The Cooltech Blog

2024's hot weather death toll - Heat kills over 1300 in England

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 14:54:31 GMT

As the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) reports, over 1300 people died from excess heat in England through 2024 . The number is higher than anyone expected because 2024 was cooler than previous years, with nothing more serious than yellow alerts in England.

The think tank Green Alliance responded to the news, saying England's towns and cities remain 'unprepared for rising extreme temperatures'. They're calling on the government to do more to address the health issues caused by heatwaves. So what's going on, and what can businesses do to keep things cool?

Summer 2024 – Not so hot but unusually deadly

The UKHSA says there were 1311 heat-related deaths in England through four distinct episodes of heat in summer last year, 282 more than they'd usually expect based on the temperatures seen and the nation's usual 'temperature-mortality relationship'.

The UKHSA system identifies, categorises and shares information when extreme temperatures are likely to affect our health. A yellow alert is sent out when the temperature is OK for most of us but could impact the vulnerable. Amber alerts cover heatwaves in at least one region that could affect all of us, and also kick in when the mean Central England Temperature hits at least 20C. A rare red alert reveals a significant risk to life for everyone, human and otherwise.

Four chunks of hot weather in England totalling 14 days met the yellow warning definition through 2024, the fourth lowest since records began in 2016. But while it was relatively cool compared to the hottest years seen recently, three of the four heatwaves led to an unusually high number of deaths. The numbers include 467 heat-associated deaths in the second heatwave, between 18th and 20th July. As usual the elderly were at most risk, with 521 deaths per million 85 year-olds and older, followed by 111 per million people aged 75 to 84.

The Green Alliance says it's vital to focus on protecting people who are the worst affected by these extreme heat episodes, the old and vulnerable. And they say action has to be taken right now to “tackle the rising health risks of heatwaves.” Friends of the Earth agrees, saying the numbers provide “tragic evidence of the lethal impacts of climate breakdown”. They say the government’s climate plan, currently on the way, will act as a “litmus test” to show exactly how serious it is about preventing heat related deaths as well as fatalities caused by other extreme weather events like floods and high winds.

As for the future, the Green Alliance's Dr Agostinho Sousa says that these heatwaves are likely to become more intense, last longer and happen more often as the climate warms, which means a co-ordinated health response is essential.

What about heatwaves in Europe?

Obviously we're not the only ones. Climate change doesn't respect borders, politics or cultures. While we might be an island and Brexit might separate us, the weather doesn't care about that. We'll feel the effects as well. So what about other countries across Europe?

As revealed by the UN-led European State of the Climate 2024 report , 2024 was the warmest on record for the entire continent. Europe also qualifies as the fastest-warming continent on earth, with more extreme weather and record temperatures making 2024 the warmest on record.

The scientists saw a 'striking' east-west contrast in Europe's climate, extremely dry and warm in the east but warm and wet in the west. And while they discovered Europe also has an unusually high risk of floods in future, it is also due to get hotter. A 1.5 degree rise in average global temperature compared to pre-industrial revolution levels could see the extra heat killing 30,000 more Europeans a year.

How to keep cool? You need evaporative cooling!

You need to keep people cool at work. Some machinery, products, drugs, animals, foods, production lines and ingredients also demand a cool setting. But you don't want to be faced with the high cost of buying and fitting traditional air conditioning – itself a climate killer - or the vast electricity bills it generates.

Luckily evaporative cooling comes to the rescue, an ancient and fiendishly efficient way to cool the air naturally using minimal power. Ask us about evaporative cooling for your premises. You'll be surprised how affordable and comparatively simple it is to fit, retro-fit, run and maintain, and you'll love the comfortable, cool feeling.

Comparing natural cooling, ducted cooling, EC fans and evaporative cooling

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 11:21:21 GMT

Industrial cooling systems are vital for the comfort of employees, for productivity, and often for the products being produced inside the building, for example in the food and pharma sectors. So when your goal is to keep things under 25C whatever happens outdoors, how does expensive traditional refrigeration-based air conditioning stack up next to 'natural ventilation', mechanical ventilation via energy-efficient EC fans, and evaporative cooling?

About natural ventilation

Natural ventilation, of course, is the cheapest of all because it simply involves is opening windows, vents and doors to create a draught. Because hot air rises, the airflow lets hot air escape, replaced by cooler air from outdoors. This is great for factories and enormous buildings like hangars, with no running costs and no equipment required. But when it's hotter outside than it is indoors, like it often is these days thanks to increasingly frequent and extreme heatwaves, and there isn't even a breeze, things quickly fall apart.

About ducted cooling

'Ducted cooling' simply describes the way a cooling system is installed: a central unit and a network of air ducts to send the cooled air around the building. You'll usually find the main unit either hidden in the roof or outside the building, and you'll be able to see the vents inside.

Ducted cooling pulls warm air through a unit with a fan then sends it through a cold evaporator coil made of refrigerant pipes where it cools right down. The cooled air is recirculated via ducts, bringing down the temperature and humidity when it mixes with the existing warm air. This means doors and windows must be closed all the time otherwise the cool air escapes, warm air pours in, and the system has to work ever-harder – and more expensively - to cool things back down again.

Refrigerants like the hydrochlorofluorocarbons or HCFCs used in ducted cooling damage the climate, contributing to climate change. The world started phasing them out in 2018, and by 2030 all bulk imports of the chemicals will be banned. Modern cooling systems still use Hydrofluoroolefins – AKA HFOs – and there are also some clever natural refrigerants being used in modern duct cooling systems. Having said that, it's important to know evaporative cooling still beats duct cooling on the CO2 front.

About Mechanical Ventilation with EC fans

Businesses use EC fan-driven mechanical ventilation instead of AC for a low cost, reliable cooling solution. Mechanical Ventilation with EC fans delivers efficient controlled cooling. EC stands for Electronically Commutated, and these fans are a cost-effective way to improve airflow at low cost, being so efficient. An EC fan uses as much as 70% less electricity as a traditional old-school Air Conditioning fan, controllable thanks to variable speeds. You get a consistent flow of air whatever the temperature is outdoors and it also helps get rid of heat, beats humidity, and strips contaminants from the air.

About evaporative cooling

Evaporative cooling pulls warm air through a vent, then a simple fan driven by a motor sends it through wet filter pads kept damp by a water pump. When the water naturally evaporates it carries the heat it uses to evaporate away, leaving you with a comfortable, cool vapour. This is sent wherever it is needed via an internal fan and pump, then out through the ducts or out via the cooler unit itself. You're free to leave the doors and windows open because evaporative cooling doesn't recirculate old air, it continually uses fresh air.

When you combine an evaporative cooling solution with a balanced ventilation system you harness water to cool and introduce fresh indoor air into big area. It's so much more environmentally friendly than ducted cooling, which relies on powerful refrigerant chemicals. It doesn't just cool the air, it exhausts the dirty air and therefore improves your air quality at the same time.

One of the biggest advantages of evaporative cooling is the super-low cost. It is dramatically more cost-effective. Because it has fewer moving parts it takes less electricity to run. Fewer parts also means less maintenance and simpler maintenance. There's only a tiny risk of breakdowns. Most of the time all you need to do is change the water pads and clean the system, both affordable and easy. The experts say evaporative cooling running costs are just 10% of the cost to run refrigerant air conditioning. The capital spend is also impressive at 50% less, half the cost.

Evaporative cooling is even brilliant when you only need to 'spot cool' one or more specific areas, not the whole place. Perfect for consistent cooling and temperature control, it integrates easily into a mechanical ventilation system. It's 90% cheaper than air con, keeps factories below 25°C all year round, provides 100% filtered fresh air, stops CO₂ building up, and improves air quality in an eco-friendly way using only water and fans. Better still you can install it gradually in phases to slash the already-low initial capital expenditure.

Because every factory is different, you'll need a cooling expert to recommend the best combination of systems and methods based on your exact needs. We carry out all the maintenance for EcoCooling , the UK's biggest manufacturer and distributor of fresh air direct evaporative coolers with more than 3,500 EcoCooler installations worldwide. Why not give us a call, see what evaporative cooling can do for you?

Why unpredictable weather makes cooling more important than ever

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:40:08 GMT

UK weather records were broken time and time again through 2024, leading experts to believe that we're already outside the usual 'envelope of historical weather observations'. Because climate change brings less predictable conditions, we can't expect winter to stay reliably cold or summer to remain mostly warm. Anything goes at this stage, which means wise businesses operating in cool conditions need to factor the uncertainties in. It looks like efficient, cost-effective cooling is going to be more important than ever, even in winter. Here's a run-down of the UK's weather patterns for 2024, plus some concerning predictions for 2025.

What the weather did in 2024

2024 was probably the UK's fourth warmest year on record, the warmest since 1884 with a mean temperature of 9.78C, 0.64C more than the 1991-2020. All of the top 10 warmest years have happened since the Millennium, five of them since 2015, and as a whole every year in the past decade has proved warmer than 1991-2020.

2024's minimum temperatures fell well above average, with particularly mild nights and far fewer frosts than usual. Eight months featured temperatures that soared above the 1991-2020 average, giving us the warmest May, second warmest February and fifth warmest December on record. In late January 2024 Sutherland in Scotland recorded temperatures of 19.9°C, a UK record for January. And since 2011 six months in every year have hit all-time UK maximum temperature records. In August 2024 we hit 34.8C in Cambridge and London saw temperatures edge over 32C on several occasions. Parts of Kent, Lincolnshire, Essex and Surrey reached a dangerous 33C.

The UK’s top 10 warmest Februarys on record took place in 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024, a clear trend for warmer winters to come.

May 2024 broke records with a sustained average mean temperature of 13.1°C across the UK, breaking 2008's record 12.1°C and causing shock and surprise amongst climate experts. It was partly down to the persistent marine heatwave surrounding the UK from spring to June 2024, which had a dramatic impact on land temperatures, particularly at night.

In 2024 temperatures exceeded 1.5% above pre-industrial levels for the first time . In 2023 we hit 1.45°C above pre-industrial levels, the previous warmest year on record. This makes 2024 the twelfth year in a row with temperatures at least 1.0°C above pre-industrial temperatures.

What does all this mean for 2025?

The Met Office says 2025 may well be one of the three warmest years as far as global average temperatures go, following the 2023-2024 trend. This is mostly down to greenhouse gases, but temperatures in 2023-24 were also affected by the natural variations brought by El Niño, which warms the world's atmosphere. Even taking that into account, things are not looking good.

The average global temperature for 2025 is predicted to fall somewhere between 1.29°C and 1.53°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average. And that's important for temperature-sensitive sectors for which temperature control and monitoring are essential.

An article on the Science Direct website talks about a study into how extreme temperatures affect business profitability. They examined the effect of temperature extremes on the profitability of companies in 59 different sectors and found that the extremes we're seeing more frequently affect the earnings of more than 40% of them, including leisure products , textiles, clothing, luxury goods, hotels and restaurants, drinks, retail, aerospace and defence, airlines, construction and engineering, machinery, utilities and healthcare and pharma to name a few.

Staying cool whatever the weather throws at your business

Our evaporative cooling tech handles temperature extremes really well, much cheaper and more effective than ordinary air conditioning.

It improves costs, protects the environment, and can be installed or retro-fitted to schools and universities, warehouses, offices, gyms and all manner of industrial units.

In a world where being prepared is more important than ever going forwards, evaporative cooling helps to future-proof an enormous range of businesses across multiple sectors. If that sounds good, let's talk.

Hyper-efficient cooling, heating & lighting - Tips for going Net Zero in 2025

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 11:30:00 GMT

Take a tour of LinkedIn and you'll notice businesses in every country, of every size, shape and flavour, making efforts to go CO2 neutral.

It's inspiring. Here are some tips to help your business do the decent thing in 2025, joining millions of others who are taking the fight to slow climate change into their own hands.

First, what does going net zero mean?

You can go CO2 neutral as an individual, business, or even a country, and almost every country on earth now has a plan. You're carbon neutral when you balance the CO2 you release perfectly with the amount you absorb or remove. Basically, when you have net zero carbon emissions overall, you're not adding any CO2 to the atmosphere. You've effectively cancelled it out.

The definition of net zero sometimes covers other gases, some of which are even more damaging to the climate than CO2. The biggest bad boys of all include methane, nitrous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbons. Together these other gases contribute about a quarter of global greenhouse emissions, with CO2 itself responsible for the other 76%.

Net zero is vital for reaching the Paris Agreement goal of a maximum of 2°C above pre-industrial levels, ideally 1.5°C, although many scientists say we've already missed the lower target. The UK has pledged to go totally CO2 neutral by the year 2050, slashing emissions 78% by 2035 using 1990 as the base level. But many climate scientists think we must act faster.

