling was recommended. How the new system works First the franchisee installed monitors to check how much power was being used, both at the eco-site and a similar site so effective comparisons could be made. The EcoCooling system captures surplus heat generated by the ovens and also the walk-in fridges. This is used to heat the entire store very efficiently, redirecting hot air into the shop in winter so it feels lovely when you walk through the door and nice to work in. In hot weather evaporative cooling cools the premises, sending the hot air from the bread ovens outside the building via an extractor. The indoor temperature is maintained using thermostats and a clever bespoke Computer Room Evaporative Cooling control system , which creates a fresh environment by continually circulating air while preventing condensation and getting rid of the uncomfortable hot spots previously caused by the ovens. These days Subway’s landmark Beehive site is using 75% less energy than the equivalent site it’s being compared to, a flagship example of green technology at its best for the entire Subway chain. A 75% drop in energy use is not to be sneezed at, saving businesses an absolute fortune. The result is cleaner, greener, fresher and more hygienic, putting food safety and human comfort first while spending less on a vital fixed cost that’s not going to go away. In a world where some experts reckon energy prices are unlikely to drop in the foreseeable future, it’s a game changer. Slash your own business energy costs with evaporative cooling If you’d like to explore the potential for your business, whether it’s a bakery of retail outlet, data centre or fitness centre, office or factory, we’ll be pleased to provide expert help, guidance, and information on staying cool when it’s hot - and warm when it’s cold.
29 Feb, 2024
Because our client couldn’t see any electricity usage being clocked up on the meter, they were worried their new cooling system wasn’t working. It was – but because the tech uses so little energy, the usage wasn’t showing up as it did with their old aircon system. In fact it would only have been obvious if they’d been able to add an extra decimal point to the meter. That’s how little energy their evaporative cooling system was using. And that’s what we mean when we say our evaporative cooling technology causes electricity bills to ‘drop off a cliff’ compared to ordinary aircon. Impressive? We think so. When an evaporative cooling system can save as much as 90% on cooling costs compared to the equivalent refrigeration-based tech, you can see you’re onto an instant winner. Even when it’s steaming hot outdoors you can harness a standard unit to cool an area measuring 250 square metres using less than 13p’s worth of electricity and just a penny’s worth of water. Ultra-low emission technology with no chemical refrigerants – just water As well as being a great energy-saver, this is clean tech. There are no harsh chemical refrigerants, just water, making it a remarkably simple, safe and efficient way to cool a food production facility. This dramatically lower energy consumption comes with improved productivity and wellness, simply because everyone is working at a comfortable, healthy temperature. Evaporative cooling is a particularly pleasant way to stay cool because it also scrubs the air to leave it 100% fresh and clean. And because your company’s carbon emissions will fall, it helps you to meet national government emissions targets. Your food production heat burden will drop dramatically Let’s take a look at the detail around food production. Most facilities contain complex, large machines that give off a lot of heat, for example industrial fryers and ovens, packaging tunnels and other industrial equipment. The resulting heat can be just as bad for the food being produced as the people producing it. In spring and summer the combined effect of the machinery plus a relatively ordinary hot spell can easily make the temperature indoors shoot up to 35 C and above. Evaporative cooling can guarantee a cool supply air below 25°C all year round in the UK, making it ideal for food settings. When you’re tasked with reducing your electricity usage in a landscape where energy costs are rising and you also need to maintain comfortable and compliant conditions for products and staff, evaporative cooling ticks every box. Adding critical humidity for bakeries and more Evaporative cooling adds humidity to the air too, something you’ll actively want to happen when you’re storing foods like baked goods, wine, chocolate and cereals. It helps explain why so many household name brands use it in their facilities. It’s perfect, for example, for a bakery environment, where the humidity keeps baked goods fresh and doesn’t dry it out. Traditional air conditioning, n contrast, is very dry and can quickly shorten the lifecycle of fresh produce. Flexible tech that’s REALLY simple to retrofit As an element in a properly-balanced ventilation system, evaporative cooling directly evaporates water into the supply air, something that works particularly well in the UK’s temperate climate. Food storage and processing facilities appreciate the blanket and spot cooling options on offer, a flexible approach to cooling processes and people. Better still, it’s very easy to retrofit in most buildings. When you run a food processing facility and want to save a fortune on cooling, this is the way to do it. If you’d like to know more or get a quote, we’d be delighted to hear from you.