Two ways to achieve net zero

You can reduce your emissions, remove CO2 from the atmosphere, or do both by:

Actively taking in the gas
Emitting less in the first place
Harnessing existing natural ways to remove it, for example planting trees

The UK's overall plan involves increasing energy efficiency, using more renewable energy to generate electricity for heat and transport, and ultimately replacing fossil fuels with clean, abundant hydrogen whose only by-product is water.

Know where you stand

So what is your business emitting right now? You'll need to know where you stand before you can make a plan. Luckily there's plenty of online support available from experts to help you do exactly that.

Measuring your carbon footprint provides the baseline you need. You can pin down your current situation at Greenly, Positive Planet, and any number of other websites designed to help you measure, report, and reduce business carbon emissions. Use their CO2 footprint calculators and other software to input data and estimate your emissions based on:

The energy sources used
The methods and distances involved in transporting products
Your waste disposal methods

Then make a CO2 neutral plan

The Carbon Trust website is packed with useful information about carbon footprinting for business. You can download their free introductory guide, which can form the framework for your plan. The British Chambers of Commerce website offers lots of insightful tips, including ten relatively simple things you can do right now to kick off your company's CO2 neutral journey.

Brilliant low-cost products to slash commercial energy bills

We offer three reliable, simple, and highly effective ways to cut CO2 emissions:

LED lighting units : Designed for a wide variety of commercial uses, from roadworks to production lines. Being LED, they use a fraction of the electricity of regular lighting, leading to immediate savings.
Evaporative cooling units : These use only a fraction of the energy needed for traditional air conditioning. It's an ancient cooling method that keeps large spaces, like retail premises, wonderfully cool. It's also ideal for livestock cooling, food production, and more.
Smart heating products : Our efficient, ultra-controllable heating products save energy by design, making it easier to reduce consumption without compromising on comfort.

Talk to us about slashing your CO2 emissions

We're always happy to help. Give us a call about your CO2 neutrality ambitions, and we'll see what we can do to help you hit the mark.

Get funding to help your business go greener

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 12:53:16 GMT

The Met Office outlook for 2025 predicts we're facing one of the three warmest years ever recorded as far as the world's average temperature goes. 2023 broke records at 1.45°C above the all-important 1.5C over pre-industrial levels, and 2024 almost certainly went over the 1.5°C limit for the first time, a record nobody wanted to see beaten. And we all need to do our bit.

In 2024 Labour said it wants to make electricity 100% clean by 2030. The Labour government's Great British Energy initiative involves creating a UK-owned energy company to invest in next-generation renewables, reducing the country's CO2 emissions as well as cutting the cost of energy. Jürgen Maier, dedicated to clean tech and the former UK CEO of Siemens, will lead GBE with initial funding of £8.3 billion.

It's also good to know there's almost £5 billion of funding available to help businesses in the UK go greener. These green energy grants for business can be used in a variety of ways from installing LED lighting, solar PV systems and insulation to fitting more efficient heating systems. There's the RLS or Recovery Loan Scheme, the IETF or Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, Business Rates Support for Green Technology, the SEG or Smart Export Guarantee, plus Local Council Grants for Energy Efficiency and more. All of which might be able to help your company go greener, save money on energy, and even generate money from being greener. Let's take a look.

Funding to go greener – Government, councils and more

OFGEM suggests some handy business energy efficiency grants and schemes. The National Energy Foundation's YouGen website is full of excellent advice about efficient energy use and renewable energy sources. The Energy Savings Trust contains useful case studies to inspire you, also looking into energy efficiency resources. They hold events to talk about their recommendations and provide advice about energy efficient supply chains, so you may want to keep your eyes open for an event near you. And the smallbusiness.co.uk website provides great advice for everyone from SMEs and MSMEs to start-ups.

Various government business energy schemes, loans, grants and subsidisation can help smaller businesses cut their impact with energy efficiency, revised processes, investing in green equipment, managing waste better, and planning ongoing sustainable development. Your local council might prove an excellent source of advice and funding, as do various kinds of independent green energy-focused business innovation funds. With luck and a fair wind behind you, you may be able to use the Smart Export Guarantee scheme to earn money from generating your own renewable power.

You can check GOV.UK’s Energy Technology List for insight into the greenest plant equipment, delving deep into the latest and most efficient boilers, lighting, air conditioning and refrigeration tech. And there are plenty of different finance schemes provided by charities, specialist energy agencies and energy suppliers themselves.

The Clean Heat Grant, for example, provides funds for businesses to adopt green heating tech like heat pumps and biomass, and the Green Gas Support Scheme funds biomethane to boost green gas use in the national grid. Your own business energy supplier might have schemes you can tap into. And price comparison website Compare the Market compares business energy quotes from a range of suppliers to help businesses spend less on the energy they use. Cut your usage, cut the cost and you can make substantial savings as well as helping battle runaway climate change.

Combine all this potential support with contemporary low-energy, high efficiency heating, cooling and lighting technologies and there's significant potential for your business to hit its own emissions targets and contribute to the nation achieving Net Zero.

Green energy delivers a competitive advantage

Consumers are well aware of the issues around CO2 and climate change, which means going as green as you can – and talking about it – can provide an important competitive edge, in the same way that businesses with a strong and positive focus on Environment and Social Governance are beginning to attract savvy customers and consumers.

Creating a business-beneficial virtuous circle

Add all this together and you get a virtuous circle that can only benefit your business's future. So can we help you with the latest, greatest low energy heating, cooling and lighting? We're always happy to talk turkey with businesses wanting to reduce their CO2 footprint or aim for CO2 neutrality. Together, we can make it happen!

LED lighting, smart heating and evaporative cooling predictions for 2025

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 11:16:54 GMT

It's that time of year again, when we round up the last twelve months and begin to look forward to the new year ahead. So what stands out from 2024 in our world, and what's on the horizon?

LED lighting is becoming the norm

According to AMA Research , by 2028 the overall UK lighting market will be worth around £2.3 billion, an annual Compound Growth Rate of 2.8% compared to the estimated market size this year. Apparently lighting currently accounts for an estimated 12% of annual UK electricity consumption. Thanks to the widespread use of LED light and the smart connected systems they help enable, that might drop 'significantly' to around 8%, driving big energy savings and lowering the nation's CO2 emissions.

The construction industry is an important driver for lighting products because they build new buildings and retrofit existing buildings. LED lighting is estimated to account for 72% of all UK lighting products and systems bought through 2024. Government legislation around greener, cleaner energy and lower emissions is forecast to increase the number to around 85% by the year 2030.

In the meantime it looks like demand for LED lighting will keep on growing and will also become even more competitive as more manufacturers join the LED revolution, the tech matures and performance carries on improving. LED lighting products will become more affordable for domestic, commercial and industrial settings, and the market will carry on evolving.

We can help you stay cool, create the light levels you need, and save money on electricity with our brilliant LED lighting units, with a variety of excellent-value LED lighting models designed for specific circumstances.

Smart electric heating is making an impact

Checkatrade says electric heating systems are growing in popularity with UK homeowners. Again it's no surprise thanks to the shocking rise in energy prices the country has been suffering for some years and the clear need to emit less greenhouse gases at home and at work. Increasing solar panel adoption is also helping drive greater take-up of electric heating systems since solar tech provides the energy to run today's clean, greener all-electric heating.

If you'd like to take advantage of an incredibly controllable heating system so efficient you'll immediately notice the effect on your bills and comfort levels, we'll be delighted to discuss the many exciting, stylish options with you, whether it's for business or your home.

The word about evaporative cooling spreads

Funds Magazine says evaporative cooling is enjoying a boom because of the fast-growing, fast-developing trend for smart homes and smart commercial buildings, a major driver for the smart cooling system market.

Domestic, commercial and industrial settings are increasingly adopting smart cooling solutions, which themselves are being designed to integrate with other smart devices and systems to deliver even more efficient energy management. Because the world's governments are busy bringing in suites of new regulations and incentives to create better energy efficiency and slash greenhouse gas emissions, the adoption of smart cooling systems is also set to increase over the foreseeable future.

Inkwood Research predicts the UK's evaporative cooler market will grow 4.57% by 2032, currently seeing a surge because of booming demand for cost-effective cooling in a warming climate. The desire to be as sustainable as possible in business premises and at home is pushing demand higher for this efficient, economical cooling tech.

These systems not only cool things down, they also improve air quality and slash the environmental impact of staying comfortable compared to traditional air conditioning units, which eat up large amounts of energy. In commercial settings evaporative cooling tech plays an increasingly important role in maintaining low-cost comfort in offices and shops, hotels, factories and every other setting where cutting down operational costs and reducing environmental impacts matters.

Would you like to explore the fascinating subject of evaporative cooling for your premises? Again, we're always happy to pitch in with sensible expert advice without the hard sell.

Here's to a fantastic new year to all of our current customers - and to those of you who'll be coming our way throughout 2025.

Together we can make energy work harder.

Dazzlingly good, ultra-wide angle LED bulkhead lights

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 12:45:00 GMT

Sometimes you need bright, clean light at an extra-wide angle to illuminate a particular area or context. Our ultra-wide angle CT-B300 LED bulkhead lights are an excellent solution. Here's what you need to know about this particularly well-designed, ruggedly made and thoroughly-tested bulkhead lighting.

What are our LED bulkhead lights designed to do?

The lights' ultra-wide angle illumination of 150 degrees provides a large area of bright, widely-scattered light. This LED lighting style is perfect for anything from the railway tunnels you find along ex-railway line walking trails to wine cellars and underground mining contexts, also popular for industrial applications and great for creating ambient lighting over facilities like conveyor belts. You can fit them to the ceiling, suspend them below the ceiling, or mount them on walls.

CE and RoHS LED bulkhead lighting

The lights carry the CE mark, which means the tech complies with high EU safety, health and environmental requirements. It proves the manufacturer has checked that the lights meet EU standards, indicates they comply with EU legislation, and allows the products to be sold to the European market.

Having been carefully RoHS tested, they're also fully RoHS compliant. RoHS stands for 'Restriction of Hazardous Substances' also called Directive 2002/95/EC, an EU standard that restricts the use of ten hazardous materials in electrical and electronic products: cadmium, lead, mercury, Hexavalent Chromium, Polybrominated Biphenyls, Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers, Bis(2-Ethylhexyl) phthalate, Benzyl butyl phthalate , Dibutyl phthalate and Diisobutyl phthalate. They're all very bad for the environment, pollute landfill sites, and are highly dangerous for people working in the places products containing them are made and recycled.

IP66 and IK10 ratings make it a particularly tough customer.

As IP66 rated lights, they've been tested and found to meet Ingress Protection level 6 for solids and liquids, delivering totally dust-free protection against solids and great protection against splashes, drips, high-pressure hoses and even temporary floods. In fact this is the highest standard of level of waterproof protection, suitable for outdoor use.

The lights' IK10 rating means they come with the highest level of impact resistance for light fixtures. They can handle an impact of 20 joules, equivalent to a 5 kilo weight being dropped from a height of 40cm.

A choice of two wattages
Choose from 30w or 50w models, each with the same impressive spec:

• Lamp luminous flux 150LM/W plus or minus 5%
• CRI Ra>70
• CCT 2700 - 6500
• Rated Voltage AC 100-240V 227V~,50/60Hz
• Power Factor >0.95
• Operating temperature: Minus forty degrees Centigrade to approximately 60C

You can click here for an explanation of what these mean. (link to article from 4th Nov 'LED Floodlight T300A – Multi-purpose, rugged, brilliantly bright').

An even G5 light distribution curve

Light distribution curves specify the direction and intensity of a light. A type G5 light fixture like this provides an even, circular light distribution that makes it perfect for large, open areas where you need uniform illumination.

Testing, testing, 123!

The units have been expertly tested to prove their worth. Salt Spray Testing proves the lights come with very good resistance to corrosion. They've passed the High-Low Temperature Test at extreme temperatures of <-40°C to >60°C, and UV ageing testing for discolouration found no impact on performance over an impressive 720 hours or so. A Vibration Test proved the lamps' system is robust, and Withstand Voltage Testing showed the lamps handle the voltages they're designed for while avoiding surges and short circuiting, ideal for safety.

All this at an impressively low running cost

Because LEDs use so little electricity, these lights cost very little to run compared to non-LED alternatives. They run cool too, not heating up like ordinary bulbs.

Would you like to talk things through with an expert?

We can talk LED lights all day long. Feel free to get in touch to discuss the potential or get answers to your questions.

PS. We'd like to wish our customers a happy, peaceful Christmas and a profitable 2025.

Introducing our brilliant Halo-F LED food processing light

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 12:30:04 GMT

In this article about specialist LED lighting, we take a deep-dive into our popular Halo-F series of LED highbay food processing lights, which are also perfect for the pharmaceutical sector, wineries, supermarkets and many other dust-free plant settings.

Why food processing and pharma settings need bright light

Food-safe lighting is vital for every food related business, keeping products and employees safe as well as helping maintain high hygiene standards. Food, pharma and similar facilities often have very specific lighting constraints and demands, with lighting meeting demanding criteria and stringent standards, often in highly-controlled critical environments. If, as is more likely in a climate change world, temperatures change dramatically to reach new highs and lows, the lighting must be able to cope without affecting production or standards. It's good to know that the Halo-F series does all of this in an efficient, cool, low-energy way with LEDs at its heart.

LED Food processing Light specification

The Halo-F series comes with a choice of wattage to suit a huge variety of situations and contexts: 50W, 80W, 100W, 150W, 200W, plus the brightest of all, the super-bright 240W model. The driver comes from MEAN WELL, a highly respected supplier dedicated to standard power supply products. They have strong positive partnerships with around 250 authorised distributors globally and their excellent products are widely used in industrial control, medical and other situations.

The light source is provided by LUMILEDS, makers of the great quality LUXEON LEDs used for a variety of applications and known for their high performance, reliability and flexibility. And the lamps' Luminous Flux, at 160LM/W±5%, gives you a really good perceived power of light.

Your CRI or Colour Rendering Index is RA>70/80, which means you get an accurate representation of the real-life colour of the objects being lit. And with a CCT or Correlated Colour Temperature of 2700-6500K there's a wide spectrum of warm to cool light choices, from a cosy-feeling low level to illumination that's bright, white, and very like daylight.

Your RATED VOLTAGE is AC 100-240 277V~,50/60HZ and the POWER FACTOR is >0.95. And there's even a choice of light distribution, with beam angles of 60°/90°/120°. Ideal for places where water and steam are a risk to equipment, the IP GRADE of IP69K means the units are both high pressure water resistant and steam resistant. Because they operate perfectly well within an enormous temperature range, from -40℃~55℃, they do what they're supposed to do however hot or cold the setting is or becomes.

Because of the sensitivity of the sectors using lights like this, which tend to come with unusually strict requirements, these LED lamps are made using biocompatible materials for high levels of hygiene and safety. And there's even more choice around the way they're fitted. Choose from either a ceiling installation, which sits close to the ceiling, or suspension installation, which hangs below the ceiling to be placed at the exact height you require it.

A strict LED food processing light testing regime

A Salt Spray Test explores the heat sink processed by oxidization and powder spraying, revealing really good resistance to corrosion. A High-Low Temperature Test over two hours at a temperature of <-40°C saw the lamps working perfectly, and testing for four hours at a temperature of >60°C gave equally impressive results.

A UV Ageing Test looked for discolouration over 720 hours or so and found no impact on the lamp's performance, with no effect on the lamp's appearance or the PC lens either. A Vibration Test simulated various vibration conditions and proved the lamps' system is good and robust.

Withstand Voltage Testing showed the lamps handle the specified voltages while avoiding surges and short circuiting, dealing with potential operation errors and faults with ease. And Temperature Rise Testing proves the units are man enough to handle hikes in temperature that could cause breakdowns and accidents in lesser products.

And last but not least, because LEDs use so little electricity they costs very little to run compared to regular lighting.

Contact us for answers to your Halo-F series LED light questions

You'll find the full details about the Halo-F range here . If you have any questions about any aspect of them, we'll be pleased to help.

About LED floodlights

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 08:45:00 GMT

LED lighting terms explained

LED lighting is cool, safe, powerful and energy-efficient. It also comes with its fair share of jargon. In this post we’ve decoded some of the most frequently used LED lighting terms for you.

First, what is LED and why is it a good thing?

LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. The tech converts electricity to light very efficiently. LED bulbs have an impressive life of over 30,000 hours and quickly pay for themselves because they use so little power. Compared to old-school incandescent light bulbs, you’re looking at 90% less electricity.

Incandescent bulbs versus halogen bulbs

Old fashioned incandescent bulbs emit light when the electricity passes through a coil of thin filament wire, which heats up until it glows to give off light. Most of the energy is wasted, turned into heat rather than light. Halogen bulbs are similar, with a filament, but the halogen gas in the bulb mixes with vapour from the filament then sticks back onto the filament. The bulbs last longer as a result and also work a lot hotter, increasing the amount of light they give off. Both kinds are much less energy-efficient than LEDs.

Is an ‘energy saving’ light bulb the same as an LED?

Energy saving bulbs, AKA CFL bulbs, don’t have a filament. The electricity excites gases inside the bulb to make a phosphorous coating on the inside of the bulb glow, creating light. They’re a bit more efficient than incandescent and halogen bulbs but still a lot less so than LEDs, and at 8,000 hours don’t last as long as LEDs at 30,000 hours. Most people don’t use them these days because they take too long to reach full brightness.

How is brightness measured in LED language?

The brightness of light bulbs used to be measured in watts, but LEDs measure brightness in ‘lumens’ or lm.

LED lighting uses a lot less power than incandescent lamps. ‘Equivalent wattage’ is the power an incandescent lamp needs to be as bright as a comparable LED. The equivalent wattage of a 6W LED bulb, for example, is usually a 50W incandescent bulb.

So how about Kilowatt Hours or kWh? A kilowatt is 1000 watts. One Kilowatt hour is a unit of energy for watts used over time. One kilowatt hour means 1 kilowatt used for 1 hour. Take a 60W incandescent light. Use it for four hours a day and you consume 0.24kWhs, but a 9W LED light only uses up 0.036kWhs over four hours.

Whereas watts indicate the power consumption, the amount of energy drawn by the light source, lumens measure something called the luminous flux. To give you an idea of what a lumen looks like, a home LED floodlight will fall somewhere in the of 1000 lm to 2000 lm range, good and bright, but to light up a large area like a retail car park it’ll need to give off 10,000 or more lumens.

What is the beam angle?

The beam angle is measured in degrees and reveals the light’s coverage. A high number will light up a big space and a low number creates an intense, narrow spot of light. You need a wider beam angle for bigger places to make sure the whole area is properly lit.

What is the colour temperature?

The Kelvin scale is a base unit for temperature in the International System of Units. The Kelvin scale starts at the lowest possible temperature, 0 K or ‘absolute zero’, the same as minus 273.15 degrees Celsius / minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit.

LED bulbs vary from 1,900K (very warm) to 5,000K or more (very cool). Warm white light is golden like a candle. White lighting is white. Cool white lighting at 4,000K+ looks so extra-white it appears slightly blue.

For security lighting a ‘cool white’ at 6,000 Kelvin or a ‘natural white’ at 4,000 Kelvin will work perfectly because it’s more visible to the human eye, a lot brighter compared to ‘warm white’ light at 3,000 Kelvin, which makes things feel welcoming and cosy.

What is the Colour Rendering Index?

The Colour Rendering Index or CRI is a 0-100 scale that describes how accurate colours look under the light. The higher the number, the more realistic and accurate the colours look. A low CRI under 6p0 makes green things look brown, whereas a high CRI floodlight reveals the green thing as the colour they are in daylight: green. As you can imagine the highest -quality LED lights with a CRI above 95 are important for places like art galleries.

What is IP Rating?

The IP rating is the ‘Ingress Protection’ rating, measuring how well the device is protected from stuff getting in, whether it’s a solid or liquid. The first number, 0 to 6, tells you how well the light fitting resists solid stuff like dust. The second number, 0 to 9, reveals how well it resists liquids. The higher the number the more resistant the fitting is.

Areas that are often wet or dusty need higher IP rated LEDs. LED flood lights intended for outdoors have a minimum rating of IP65, which means they’re water resistant outdoors in all weathers and won’t let the dirt and dust in.

What is Luminous Efficacy?

'Efficacy’ reveals how energy efficient a light source is: how much light you get from the power you put in, expressed as a ratio of the lumens (the total light emitted) to the power, for example 90lm/W means 90 lumens per watt. The higher the lumens to power ratio is, the more efficacy there is and the more energy-efficient the lighting is. For really bright light you’d choose the highest lumens per watt.

Any questions about our superb range of LED lighting units ? We’re always happy to answer them for you.

LED Floodlight T300A – Multi-purpose, rugged, brilliantly bright

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 08:42:05 GMT

Want to light up your business? Maybe you want to illuminate a sports field or a warehouse, road works or a workshop, a garage or a factory? The brilliantly bright LED Floodlight T300A delivers bright, energy efficient, flexible lighting in so many situations. Let’s dive into the spec.

Exploring the LED Floodlight T300A model

Choose from a floodlight with a wattage of either 75, 150, 240, 300 0r 480W, each driven with a top quality driver made by Meanwell, a respected manufacturer with an excellent reputation. The light source is also top quality, provided by Lumileds, a world leader in LED lighting technology and products.

‘Luminous flux’ – also called luminous power – measures the perceived power of light. It’s different from radiant flux, which the measures the total power of electromagnetic radiation. Luminous flux can be adjusted to cater for the sensitivity of the human eye to different wavelengths of light, which varies. It basically measures the total quantity of light energy emitted per unit time. In this case, the luminous flux is 140LM/W plus or minus 5.

The CRI – Colour Rendering Index - measures how natural colours appear under artificial white light compared to sunlight. In this case it’s Ra>70/80, where the value given to natural sunlight is 100. A CRI of 70/80, typical of white LEDs, means the colours you see under the light are lifelike and accurate.

The CCT – Correlated Colour Temperature, measures how yellow or blue the light appears, in other words its visual warmth or coolness. In this case it’s 2700 - 6500 Kelvin. 2700K is a warm, incandescent colour and 5000K or higher gives you a bright, white daylight colour.

The rated voltage is AC 100-240V~, 50/60 Hz. This reveals the maximum voltage at which the device can safely be operated without damage or failure. And the Power Factor is >0.95, the ratio between true power and apparent power – you can read more about it here.

There’s a choice of beam angle, which means you can point the light in the exact direction you want it: 45, 75 or 120 degrees. The IP Grade is IP65, which means it has complete protection from accidental contact, protection against dust (dust tight), and protection against jets of water from any direction. Read more about IP codes here. An aluminium cooling fin acts as the heat sink, and you can use the light in temperatures as cool as minus 40 C and as hot as approximately 60C.

LED Floodlight T300A testing protocols

This kind of kit needs to be tested thoroughly by experts to make sure it does that it says on the tin. In this case the light has gone through a Salt Spray Test proving it has good corrosion resistance.

UV Ageing tests revealed it works normally without discolouration, yellowing of the lens, or rusting of the bracket over an impressive 1440 hours of testing.

The Waterproof Test is carried out at least 2 hours before shipment and the High-Low Temperature Test proves it works perfectly at the temperatures we’ve mentioned above, a really wide range.

Vibration Testing reveals the LED Floodlight T300A handles different sorts of vibrations well, from transport to installation and accrual use. And the Withstand Voltage Test proves it will handle unexpected surges through short circuits, operator errors, faults, breakdowns and accidents safely.

Check out the whole LED Floodlight T300A spec

Click here to read the fine details behind the different models , see diagrams of the light distribution curve, see results of the Integrating Sphere test report including Spectrum Parameters, and see the results of the Temperature Rising Report. At the end you’ll find the model numbers and details about the packaging, weight, and quantities per carton.

Any questions about LED floodlighting?

Want to light up your life? We’re always happy to help. We have the engineering expertise you need to get answers to all your LED floodlight questions.

Climate wisdom plus climate-friendly heating and cooling solutions

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 13:06:13 GMT

Most businesses are temperature-sensitive, simply because almost every company has people working on the premises and people need to be comfortable to perform well. Some are more affected by the heat and the cold than others thanks to things they do, make and sell.

Every building has different applications and uses. If you run a business with special temperature needs and don’t know where to start with planning for a climate change future, this article explores four of the best resources to help you figure out what kind of weather’s coming your way. At the end we suggest some truly impressive energy-saving heating and cooling solutions for the modern world.

The Bank of England’s Climate Transition Plan

The Bank of England’s new Climate Transition Plan for England is based on the findings of the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment, and aligns with the UK’s 2050 Net Zero aim as well as the organisation’s own mission.

The Bank’s Climate Transition Plan marks the first time they’ve set out their Physical Greenhouse Gas Emissions Target: to limit global warming to no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. It reveals their strategic approach to achieving physical net zero by 2040, a decade earlier than originally planned.

They’ve released the plan because ‘transition plans are an important tool for providing stakeholders with the information necessary to assess the strategy, ambition, and credibility of climate commitments’. In other words it’s a useful guide for other businesses wanting to address climate risks and make the most of the opportunities.

Bearing in mind climate transition planning is at an early stage, they’ll be continually developing and refining the plan based on the science – so it’ll always be up to date. Well worth keeping an eye on.