28 Feb, 2024
Infrared panels use radiant heat to warm a space evenly. Instead of directly heating the air, which is a massive waste of energy, the panels actually heat the walls, ceiling and floor, then re-emit the heat back into the room. So let’s take a deep dive into the fine details of this increasingly popular way to heat homes and businesses. Why choose infrared instead of a heat pump? Heat pumps can work brilliantly but in many cases they can’t provide the kind of heat required, are far too expensive, can be a challenge to install and set up, and come with levels of ongoing maintenance that you just don’t get with Infrared heating. How do Infrared heating panels work? Infrared heaters heat objects directly, releasing the heat through large panels fixed to walls or ceilings and channelling it where it’s needed. This is such an efficient way to generate warmth that clever people have invented actual infrared wallpaper, which performs just like ordinary wallpaper while heating the home, and infrared under floor heating products. About heat transfer, near infrared and Far infrared heat There are three ways to transfer heat: conduction, convection, and radiant. Infrared panels use radiant heating to heat objects, not the air, while the other two heat air. Near infrared generates a super-intense type of heat, so hot it’s dangerous. Far infrared is a lot less intense therefore a great deal safer, and that’s the type used in infrared heating technologies. The panels emit infrared rays, which travel through the air until they hit something, say a wall or a ceiling. The object absorbs the rays, making the molecules in the rays vibrate, and this vibration generates heat as well as re-radiating heat back into the room. Because humans are ‘objects’ just like any other, the rays make us feel warm in exactly the same way. Because far-infrared radiation is the same as the heat our bodies emit, we absorb it very easily, so safe it’s used in hospital baby units to keep pre-term and poorly babies cosy. If you’re allergic to dust or have asthma it’s an excellent move because the panels don’t move the air around like radiators do, so don’t move dust around either. The units are powered by electricity which means there are no pipes, just a plug. All the fitter does is hard-wire the panels into an ordinary electric circuit with an on and off switch. The panels take 3-5 minutes to reach full intensity, which is really fast. Once heated up they take very little energy to stay warm. As you can see it’s a very efficient way to cut out the middle man – ie. the air – and keep energy usage low. Infrared heating panel energy savings Gas boilers don’t stand a chance compared to infrared heating, which commonly comes with a 112-115% efficiency rating. And because radiant heat doesn’t get lost when there’s a draught, open door or window, you make even more savings on energy. The only thing they can’t do is heat water. On the other hand it’s entirely possible to link up infrared panels with an everyday electric immersion heater or cylinder. The panel cost depends on the type of panel, the size, design and wattage. The fact that they’re so easy to install means the installation costs are surprisingly low compared to traditional gas and oil heating systems, with all that pipework. Infrared heating can cut heating costs by anything from 30-50% depending on the space being heated. A room with high ceilings and poor insulation will still cost more to heat than one with lower ceilings and good insulation. Each panel can be switched on or off independently, giving you more ways to save money. With no moving parts to worry about, they’re very low maintenance. There’s no boiler to let you down, no noise pollution, and they hang onto heat a lot better than a traditional boiler of any kind. No air filters, no engine, no lubrication. They come with very low emissions because there are no fossil fuels involved. Run yours on renewable energy and you get 100% clean heat. Just give the reflectors a regular wipe clean and you’re ready for rock ‘n’ roll. With gas boilers on the way out, infrared heating is set to become an increasingly popular way to stay cosy for homes and businesses. If you’d like to know how much it’ll cost we’ll be delighted to quote for the perfect set-up for your context, so you can stay warm for less in future.