Insight from Carbon Brief

The Carbon Brief website is a UK-based site all about the latest developments in climate science, climate policy and energy policy. Their articles are clear, data-driven and packed with graphics to help everyone, including business owners and risk managers, improve their understanding of climate change. Another useful resource to inform business planning,

New Local Authority Climate Service

The Met Office’s Local Authority Climate Service has been created for councils but the information is excellent for any business wanting to understand the potential climate change risks in their immediate area. This interactive tool also provides information to help and support you as you adapt to the coming changes, enabling good decision-making and informed climate adaptation planning.

The Met Office’s City Packs

The UK Met Office website is packed with excellent information including a collection of City Packs giving you high-level, non technical local summaries of various cities’ future climate. This robust climate information helps city decision makers plan for the future, and will also prove useful to businesses in the cities covered.

Climate-friendly heating and cooling

Evaporative cooling tech is the modern way to stay cool as things heat up, technology that savvy businesses are fitting to help them prepare for the climate changes to come. Today’s smart electric heating is a highly energy-effective way to warm up and stay warm without breaking the bank.

Together they save a fortune in energy by heating and cooling your place super-efficiently.

Get in touch to talk about finance-friendly, climate-friendly ways to keep your business running at peak efficiency whatever the weather.

The trouble with air conditioning

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 09:15:00 GMT

A powerful climate-wrecker

As winter approaches everyone’s concerned about heating, about how to afford to heat businesses and homes when the UK’s electricity prices are so much higher than anywhere else in Europe. While the amount of energy produced renewably is increasing, the cost benefit isn’t passed down to users.

But there’s another environmental horror making waves right now, and it’s all down to air conditioning. As the climate heats up we need to keep cool, and traditional aircon is horribly energy-heavy. Can sustainable cooling help avert the coming crisis? Will re-thinking how to keep cool help tackle the cooling paradox? Let’s take a look at the facts.

Air conditioning and climate change

At the moment we face a vicious circle. The heatwaves and extreme temperatures caused by the climate crisis are already forcing people in hotter countries to switch on their traditional air conditioning units. But traditional air conditioners and refrigerants contain fluorinated gases that can easily leak out and harm the ozone layer. Then there are the indirect emissions from the energy used to power the cooling unit to take into account.

In those regions, for example across Asia, manufacturers are still making and selling huge numbers of ordinary aircon units. Refrigeration and air conditioning might even stack up to as much as two-fifths of south east Asia’s electricity demand by 2040, according to one report. Fast economic growth, more wealth and high populations also have an impact, making Asian countries even more reliant on cooling systems. As things get ever-warmer, the negative impact of this old fashioned, energy-inefficient technology is becoming even greater.

The UK’s cooling needs

According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks 2024 report, climate change and the associated collapse of nature dominate the top five long term threats to humanity. But at the same time we can’t just stop using cooling tech. It’s vital to farming to ensure food security, to healthcare settings, factories, shops, offices, data centres and more. And we’re not immune here in the UK. We too need to keep cool in a warming climate.

According to the Met Office the UK can expect warmer wetter winters, hotter drier summers, and more frequent and intense extremes, all made more likely by climate change. Take the weird ‘Spanish plumes’, which have already brought long periods of super-hot weather our way and are set to increase in frequency and severity, just one example of how things are changing on our island.

At the moment cooling contributes to 3.4% of global emissions. But there’s hope in the form of climate-friendly cooling like evaporative cooling which, as the International Energy Agency says, could help the world avoid over 460 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

In its latest report, called Cooler Finance, the UN Environment Programme says that "sustainable cooling technologies are accessible, affordable and scalable and minimize environmental impact, aiming for near-zero emissions cooling by 2050 through increasing the use of passive strategies for cooling, raising energy efficiency standards and rules for cooling equipment, and accelerating the phasing down of highly polluting refrigerants."

Our evaporative cooling units offer exactly that: a reliable, natural, extremely energy-efficient and climate-friendly way to slash your cooling costs and, at the same time, help tackle the climate crisis that’s making the future so uncertain for our children and future generations.

Let’s talk sustainable cooling

If you’re a forward-thinking business wanting to stay cool without creating more damage than necessary to the climate, evaporative cooling can deliver exactly what you need: a low-energy, low cost, low maintenance and highly effective technology that’s been around for thousands of years, harnessed in a clever way that blows traditional aircon units out of the water.

Chicken Welfare

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 11:35:39 GMT

Cool poultry means better productivity

Chickens are pretty good at handling heat, but they do start to suffer when things get too hot. Overheating, heat stress or heat stroke in chickens can be so subtle you don’t notice until it’s too late. Even moderate heat stress means they lay fewer eggs, the eggs are not up to scratch, and the birds themselves can die. Luckily there’s a simple, highly effective, low cost, energy efficient way to keep your chooks cool indoors.

How hot can it get before chickens start to suffer?

Because chickens don’t have sweat glands they can’t cool down that way, and thick layers of feathers mean they’re pretty well insulated. When temperatures hits 26-32 Celsius they’ll probably be OK but you might see a downturn in egg production. Over 32C and they’ll do what they can to keep cool on their own, but you’ll need to actively help them reduce their body temperature.

The signs that your poultry sheds are too hot

Water and shade is a good start but chicken sheds can still get incredibly hot inside. You might notice the birds panting, breathing heavily with their beaks open. They might spread their wings to get cooler, creating a bigger surface area for the air. And like most animals, including us, they’ll become lethargic, a lot less active.

In extreme heat they’ll sit down and stay sitting down for long periods. Their appetite suffers, and they’ll lay a lot fewer eggs because the heat stress disrupts their usual routines. The eggs they do lay might be smaller than usual and they may lay soft eggs.

A ventilation system alone doesn’t do the job

A ventilation system can deliver comfort, something called free cooling. But it can’t maintain an internal temperature of less than 25C for any length of time. You need extra cooling to keep things comfortable in the longer term. And that’s where evaporative or ‘adiabatic’ cooling comes into its own, used as an integral part of a balanced ventilation system.

Evaporative cooling saves the day

Because it’s an entirely natural process, evaporative cooling is a lot more energy efficient than refrigeration. The only energy it uses is to run the ventilation system’s fans and the little internal water pump inside the evaporative cooling unit. And that means it uses less than 10% of the electricity of an equivalent refrigeration-based cooling system.

The evaporative cooling group systems used in poultry sheds provide impressively advanced environmental control, leading to improved bird welfare and an increased yield. The clever modular design means they’re by far the most effective way to keep broiler sheds cool.

There are special misting systems available, which you can deploy quickly and move around easily to deal with the hottest areas. They fit every sort of chicken shed, even when a fixed evaporative cooling system isn’t possible. And they’ve been tested thoroughly in record breaking temperatures in the UK, in working chicken sheds, with excellent results. In a world where improve bird welfare means increased productivity and a better yield, evaporative cooling supports a better business.

Flexible cooling systems for every kind of poultry shed

These flexible systems are perfectly compatible with all sorts of different inlet vents, in all sorts of shed designs, and are compatible with third party controllers. Whether it’s a new build shed or a retrofit to an existing facility, they’re famously easy to use and maintain.

There’s a central water system to cut the cost, and the simple components are easy to replace. The easy fault finding system notifies you of faults, connecting direct to the controller. It’s a dream to clean, safe to use, secure, and because the air is filtered on the way in, it offers excellent bio-security. No wonder the detailed data gathered over two hot summers reveals dramatic reductions in bird deaths as well as higher egg yields, all without significant increases in operational costs.

Poultry cooling tailored to your sheds

Because no two poultry sheds are the same, each system is tailored to fit the circumstances. And that means healthier, happier, more productive birds who lay great quality eggs.

Whether it’s cooling people, chickens, horses or even zoo animals, evaporative cooling is nature’s way of keeping everyone comfortable, healthy, safe and productive.

Can we help your business stay cool? Get in touch for an inspiring discussion about evaporative cooler systems.

Essential evaporative cooler system FAQs

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 11:35:02 GMT

An evaporative cooler system is a brilliant way to keep a premises comfortable to work in and systems fully operational, no matter how hot it gets outdoors. Here are some of the questions we’re regularly asked about this unusually powerful and highly cost effective way to cool business premises.

How many evaporative coolers do you need for your building?

A typical ECP down discharge unit will deliver cooling over a large circular area as large as 15m diameter, but our technical specialists will evaluate your place and let you know exactly what’s required for your particular circumstances.

How much will the system cut the temperature?

It depends on the ambient conditions but even when it’s hot outside, the maximum temperature indoors won’t exceed a comfortable, pleasant 25C.

How much water and electricity does the system use?

Water-wise a unit will use up 40L an hour over 24 hours in hot weather, and your electricity usage comes to 1.5kW an hour.

Are evaporative cooler system units noisy?

They’re so low-key you probably won’t notice the sound at all when in an industrial environment. But if you need things quieter, there are things we can do to subdue any sound.

The system uses water – so does the air get soggy and humid?

No, because the fresh, cool moving air provides a comfortable feel, not at all humid. And the system’s clever controls purge all the cooled air at the end of each day so humidity can’t build up anyway. This means there’s also no condensation, as long as ventilation is properly balanced.

Is Legionnaires’ disease a risk with an evaporative cooler system?

No, because the water that circulates never gets warmer than 20C and the system doesn’t let droplets form. There are more than 30 million evaporative cooler installations worldwide without a single case of Legionnaires’ disease.

Does the system also clean the air?

Each evaporative cooling unit has its own insect screen as standard, but if you also want the air scrubbed clean we have some exciting options for you.

Evaporative cooli ng is great for humans – but how about livestock and animals?

The short answer is ‘yes’. Evaporative cooling is a genuinely sustainable agricultural solutions, as visitors to the May 2024 Pig and Poultry World exhibition discovered. A working version of an exciting new heat exchanger was showcased at the event, designed to dramatically reduce the amount of gas used while coming in at a much lower capital cost than other solutions.

These specialist agricultural cooling units have a small, neat footprint of less than two square metres, are made from tough stainless steel, and feature a clever double epoxy-coated plate heat exchanger to keep the unit safe in corrosive agricultural environments.

Ask us a question... any question!

Evaporative cooler systems come with so many advantages. A surprisingly low capital cost, impressive performance in a climate change world, super-low running costs plus a genuinely pleasurable, comfortable environment are the name of the game here. It’s easy to fit and retro-fit, very simple, needs very little maintenance, and is clean and completely safe.

Would this type of cooling tech suit your premises? Why not explore the potential? There’s no obligation, we’re always happy to answer questions, so feel free to get in touch.

The magic of evaporative tech – perfectly natural passive cooling

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 11:34:20 GMT

“Passive cooling offers a way out of the vicious cycle we are currently stuck in with air conditioning: using a technology to keep cool that actually contributes to heating the world up.” Alisdair McGregor, global leader for mechanical engineering, Arup.

Here in the UK we’re only just getting used to the fact that these days, we need to design buildings to keep us cool as well as warm. Sometimes there’s not a lot you can do thanks to the building’s design. Take London’s famous ‘walkie-talkie’ skyscraper, with its one huge concave side. The curved surface acted like a vast magnifying glass, focusing the sun’s rays on a few square metres of pavement outside a hairdressers and a restaurant. Things got so hot that the heat actually melted paint, blistered cars, set a doormat alight and broke tiles.

Luckily there are usually things you can do to keep things comfortable indoors. Air conditioning is one of them. On the other hand, conventional air conditioning should be a last resort, not something we rely on. It’s a bold statement but with global warming well underway it’s an important one, something we all need to consider when thinking about how to cool the buildings we work, play, shop and entertain in.

It’s good to know aircon isn’t the only cooling method in town. A passive cooling method called evaporative cooling has been used for thousands of years to chill buildings down to comfortable temperatures.

Take Italy’s hilltop villages, where summer temperatures often soar. The locals soak the pavements outside their homes and shops with buckets of cold water. As the water evaporates it cools the stone right down. Then the cooled air passing over the pavements into the buildings brings down the temperature inside. Brilliantly simple.

A clever Spanish bottle design called the botijo works on the same principle. It’s simply a large pot made from porous clay. When you fill it with cold water a small amount evaporates through the pottery, keeping the water inside cool even when it gets fiercely hot outdoors.

The Romans loved evaporative cooling, as did the Ancient Egyptians. In Arabic architecture the mashrabiya is the source of evaporative passive cooling. An ornate wooden lattice carved with complex designs, used both indoors and outdoors, it provides regular shade all year round. In summer people stand porous pots like the Spanish botijo full of water in front of the screen. When the breeze blows through the screen and over the pots, it cools the air.

Other simple ways to cool things down indoors

The Spanish idea is an excellent one, and surprisingly effective. Simply putting a porous pottery container full of cold water next to a window or in a draught has a surprisingly powerful cooling effect indoors. Create a pond, fountain or flowing water feature inside a building – for example in an atrium or reception area - and it cools things down even more.

You could mop the floor of the premises in the morning and leave it to dry naturally. The water will slowly evaporate to cool the space down. You just need to make sure it doesn’t cause a slip hazard! You can also do super-simple things like placing bowls of ice near desk fans to generate cold air. Unlike a fan on its own, which just moves hot air around, the ice actually brings down the temperature of the air circulated by the fan, cooling the entire area.

Computers, printers, laptops, photocopiers, office kitchen equipment, ordinary light bulbs and even phone chargers generate heat. Can you switch them off when they’re not being used? Can you replace regular bulbs with cool LEDs? It’s all worth thinking about when you want to keep your cooling bills down.

Windows are also handy. We all know, these days, to keep the windows closed when it’s hotter outdoors than in. But upstairs is always hotter than downstairs, heat rises, and rising heat causes a breeze. Leave one downstairs window and one upstairs window open and you’ll help cool things down by forcing the hot air upwards and out of the upstairs window.

Explore the potential of passive cooling with an expert

Evaporative cooling is a lot more effective than fans, providing a lot more cooling power than any fan could ever manage. Evaporative cooling units don’t need to be vented out of a window like air-conditioning does. The tech reduces electricity bills, swiping 90% off the running cost of ordinary aircon. It’s easy to fit and retrofit. It has a minimal impact on the climate compared to air conditioning. And all this makes passive cooling a no-brainer for future-savvy businesses wanting to maximise their bottom line.

Give us a call or send us a message, and by next summer you can be in a much better position to stay cool, keep people comfortable, keep production levels where they should be, and slash your power bills.

Why low emissions cooling is a must for businesses

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 11:33:39 GMT

‘The emissions from both the refrigerants and the energy used in cooling now account for about 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and are expected to triple by 2050 as temperatures continue to rise.’ WeForum.org

In the UK we tend to think of emissions in a heating context, not a cooling one. But it’s getting hotter here, more frequently, and cooling is becoming a pressing issue.

Traditional air conditioning emits around four times less CO2 than heating, but that’s still too much. Greenhouse gases from cooling systems are set to triple by the year 2050 thanks to increasing demand, and air conditioning already generates around 2.7% of the world’s energy-related greenhouse gas emissions.

Research says air conditioning reduced heat wave heat deaths by an estimated 200,000 in 2019 alone. Nobody works well when they’ve uncomfortably hot. Nor do some machines and digital technologies. With global warming underway, it is highly unlikely demand for cooling will fall. Unless something changes we can expect the numbers to rocket.

You’re probably already looking into energy-efficient ways to heat your premises, whether it’s an office or a factory. Maybe you’ve nailed it. But have you explored low energy cooling systems?

Dramatic increasing demand for cooling

There are currently about two billion air conditioning units in the world. This could more than triple by 2050 if the International Energy Agency’s numbers turn out to be right. When the tech becomes cheaper thanks to ever-higher demand, we’ll see the numbers rise even more.

Traditional air conditioning and fans account for 7% of global electricity , using up a mind-bending 2100 terawatt-hours worth of energy in 2022 alone, not far short of 20% of total global electricity consumption according to the IEA. The trajectory doesn’t look good either. Things get even more serious when you realise the official cooling estimates don’t include the climate-wrecking greenhouse gases used in refrigeration.

The solutions to climate-friendly cooling

The big question is, can the world slash emissions from industrial cooling systems by the 68% needed according to 2023’s Cop28 pledge, and do it by 2050? As you can tell it’s a big ask.

One part of the solution is simply aircon efficiency. A rise in demand usually drives competition, which inspires innovation. Traditional air conditioning is improving as the planet heats up, more people need to stay cool and demand rises, but emissions-wise it has a very long way to go. And not everyone can afford to replace an old energy-hungry fan or aircon system.

As mentioned on the Cop28 website, reducing the power consumption of cooling equipment could slash at least 60% off predicted 2050 emissions. They also say it’ll provide ‘universal access to life-saving cooling’, take the pressure off energy grids and save trillions of dollars by 2050. But however energy-efficient existing aircon tech becomes, there’s a limit to how efficient it can be.

The World Economic Forum says 50% of the emissions cuts we need to get to net zero could come from technologies ‘not yet invented’. But there’s also value in looking back to the past, as proved by a seriously efficient, highly effective natural cooling method humanity has known about for millennia.

Ultra-simple, low energy evaporative cooling has been used for thousands of years to keep buildings and the people inside them cool. It’s a bargain to buy and fit compared to ordinary aircon, emits almost nothing, and costs 90% less than traditional air conditioning to run.

Not only do you do your bit for the climate, you keep your people, equipment, raw materials, production lines and everything else in great working order, at the perfect temperature no matter how hot things get outdoors.

Get in touch with us to discuss how evaporative cooling units will help slow climate change as well as save you a fortune on energy. We’ll see you right and set you off on the right track.

How evaporative cooling systems support business success

Mon, 02 Sep 2024 10:58:48 GMT

It has taken the world’s governments far too long to get their climate change act together. Luckily an increasing number of businesses have seen the light despite delays by those who run things, and they’ve been steadily going greener.

As it turns out, taking action on CO2 emissions is having a positive impact on businesses, and consumers are delighted to see it happening. Here’s how our evaporative cooling systems support business success. If you’re fed up with getting hot under the collar at work, sick of shelling out on huge electricity bills and keen to attract more customers, you’ll appreciate this.

What does ‘net zero’ mean for businesses?

Net zero covers all sorts of activities: products made from sustainable materials, well-insulated, heated and cooled premises, employees using public transport or car sharing, recycled and recyclable packaging, deliveries using electric vehicles and more.

It’s inspiring, a goal every business can aim for, which is why almost half of all smaller businesses are saying CO2 reduction is either a high or very high priority for them. These are the early adopters, the business leaders who understand there are a variety of valuable business benefits to embracing net zero before their competitors.

How net zero can boost your bottom line

Net zero tactics are helping businesses grow, save money, and improve their overall resilience. So says Deloitte, a respected UK provider of audit, consulting, financial advisory and risk services. Their studies reveal how 55% of consumers have at one time or another bought food and non-alcoholic drinks from brands whose environmentally sustainable values and practices err towards ‘green’, and an impressive 32% of people are happy to pay more for goods and services if it meant brands would slash their CO2 emissions.

Aiming for carbon neutral practices can improve your business’ reputation according to the Carbon Trust, whose study reported on the way people increasingly want companies to make good ethical decisions on their behalf. It’s no surprise ‘green businesses’ are attracting so many new customers.

If you’re joining in with a carbon offsetting scheme, for example planting trees or getting your raw materials from as close to your business as possible, cutting back on CO2 emissions from food miles or sending less waste to landfill, place it at the heart of your marketing and communications strategy and it’ll do you proud.

Lower energy bills mean your fixed costs are lower

Do you pay for renewable energy or are you on an ordinary fossil fuel tariff? A green tariff will help cut your CO2 emissions.

Renewable, climate friendly tech is getting cheaper than ever as demand for good energy grows, and better than ever as the tech is refined. Solar panel performance is seriously impressive these days, generating useful amounts of energy even when it isn’t sunny. And evaporative cooling, essential for many companies as the climate gets warmer, costs a fraction of ordinary aircon to buy, fit, run and maintain, giving you a dramatic reduction of 90% on electricity usage.

Just re-thinking the way you use energy at your premises can make an impressive difference. One manufacturer in Scotland shaved a whopping £170,000 a year, and 2000 tonnes of emissions, simply by changing their ventilation system. If you’re city-based in a place with low emission zones to navigate, you can save money by investing in or leasing electric vehicles

Investors love CO2 conscious businesses

Investors and shareholders are focusing on businesses with long-term sustainable strategies, businesses that are not so welded to fossil fuels, because they’re more future-proof than investments in companies not taking climate change into account. Old-school companies are already lagging behind and will probably lag further behind as time passes and CO2 neutrality becomes the norm. When you fit tech like solar and wind power at your premises, you’re better protected from the energy price hikes that decimated so many of us in the recent past.

CO2 neutrality gives you a powerful competitive edge

Increasing numbers of studies are proving how understanding your business’s CO2 footprint and taking steps to cut it back delivers a vital competitive advantage. More consumers than ever are becoming increasingly interested in businesses' sustainability credentials and plans, from the way products are packaged to the CO2 footprint of the products and services themselves.

Last but not least, a YouGov poll from 2021 revealed people were becoming increasingly willing to pay more for environmental products , with younger consumers leading the way in being happy to pay more for sustainable products created by sustainable businesses. That was three years ago. As you can imagine, it’s more important than ever these days. As this recent survey reveals, for increasing numbers of us it’s all about the ‘green’.

Choose evaporative cooling and DESTROY your cooling bills!

So many businesses in so many sectors need to stay cool to keep employees happy, keep the manufacturing process safe, and keep their products in good condition from start to end. If you’re exploring new cooling systems for business, give us a call for a fascinating discussion about low cost, super-simple, highly effective evaporative cooling.

Case study - How to cool a mezzanine floor

Tue, 13 Aug 2024 15:30:00 GMT

In a world where it isn’t always possible or affordable to move premises, a mezzanine floor can be a sensible choice for a fast-growing business. On the downside, mezzanine floors get famously hot even when there isn’t any machinery involved, hotter still when built over a production area.

Luckily there’s a simple and highly effective way to keep a mezzanine floor cool, and it’s called evaporative cooling. Here’s a case study.

Cooling a mezzanine floor simply, affordably and efficiently

Imagine your business makes lamps. You’re growing fast and need to keep up with demand. The premises you’re in offer limited room for expansion so you go the mezzanine route, building an extra floor directly over the production floor.

The new floor has to be man enough to handle fourteen manufacturing points involving a mix of oxygen and hydrogen. The hot gases involved in the process have to be removed reliably, and the temperature has to be comfortable for people to work in.

It’s clearly a filtration and fresh air project, so you choose an EcoCooling system with two roof- mounted coolers and extractor fans. Designed to remove the gases while providing fresh filtered air to the mezzanine floor all year round, and keep things beautifully cool in hot weather, it proves a resounding success. And the running costs are a fraction of an ordinary air conditioning system.

A year later you want to expand more, and you need extra ventilation and cooling capacity to match. Because the EcoCooling system is modular and scalable, you add another EcoCooler and extraction unit with minimal disruption. Now you’re keeping up with the increased heat load generated by the enlarged production area, and you’re providing a comfortable working environment free from manufacturing fumes.

Basically, whenever you want to scale up – or down – the modular nature of the system makes it super-simple. A constant supply of fresh, filtered air delivers a healthy working environment, a place where people can work happily and well even on the hottest days.

Ancient tech brought bang up to date

An ordinary ventilation-only system can provide cooling for most of the year in the UK. But more frequent and powerful heatwaves mean they struggle to keep temperatures below 25C indoors.

When you bring evaporative cooling into the equation as an integral part of a balanced ventilation system, it doesn’t matter how hot it gets outside. It’ll remain wonderfully cool inside. And it’s a perfectly natural process, used by humans living in hot places for thousands of years.

Evaporative cooling is a lot more energy efficient than refrigeration because it doesn’t need any energy to run it. The only parts of the system that need energy are the ventilation system fans and the small water pump inside the unit. You’ll use less than 10% of the electricity of an equivalent refrigeration based cooling system, with a fast return on investment of 2-5 years for an industrial systems and as little as 6 months for 24/7 cooling.

A low carbon competitive edge

Evaporative cooling is a low carbon solution to staying cool and comfortable, something that matters more as time goes by.

All you have to do is spend a few hours on the LinkedIn business network to see countless companies of every size talking about making an effort to cut their CO2 emissions or go completely CO2 neutral. Because climate change is an issue affecting every member of the human race, CO2 efficiency and neutrality is being tipped as a powerful competitive advantage.

It’s also something that enhances a business’s reputation, attracts investment, and provides security and resilience going forwards. We’ll talk more about that next time. In the meantime if you want to talk to an expert about the potential of evaporative cooling, contact us.

Into HPC? How cool are your GPUs, ASICS and FPGAs?

Fri, 09 Aug 2024 08:30:00 GMT

The latest high density ‘High Performance Computing’ equipment is incredibly powerful. It needs to be powerful to quickly and efficiently process the vast amounts of data it’s tasked with crunching. At the same time the equipment is smaller than old-school CPU equipment.

Together the difference in size and power means it’s more of a challenge than ever to hit the perfect balance between efficiency and reliable environmental conditions. Add the fact that the tech has migrated from business-only to being used by consumers – think AI and large language models – and you can see why it’s putting a strain data centres and bringing high-density facilities to the fore.