by Collen Baker 27 Feb, 2024
In this article we take a look at the many reasons why evaporative cooling is proving such a winner for commercial premises. First, let’s take a look at where it all started – out there in the natural world. Evaporative cooling goes back 1000s of years Air conditioning only dates back to the early 1900s. But evaporative cooling has been happening perfectly naturally for millennia near rivers, waterfalls, streams, lakes, seas and oceans. It pre-dates humanity and makes the dinosaurs look like newcomers. As long as there’s been water and a breeze, there’s been evaporative cooling on our planet. The phenomenon didn’t go unnoticed by our ancestors. The ancient Egyptians used a super-simple method to keep the wealthy cool: servants would stand next to large ceramic jars of water, fanning them to spread cooled air over their masters. They did much the same in other hot countries like India, the Middle East, and Mexico, sometimes building clever cooling systems into their homes and palaces. These days we’ve harnessed the natural properties of evaporative cooling for commercial use, adding modern kit like pumps, valves, filters and controls to replace slaves with fans. But despite that, thanks to the sheer simplicity of the natural phenomenon, fundamental evaporative cooler design really hasn’t changed much. The tech simply harnesses something that happens anyway to make it work a lot more efficiently. Now being used in a wide variety of different applications from fabric weaving to print works, gyms and data centres to bakeries and even crypto mining, highly effective, large-scale evaporative cooling systems are the name of the game. They’ve been fitted in millions of commercial premises across the world, and they’re making a big difference to business’s energy bills as well as to employee welfare and product quality. No wonder the past few years have seen a boom in evaporative cooling. Here’s why it’s such a great idea. 19 reasons why to choose commercial evaporative cooling The technology is perfectly natural, a matter of physics It’s proven to work It uses a great deal less energy, a lot cheaper than aircon to run While traditional refrigerant aircon systems are not particularly helpful when you’re trying to reduce emissions and hit net zero, evaporative cooling’s very low energy use makes a real difference This is fresh air technology. Because it doesn’t use re-circulated air, the oxygen levels stay nice and high There’s no need for environmentally damaging refrigerant gasses It’s more effective than air conditioning for places like warehouses and factories because you can open the doors and windows and it still works brilliantly without affecting performance or pushing up the running costs It’s an open space cooling system that’s ideal for reducing and keeping the temperature low in large spaces, something traditional air conditioning struggles with The units can keep big areas below 25C even on the hottest days It’s usually pretty simple to fit and retrofit This is a trusted solution already used by literally millions of businesses worldwide It comes with free cooling. Unlike aircon there’s no need to turn it on the moment things start to heat up. Because it can work in ventilation mode, only running the fan, the time the units actually need to be in cooling mode is dramatically reduced Aircon systems need checking at least every 3 months by a certified person and you must keep detailed records to meet F-gas regulations. It can cost quite a bit. Evaporative cooling just needs simple seasonal maintenance and doesn’t come with the same strict regulations – it might only need a quick clean every six months It’s so easy to maintain the systems that you can train your own employees to do it and enjoy no-cost servicing The operational cost alone provides significant savings of a minimum of 90% on ordinary aircon The overall cost of ownership is excellent with a ROI of 2-5 years, less if it’s a data centre or IT centre, when you can achieve full ROI in a year The capital spend is as much as 50% less than aircon It helps businesses avoid creating virus super-spreading events through good ventilation – as covid showed the world, poor commercial ventilation and traditional aircon systems aren’t helpful in a pandemic Because of the health and climate benefits, it’s a right-thinking choice for modern businesses Low cost to buy. Easy to fit. Minimal maintenance. A beautifully cool environment where people, processes, equipment, products and your bottom line benefit. If all that sounds good to you, ask us about fitting an evaporative cooling system at your place.
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