In future demand for HPC will only keep on growing. So what challenges does this bring for cooling?

About data centre power density

Data centre power density shows you how many kW of power a server rack uses. The higher the density, the more kW is accommodated in a rack. It makes a lot of sense to optimise it because higher density racks mean reduced capital expenditure. You need fewer racks, power distribution units, wiring and other equipment to do the same jobs.

A smaller footprint with higher data centre density also means employees have less kit to manage and it’s easier to scale up without needing a bigger building. And shorter cables come with lower application latency, which is better for users.

So how do you figure out this all-important number? It involves multiplying the total kilowatts of power used by all the devices inside a cabinet then simply multiplying it by the number of racks. This’ll tell you whether the data centre is standard density or high-density, and that means it’s easier to plan ahead effectively.

How much energy do racks use?

As a general rule standard density racks can eat up as much as 10kW per cabinet, high-density racks consume 10-30kW, and the ultra high density versions use around 30 - 85kW each. As AI, Big Data analytics, the Internet of Things, Machine Learning and HPC become ever-more sophisticated, it’s likely we’ll need more power to run these racks. And all this activity means an increase in heat, which makes cooling one of the most important considerations for high density data centres.

Data centres clearly need to monitor their power use and thermal metrics at cabinet level, so they can fulfil fluctuating demand and at the same time keep the cost of cooling down. And that’s where tech like liquid cooling comes into play, reducing operating temperatures and keeping systems performing at the top end of their range.

How businesses are meeting soaring demand

To meet this new demand head on, some businesses are choosing not to set up their own high density data centre, using high density co-location services instead, built specifically to support huge workloads and bearing increased demand in mind from the offset. They provide the computing power needed along with secure, scalable, modern, efficient cooling.

While ordinary data centres can struggle to achieve great performance at a cost that works for businesses, those with evaporative cooling systems do a much better job. These cooling systems can be fitted for a surprisingly low cost.

In a world where new and emerging technologies could drive a stratospheric growth in processing power, our low cost, simple solutions save as much as 90% on regular air conditioning. The tech can be deployed fast, offers dramatically lower energy consumption, boosts employee productivity and wellness thanks to cool, 100% fresh air, and slashes carbon emissions.

You’re in good company, with big players like Rolls Royce, BT and Transport for London investing in evaporative cooling tech. And it costs nothing to talk – so why not give us a call to discuss the potential?

Telecoms, Delta T, airflow management and Cloud Cooling

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 15:18:33 GMT

Airflow management in the telecoms world is essential to keep equipment not just cool, but the right sort of cool. Temperature changes and drops in a telecoms context can be disastrous because they quickly affect the way systems work.

Delta T or ∆T is the measurement used to monitor temperature deviations. Most telecoms equipment has a very low ∆T compared to ordinary Central Processing Units or CPUs, which means they need more air to cool the same amount of equipment. And because old-school telecoms exchanges are often open plan, blending cold and warm air in the space means a traditional cooling system can quickly become very expensive to run. Add climate change to the mix and telecoms providers face a unique cooling challenge going forwards.

The ECT Cloud Cooler from EcoCooling is the perfect solution to reliable, steady cooling without refrigerant chemicals. Unlike ordinary air conditioning run on chemicals it provides cool air below 25C all year round using something called adiabatic cooling.

Adiabatic cooling involves reducing heat via a change in air pressure caused by volume expansion, harnessing natural phenomena to regulate the temperature. The temperature of the working fluid – in this case simply water - reduces the air temperature without transferring heat between the system and the surroundings, and as a result is extremely efficient and effective. It’s no surprise the EcoCooling CloudCooler Range has already been installed in more than 600 UK telecommunications facilities.

A system specially designed for telecoms

Telecoms exchanges are often based in towns and cities, and the buildings they’re in are rarely suitable for the needs of modern systems. External cooling units can also be a challenge in towns and cities because there simply isn’t space for them. EcoCooling CloudCooler tech is a single-box solution with no external stuff needed, and it’s remarkably easy to install and maintain.

With two models to choose from, one specially designed for smaller areas that are hard to access and the other configurable in a choice of ways, these innovative evaporative cooling systems save as much as 90% on electricity, delivering dramatically lower cooling costs than refrigerant based cooling.

The tech also improves productivity and wellness because it creates such a pleasant working environment, cuts your CO2 emissions so helps companies work towards carbon neutrality, and delivers reliably cool, 100% fresh, clean air.

Why choose us for eco-cooling supply?

In addition to evaporative cooling sales, supply and installation, our enormous servicing and maintenance department cares for evaporative coolers at more than 100 businesses, local authority sites and retail outlets. As such we’re the UK’s biggest specialist evaporative cooler servicing and after-care firm.

We hold a multitude of spare parts in stock, and we have all the right equipment to do a perfect job, including a lorry mounted 17m boom lift and a 7.5m scissor lift. Wherever your cooler is situated, we’ll be able to reach it. And all our engineers are full trained and qualified for the job.

If you’d like to bring your telecoms facility’s cooling system bang up to date, save money on energy, enjoy much simpler maintenance, future-proof the building against the unpredictable extremes of climate change, reduce your carbon footprint and keep employees’ productivity and comfort levels high, contact CoolTech today. We’ll be delighted to help.

40 million evaporative coolers, NO Legionnaires disease!

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 15:15:57 GMT

Legionnaires disease is a form of pneumonia, caught through breathing in tiny droplets of water contaminated by the Legionella bacteria that live in streams, rivers and lakes. They also thrive in human-made environments like hot tubs, humidifiers and traditional air conditioning systems.

You can’t catch it by drinking water that contains the bacteria or from infected people. Most of those who get Legionnaires pick it up in a hotel, office, or hospital. The symptoms can include a cough, being short of breath, chest pain when breathing or coughing, and a high temperature.

How serious is Legionnaire’s disease?

While Legionnaires is fairly rare it can be extremely serious if your immune system isn’t as good as it could be, you smoke, have a lung disease or are middle-aged or older.

You might need to go into hospital if you're diagnosed. The treatment can involve an antibiotic injection, oxygen through a face mask or nasal tubes, or a machine to help you breathe.

Once you’re well enough to go home you might have to take antibiotic pills at home for as long as three weeks. While most people recover well, it could take a while until you feel properly back to normal.

The disease is serious enough to merit special UK legislation, detailed in an HSC guide called Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) Legionnaires’ Disease: The control of Legionella bacteria in water systems L8.

How come traditional air conditioning is at risk of Legionnaires?

The main cause of Legionnaires disease contamination in ordinary air conditioning systems is bad design and poor maintenance. Every water-based aircon system should checked regularly and should also be cleaned frequently to stop the build-up of the algae, rust, sludge and limescale that the bacteria flourish on.

So what happens if it turns up at your business premises? As you can imagine, many companies will struggle to cope when one or more staff members are off sick for more than a week. A Legionnaires outbreak at your place it isn’t great for your reputation, either. So it’s good to know that while there are an estimated 40 million evaporative coolers on the planet, Legionnaires has NEVER been blamed on a wetted media evaporative cooler.

Why there’s never been a case of Legionnaires from evaporative cooling

Evaporative cooling isn’t a good environment for bacteria to settle and grow. The tech doesn’t contain dirty or stagnant water. The coolers automatically drain when not being used, so there’s no old water hanging around where diseases can breed. And the systems run on water at a low temperature, far too chilly for Legionella.

Evaporative cooling units’ integral water management system means there’s no corrosion or limescale and the systems don’t produce any aerosols because the air flows over the wet pads far too slowly to create and spread a fine mist. The units are maintained by qualified people to a regular schedule, and every service comes with a Legionella test and certificate.

Last but not least the supporting documentation and manual for the systems we recommend actually go further than the Government’s legislation recommends, giving you a belt-and-braces safety net.

Cost savings, energy savings and more

Evaporative cooling tech costs less than old-fashioned aircon to buy. It’s easy to fit and retrofit, inherently simple, and easy to maintain. It’s natural, clean, reliable and uses a lot less energy than a regular air conditioning system, saving you a fortune in electricity bills. No chemicals, no muck, no disease.

If you’d like to take your business premises to a fresh new place where the cooling system is comfortable, safe, clean, environmentally responsible, extremely efficient and creates a great atmosphere to work in, give us a call.

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Why it gets hotter in cities than the countryside

Mon, 08 Jul 2024 12:14:25 GMT

In 2020/21 there were just under 550,000 businesses registered in rural areas, accounting for 23% of all English registered businesses. The rest are based in towns and cities.

Look at the weather forecast and it’s often warmest of all in London. The same goes for the microclimates created in other large cities. But why does it get so much hotter in built-up areas?

As it turns out, the ‘urban heat island’ effect is mostly down to the smoothness of the landscape and the local climate, not the materials cities are made from. So let’s look at the science.

Why urban businesses get hotter

The urban heat island effect mostly impacts cities of more than a million people, making them 3C warmer on average than the surrounding area during the day and as much as 12°C warmer in the evenings.

People generate heat, as does the machinery of modern life: our ovens, microwaves, heaters, computers, hoovers, cars and whatnot. And air conditioning itself, counter-intuitively, can cause night time temperature rises of more than 1C, as discovered by a team at Arizona State University.

At the same time buildings themselves store more heat during the daytime than plants do, and after dark they let the heat back out again. Unlike plants, buildings don’t absorb energy to cool things down. If you’ve ever put your hand on a brick wall after dusk, when the sun has been shining on it all day, you can feel the heat being radiated back out into the air. But having said all that, the difference in evaporation between plants and buildings isn’t the biggest contributor to the heat island effect. It looks like the local climate is the real biggie.

A team from Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology in China wondered if similar cities located in different climates would see the same temperature increases from the urban heat island effect. They found that, at midnight, bigger cities saw a larger difference in temperature compared with the surrounding countryside than smaller cities. But at noon the wetter things were, the more dramatic the heat island impact became.

Computer modelling revealed interactions with the local climate made the most difference of all. In humid places convection is less efficient at getting rid of heat from built-up places than it is in rural areas, making them around 3C warmer than the surrounding countryside. In contrast because green areas are aerodynamically rougher than the smooth human-made surfaces we get in cities, convection is more efficient, moving more heat from the land into the atmosphere.

In deserts there’s no vegetation to speak of, making a desert city like Las Vegas around 20% better at removing heat from the surface by convection than the countryside. In some desert cities the difference in convection is so dramatic that that they don’t get any urban heat island effects at all. But things change after dark, whatever the climate. Then the day’s heat is released, creating the heat island effect by trapping the heat in the thin layer of atmosphere near the ground’s surface, meaning it can only escape horizontally. The bigger the city the further it has to go, leaving big city centres a lot warmer than the centres of smaller cities.

So can we fix it? Sort of. Reducing the heat from air conditioning will help a bit. Finding ways to reduce the amount of heat the machinery we live with generates will have an effect. We could even build our cities differently in the first place, but it isn’t practical. We’re stuck with the cities we’ve already got.

Experts recommend making cities more reflective to cut the amount of heat they absorb during the day. Apparently it isn’t difficult, but it isn’t likely to happen. We’d need to paint every city roof a pale colour to reflect the heat away. This would also have an impact on the amount of heat shoved out by traditional air conditioning, because we wouldn’t need as much air conditioning in the first place. And it’d mean CO2 emissions from energy-hungry aircon would fall, which would benefit us all.

How about your business. What can you do to stay cooler in your urban setting? You could get rid of your cranky, inefficient, noisy, dirty and expensive-to-run aircon system, replacing it with evaporative cooling units that require a fraction of the electricity used by air conditioning, cost less in the first place, are simple to fit and easy to retrofit.

If you’d like to discuss how evaporative cooling will cut your bills, slash your emissions and keep your urban business reliably cool even in the hottest weather, let’s talk.

Here comes the summer – Exploring industrial cooling

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 10:52:14 GMT

We’ve discussed it before: the higher the temperatures in workplaces soar, the worse humans feel and the more machinery, equipment and processes can suffer. It’s clearly becoming more of an issue as the climate warms but there’s a solution. Excitingly, unlike many solutions to potentially expensive problems, it’s actually relatively simple and saves a heap of money.

Evaporative cooling regulates the temperature beautifully no matter how hot it is outdoors or how much heat your business generates. Everything will keep on running safely and efficiently. And it costs a fraction of the amount it takes to run ordinary aircon. So let’s explore a bunch of different scenarios where evaporative cooler tech scores high.

The best way to cool a factory

Factories often use vast amounts of energy to keep cool, particularly when the equipment and machinery themselves generate heat. But sky high operating expenses and a significant carbon footprint are the last thing business owners need.

Factories are often large, open plan areas with high ceilings. Traditional air conditioning systems quickly rack up the cost by using large amounts of energy. When you harness eco-cooling as part of the factory’s mechanical ventilation system there’s no need for nasty chemical refrigerants, it’s low cost, it’s environmentally conscious and you can leave the doors and windows open as long as you like – it still stays lovely and cool inside. Clever or what!

The best way to cool a commercial laundry

Laundry cooling systems matter when the context naturally means things get unusually steamy and hot. All that washing and drying on a large scale shunts out extraordinary amounts of heat, made worse on a sunny summer’s day. If the ventilation isn’t up to scratch it can soon become unbearable, impacting your people and processes.

Evaporative laundry cooling gives you beautifully balanced ventilation using 100% clean, safe, fresh air, not recycled air, achieving optimal operational conditions for a fraction of the cost.

The best way to cool a warehouse

Warehouses are usually vast and airy. You’d think they’d stay pretty cool simply because of their size, but they quickly succumb to high temperatures. Add a mezzanine floor and because heat naturally rises, the higher you go the hotter it gets. In fact it gets around 1C hotter per metre of height. It’s pretty dramatic – you can probably feel it getting hotter as you climb the stairs.

You’d imagine it’d cost a fortune to heat a massive space but oddly, an evaporative warehouse cooling system used as part of a mechanical ventilation system comes with around 60% of the capital outlay you’d have to spend on regular aircon. At the same time it uses 90% less energy to run.

There’s more. The systems use 100% fresh air, making them environmentally friendly, and they’re 90% more efficient than traditional refrigerant-based systems. Fit just one unit and it can cover a huge area measuring 250 square metres while using the same amount of electricity as a kettle.

The best way to cool a pharmaceutical setting

Precise temperature control is an absolute must in the pharmaceutical sector to keep products stable, safe and effective. Storage has to be compliant with MHRA ( Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency ) standards, which regulate medicines, medical devices and blood components for transfusion in the UK. However hot it gets, companies in the sector must comply or risk thermal shock through fluctuating temperatures.

Evaporative cooling takes the biscuit here as well, both effective and compliant, using simple water vapour to do an excellent job of maintaining stable temperatures. The systems we recommend achieve the strict standards demanded by the MHRA, dovetailing beautifully with pharmaceutical storage, transport and distribution.

The best way to cool a food production facility

As you can imagine the same goes for food production facilities, where health and hygiene are also paramount. Food production companies benefit from the same startlingly low installation and running costs however hot it gets. You can even achieve perfect blanket cooling and spot cooling cleverly tailored to your space, and because this type of cooling adds humidity to the air it’s brilliant for settings where humidity is an asset, for example bakeries and wine production.

Want to talk Industrial Cooling Systems?

Come to us for the best-in-breed industrial cooling systems that cost less to fit and retrofit than regular aircon, keep your place cooler more reliably, use very little energy and need very little maintenance, all without refrigerant chemicals. We’ll help you become cooler and greener, and spend less on electricity.

Say NO to hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants with eco-cooling

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 10:52:11 GMT

Excessive heat in the workplace makes people feel sluggish, tied and dull. It also affects a shocking number of the ingredients and materials used to make products, the products themselves, and the critical processes involved in running a successful business. At the same time traditional air conditioning can have a catastrophic impact on the climate.

The world needs an energy-efficient cooling solution. We need tech that doesn’t use any dangerous chemicals. And it has to be easy and affordable to buy, install and retro-fit as well as cheap to run.

Luckily the solution is already here. Evaporative cooling is the answer. It works brilliantly without as much as a sniff of the dodgy hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants used in regular air conditioning. And that makes it the most eco-friendly alternative to air conditioning on the planet.

The problem with hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants

The refrigerants used in air conditioning units are usually hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants, and they’re a major contributor to global warming. These powerful greenhouse gases aren’t just harmful to the climate, they also mean an aircon system must be inspected regularly, adding extra costs.

Hydrofluorocarbons contain organic compounds made up of hydrogen, fluorine, and carbon. They don’t occur naturally, they’re made especially to use primarily as refrigerants and have been widely used since the late ‘80s, when the Montreal Protocol phased out the incredibly nasty chemicals like halons and chlorofluorocarbons – CFCs – that were making an enormous hole in the planet’s ozone layer. While HFCs don’t deplete ozone they have an equally sinister impact as potent greenhouse gases, which is why they’ve been increasingly strictly regulated since the turn of this century.

So on the face if it some HFCs look harmless enough. They don’t smell or burn, they’re stable chemicals, and they don’t react with anything much. On the other hand because some of them form liquids at room temperature they’re used as refrigerants in a wide range of cooling systems, in fridges and freezers as well as car and building aircon units.

Once they enter the earth’s atmosphere HFCs decompose quite fast compared to CFCs, which can stick around for a century in the atmosphere. But they break down in the lowest part of our atmosphere, the troposphere, where the carbon-fluorine bonds they contain trap infrared rays from the sun and send radiant energy toward the ground. This horrible ‘positive radiative forcing effect’ contributes dramatically to climate change.

In 2007 the average 100 year global warming potential of these HFCs was estimated at 3770 times more than CO2, and that’s pretty scary. But some of them are a lot worse, for example HFC-23, AKA trifluoromethane, stays in the atmosphere for 270 years and its 100 year global warming potential is a horrific 11,700 times more than CO2.

Evaporative Cooling is cleaner, cheaper, greener, and works harder

Air con re-circulates indoor air inside a closed system, with no fresh air coming in from the outdoors. In businesses where there’s a lot of dust or dirt, smells or fumes, they’re re-circulated along with the air. You can filter them out but that means investing in yet more tech and it’s tricky as well as unreliable. Sometimes it’s impossible.

Evaporative cooling forms part of a balanced ventilation system, where the air indoors is constantly being replaced with fresh air. Pollutants are removed without a fuss, with no need for costly filtration.

The risk of airborne diseases spreading is slashed. CO2 is kept within acceptable limits. The systems use just 10% of the energy of air conditioning. The capital outlay is also impressively low at less than half the cost of aircon. It cools enormous spaces efficiently and effectively. And you don’t have to cool an entire space, you can ‘spot cool’ specific areas that need it most.

If your air con is on its last legs, you’re replacing it to bring your CO2 targets closer, or you’re building a brand new premises for your business, evaporative cooling will do a brilliant job as well as saving you a fortune and helping the organisation fight climate change. If that sounds good, get in touch for an interesting and inspiring discussion.

Evaporative cooling transforms the education sector

Fri, 21 Jun 2024 10:51:17 GMT

Evaporative cooling is a simple, safe, natural alternative to aircon, giving organisations a dramatic reduction in cooling costs of as much as 90%. As well as cooling and ventilation for data centres, telecoms, retail, warehousing, manufacturing, sports and leisure centres, the tech is also having a big positive impact in the public sector. In this post we’ll take a look at public sector cooling for schools and universities.

Helping a UK university meet energy standards and hit carbon targets

Most public sector environments these days have energy standards and carbon regulations to meet. That’s why respected institutions like Westminster University, Leicester City Council and Aberdeen University have chosen evaporative cooling going forwards.

Evaporative cooling tech maximises energy savings, is affordable, and comes with a super-low carbon footprint. And that’s what one of the UK’s leading universities for student sport wanted for their superbly-equipped gym building.

The summer used to have a dramatic impact on the uni’s gym, which was becoming ever-more uncomfortable through the unprecedented heatwaves we’ve seen in recent years. In winter great ventilation is just as important to keep the space smelling and feeling fresh by banishing odours. CO2 being an important factor, they also wanted a system that can prevent its build-up while people are exercising.

In everyday conditions where C02 levels aren’t measured, building regulations say there has to be 10L per second of air per person entering the building, in other words more than 1000L a second in a gym designed to take 100 people. An inside temperature of 20C is required when it’s 0C outside, using up 2kW of energy on central heating to heat the incoming air.

Their evaporative cooling system minimises heating energy by constantly measuring the CO2 in the building and only bringing in fresh air when CO2 levels exceed 1000 parts per minute (ppm).

The external air is heated using a radiator system then re-circulated to keep things comfortably warm even when there are only a few people using the gym. Two long ducts distribute the air throughout the space without causing a draught, keeping the conditions consistent.

As more people enter the gym, CO2 levels rise. The fresh air unit activates when CO2 reaches 1000 ppm, mixing with hot air from outside to deliver the perfect temperature. When the air no longer needs heating, the radiator switches itself off and the hot air is taken out through fans on the wall, taking all those delightful gym smells with it. No refrigerants chemicals are needed and the system uses just 50-60W of electricity.

Cooling a Suffolk primary school

Suffolk County Council needed to handle the excessive heat in classrooms at a local primary school. The first floor rooms got so hot they couldn’t be used on summer afternoons, thanks to enormous solar gain combined with the natural build-up of latent heat. Instead, the children took their lessons outdoors on the playing field.

An evaporative cooling system turned out to be the best solution so the school fitted ceiling diffusers through the void in the ceilings to send in large amounts of fresh, filtered, cooled outside external air. The result is a lovely, comfy environment for the kids and teachers.

Open windows provide a way to naturally extract the used air and replace it with a continual pressurised supply of cold fresh air. While the rooms’ temperature used to easily hit 35 to 40C on a hot day, now they stay at a pleasant 22 to 25C.

The school can either use manual operation, with five fan speeds to choose from and the option to pick either pure ventilation or evaporative cooling, or automatic operation. When the system is switched to automatic a combined thermostat and humidistat creates and maintains the set temperature.

Most of the time a setting of 2 or 3 is perfect, with the cooling element of the system only needed in summer. Because the tech’s efficiency exceeded what was actually needed, the evaporative cooling system installers added an inline damper and a second duct feed to send lovely fresh air to the ground floor classrooms as well, an extra bonus for the school.

Whether you’re in charge of a public or private sector organisation’s cooling and ventilation, we’ll be delighted to quote you on a system that’ll suit your needs perfectly.

Best cooling system for the pharmaceutical sector

Thu, 30 May 2024 10:09:11 GMT

Evaporative cooling is natural, environmentally friendly and cost effective, using less than 10% of the electricity needed to run traditional air conditioning. The stability of pharmaceutical products often requires precise temperature control. It’s an excellent match, as you’ll see. If you need to cool your pharmaceutical facility to perfection whatever the weather, read on.

Absolutely brilliant tailored cooling for the pharmaceutical sector

The days of expensive, inefficient, complicated old-school aircon are over. Evaporative pharmaceutical cooling systems are an excellent alternative, harnessing simple, low cost water evaporation to keep temperatures exactly where they need to be, even in the most unprecedented conditions.

With the climate steadily warming and the weather becoming ever-less predictable, the pharma sector needs systems that maintain the critical balance required to store temperature-sensitive products safely. Luckily evaporative pharmaceutical cooling systems can save as much as 90% on cooling costs as well as creating MHRA compliant conditions without refrigeration. You also slash carbon emissions compared to regular aircon - and the air that’s output is always 100% fresh and clean.

Common problems with MRHA approved warehousing

The high cost of refrigeration means MHRA approved warehouses often rely on ventilation. But ordinary ventilation struggles to cope when temperatures spike then stay hot, as we’re seeing in the unexpected long-term heatwaves we’re increasingly experiencing.

Evaporative pharmaceutical cooling provides a reliable solution that complies with the needs of temperature-sensitive products as well as meeting the right MHRA standards and ticking the financial boxes. You’ll be impressed by its ability to dovetail perfectly with the complex demands of pharmaceutical storage, transportation, and distribution. No wonder it’s being used by some of the EU’s biggest pharmaceutical businesses.

While the stringent standards set by the MHRA are a tough call for traditional systems, evaporative cooling can be extremely precisely engineered to meet and exceed MHRA compliance, safeguarding your facility even when the heat is prolonged.

The magic of evaporative cooling for pharma – An example

Imagine you’re a world-class developer and manufacturer of wound care and surgical products, which come with special storage needs. You’re tasked with making sure the conditions in a new or existing warehouse meet MHRA approved standards.

The standards say you have to store your pharmaceutical products between 5C and 25C whatever the weather outdoors, and you want to do it in a future-proof way that won’t let you down as the climate becomes even less predictable.

Evaporative cooling units are the perfect solution, designed to cool big areas like warehouses effectively and efficiently, even when the doors are constantly being opened and closed. In our example the ideal configuration involves seven wall-mounted cooling units and a corresponding number of extraction fans, each controlled with a timer and thermostat.

As well as the coolers, a clever temperature mapping system uses nine remote rack-mounted sensors and one external sensor to automatically log temperatures and present them online, giving excellent visibility and control to the team responsible for cooling. Better still, at night they set lower temperatures to take advantage of free ‘ventilation only’ cooling.

The result is warehousing that’s perfect for storing products in line with MHRA standards. The cooling system costs 90% less than aircon to run, uses no refrigerants whatsoever, and contributes to sustainability targets. It works like a dream, reliably keeping the facility below the maximum temperature, and the temperature mapping system makes it super-easy to monitor and control.

Explore low cost, high efficiency cooling for pharma

That’s what we call a winner – and it’s just as simple to retro-fit as it is to install the tech to a new building. If that sounds good to you, join the evaporative cooling revolution – get in touch and together we’ll explore how it’ll work at your place.

Low cost cooling for manufacturers, hospitals and sports centres

Thu, 30 May 2024 10:09:09 GMT

You need your business premises to stay cool. But you also want to keep the cost of cooling as low as you can, choose the most efficient system, and keep your CO2 emissions down as well.

If anyone tries to tell you that you can’t have it all... you actually can.

Evaporative cooling tech is unusually economical to buy and install. Your electricity bill ‘drops off a cliff’ compared to ordinary aircon because you use 90% less power to run the system. It cools beautifully in a way that feels natural and pleasant. It doesn’t use any refrigerants, just water. And the carbon footprint evaporative coolers generate is tiny.

Here’s what evaporative cooling has done in three common business settings: a furniture manufacturing firm, a hospital, and a sports centre.

Environmentally friendly cooling and ventilation for a furniture factory

Heating, ventilation and cooling always play a crucial role in manufacturing but it can be a particularly tough call when the buildings tend to be huge as well as open to the air. At the same time you often have a whole load of employees on the shop floor. So you need a solution that prevents overheating from intensive machine-based manufacturing and keeps your people alert, comfortable and productive. And you don’t want things to get chilly in winter.

An effective cooling and ventilation system is one thing. Environmental friendliness is another. And that means traditional air conditioning doesn’t fit the bill. You need an alternative cooling solution, and as it turns out evaporative cooling is ideal. It ticks all the boxes: affordability, super-low running costs, low emissions, and high efficiency.

An energy efficient air cooling solution for a community hospital

For every hospital, the health, comfort and care of patients is the priority. Everyone involved naturally goes the extra mile to create a safe and comfortable environment for patients, visitors and staff.

The thing is, many of our hospitals are pretty old, in older buildings whose aircon systems are often cranky, expensive to run, a nightmare for climate change and not as efficient as they need to be as things get ever-warmer outdoors. With NHS budgets at crisis point, the sheer cost of maintaining an old, inefficient aircon system can be daunting.

You could replace the old aircon with new aircon but there’s a much better solution than fitting an equally expensive system, especially when the hospital doors and windows have to stay open when it’s hot, to provide ventilation. The air has to be clean, which is a problem with traditional refrigerant solutions because they merely re-circulate the air, potentially re-introducing nasty bacteria and viruses.

Evaporative cooling deals with all the issues faced by healthcare environments. It offers much lower running costs, doesn’t use re-circulated air, and cools areas reliably even on the hottest days.

Ventilation and cooling for a brand new sports centre

You might be able to find the perfect climbing centre venue to buy or rent. Or you might decide to purpose-build, in which case you have the opportunity to design a state of the art setting. Whatever the sport, part of the decision-making process involves ventilation and cooling systems, simply because your customers will be working hard and generating heat.

When great air quality is essential, evaporative cooling steps in with the perfect solution. It ensures comfortable temperatures for everyone while at the same time maximising the amount of fresh air coming into the building.

In addition to all this positive stuff there’s also the fact that these systems are simplicity itself, which means they’re easy to maintain. One annual visit usually does the trick. As well as speccing out the ideal system for your premises, giving you a great quote, providing the tech itself and fitting it for you, we can arrange the maintenance.

If that sounds like a no-brainer, it is. This is very cool tech! So give us a call to chat about it.

Evaporative cooling insights - How hot is too hot?

Thu, 30 May 2024 10:07:45 GMT

Everyone’s different. Some of us can spend hours in a hot place and feel fine, others start to wilt as soon as the temperature starts to climb. But the human body has limits whatever we can personally tolerate, and being too hot can quickly affect our performance at work.

What happens to humans when we get too hot?

Our bodies prefer to be at 37°C or 98.6°F, the stable core temperature that suits us best. It’s regulated by the hypothalamus, which monitors things using temperature receptors in our skin. If we get hotter, it takes action. The brain sends nerve impulses to the skin, which begins to sweat, sending blood to the surface where evaporation cools us down.

When it isn’t too hot we can lose heat naturally via something called dry heat loss, simply because our skin temperature is warmer than the environment. So far, so good. But once things soar above 37°C, life starts getting complicated as the body struggles to achieve balance. We sweat more, the sweating gets more intense, and we start to feel tired. Nausea can follow, along with vomiting and diarrhoea.

Sweating means losing liquid, which leaves us at risk of ‘heat syncope’, where the flow of blood to the brain slows down. This can lead to fainting. Add humidity and the impact is more dramatic because it makes it even harder for the body to sweat. Leave it too long and your organs can actually start to cook, risking organ failure.

Some experts say the upper limit of safety, taking humidity into account as well as extreme heat, is 35C or 95F when there’s 100% humidity and 46C or 115F at 50% humidity. You can read more about the effects of humidity here , particularly important if your commercial premises is naturally humid or easily gets sticky because of the work you do or the materials you use.

If the temperature rises to 39°C or 102.2°F, we can’t lose heat via dry heat loss anymore and we feel very tired because our muscles automatically slow down. We can drink water to stay hydrated but that doesn’t help replace the electrolytes we lose through sweating. The imbalance can create painful cramps. The hotter it gets, the more confused and dizzy we get as we lose yet more fluids. At this point we find it hard to cope with the simplest of tasks.

At the extreme end of things we get heat oedema, when the body dilates the blood vessels to remove as much heat as possible. The blood can pool in the hands and ankles, a sure sign we’re in big trouble.

40°C or 104°F sees our bodies desperate to find water, taking it from our fat cells, muscles, kidneys, and blood. Because there’s so little water left our vital organs and brain start to shut down and our cells begin to deteriorate. When the body can’t pump blood to the skin any more our cooling system fails and we can’t sweat. This usually happens at around 41°C or 105.8°F but as we’ve said, it can occur at lower temperatures when it’s humid as well as hot.

Once the body is too hot inside and out, blood flow to the brain reduces and the pressure in the skull soars. When damaged tissue gets into the bloodstream our kidneys fail. If it hits 49°C or 120°F the heat starts to destroy cells causing permanent damage through heat stroke, which comes with a 10% mortality rate. If you’re particularly young, old or obese you’re at more risk.

As temperatures continue to rise thanks to climate change, more of us are at risk of heat-related illnesses. But it doesn’t have to get that much hotter before people start to struggle at work. To perform at our best we need a stable core body temperature.

Exposure to extreme heat reduces worker productivity indoors in manufacturing, food, transport and other commercial settings where the environment isn’t effectively climate-controlled. Take the USA, where the output in car manufacturing facilities was 8% lower in weeks with six 90°F (32.2 °C) days . Judges, financial traders and government officials have also been revealed to be less productive when it’s too hot.

At the same time heat fatigue can drive more workplace injuries, including non-heat-related injuries like falling from a height or being hurt by a machine. One study using data from two decades of workplace injuries showed how working on days when it was hotter than 100F boosts non-heat-related injuries by as much as 6%, with obvious impacts on production and output as well as potential insurance claims by workers. On a nationwide scale, GDP is always lower in hot years. In fact some say a 1C hotter year creates a 2% decline in overall economic activity, a substantial loss.

Evaporative cooling keeps business going

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.

Your one-stop-shop for carbon neutral cooling, heating and lighting

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 15:05:02 GMT

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

Servicing for evaporative cooling systems - Experienced experts

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 10:36:47 GMT

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.

Evaporative cooling systems for offices and warehouses

Wed, 27 Mar 2024 14:23:04 GMT

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.

How to cool a factory without spending a fortune

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 10:26:53 GMT

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.

Why effective cooling is essential for crypto mining and AI

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 10:42:21 GMT

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.

Evaporative cooling slashes Subway energy consumption by 75%

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMT

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.

See your food production facility cooling bill ‘drop off a cliff’

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 07:45:00 GMT

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.

Save money and stay warmer with FAR Infrared heating

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 09:00:00 GMT

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.

19 reasons why commercial evaporative cooling is a winner

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 13:12:51 GMT

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.

Commercial energy expert

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 13:07:42 GMT

Weather predictions for 2024

Energy is probably one of your biggest business costs, if not the biggest of all. And it isn’t really a fixed cost any more, simply because the uncertainties around climate change mean it’s harder than ever to predict everyday energy usage.

Will we have an unprecedented early April heat wave that sends thermometers rocketing in the workplace? Or will we have a late frost so severe you need to dial the heating back up just when you thought spring was here? They’re both a lot more likely than they’d have been, even just a few years ago.

So the important question for 2024 is this: what’s the UK weather likely to do? Because climate change naturally makes things less predictable, it’s a tough call. But here are some predictions from the experts.

UK weather predictions for 2024
First, the Met Office. They provide a three month outlook, so what do they predict for February and March 2024? They say the risk of a cold period is slightly higher than normal, which means the chance of ice, fog and snow are increased, and they say it’s a bit less likely to be very wet. But then they go on to say further rainfall is likely given the unusually wet start to the winter.

While this is interesting, when you’re trying to balance your energy budget for the year it isn’t particularly helpful. How are things looking in a more general, wider sense?

For 2024 worldwide the Met Office is predicting something called a ‘two-stage spike in global temperature’, made worse by the latest El Niño event that’s already heating up the Pacific and by humanity’s ongoing emissions. Last time there was an El Nino, in 2016, we saw a dramatic hike in the heat and a world record was broken. 2023 broke records too, and 2024 is set to break more.

Global average temperatures are forecast, for the first time, to break the 1.5 °C record in 2024, rising by anything between 1.34 °C and 1.58 °C above the average for the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period against which they’re measured. This is the 11th year in a row where temperatures have climbed 1.0 °C or more above their pre-industrial levels.

All this falls directly in line with the ongoing global warming trend of 0.2 °C per decade, made worse by this year’s ‘significant’ El Niño. It means two new global temperature record-breaking years in succession are expected, leading the Met Office to forecast a ‘a reasonable chance’ of the coming year temporarily exceeding 1.5 °C above pre-industrial temperatures. While this doesn’t quite break the Paris Agreement it’s a ‘milestone in climate history’ that we really didn’t want to reach.

The heat is going to keep on rising by the look of it, and that means businesses whose products or services are sensitive to heat, or whose employees will suffer unduly from it, need to make sensible preparations.

The best way to keep a business cool
How do you keep your foodservice premises cool enough to meet food safety standards? How do you keep a school cool enough for pupils and teachers to work effectively? How do you keep the office comfortable so people can deliver their best work? And what if your business involves a lot of activity? If it’s a gym or sports centre, people just won’t be able to play and exercise effectively when it’s too hot to move, never mind exert yourself.

The solution is affordable, highly effective, and cheap-to-run cooling that’s easy to fit and works brilliantly. It’s also the only cooling method that does it all, and it’s called evaporative cooling.

How much does evaporative cooling cost?
Here’s an example of the cost of evaporative cooling, the best alternative to traditional air conditioning .

One building measuring 15m x 15m
X evaporative cooling unit costing £3-4K each
Fitted in your premises with extraction £10 -15k

Commercial energy prices have surged – will they go back down?

Mon, 29 Jan 2024 09:54:38 GMT

As a business you have a set of fixed costs that underpin everything you do, the costs you can’t avoid. One of them is bound to be energy. In this article we examine what’s in store for commercial energy prices in 2024, and how you can cut your bills down to the bone thanks to our brilliant energy-efficient heating systems.

Energy prices have surged – Will they go down in 2024?
Whatever you make or do, it’s important to keep cool when it’s hot and warm when it’s cold. At the same time gas and electricity prices make up a bigger chunk of business outgoings than ever before. So where do you stand for 2024?

Energy prices went nuts in 2022, and then calmed down a bit in 2023. Now, in 2024, energy prices are still double what they were in early 2021.

The business Energy Bill Relief Scheme lasted six months from October 2022 to March 2023, replaced by the Energy Bills Discount Scheme that came into being on 1st April 2023. The change brought dramatic reductions in funding. In fact prices haven’t moved beyond the minimum threshold since December 18th 2022, months before the scheme was even created.

There’s no price cap on commercial energy. Even if business energy rates fall, the prices aren’t capped. In fact business energy prices change as the market changes. A 50% fall in wholesale prices has seen rates drop by 50% since October, but it’s meaningless as far as the future is concerned. In fact Ofgem thinks it’s unlikely we’ll see prices drop to pre-energy-crisis rates this decade, if ever.

Energy prices are falling at the moment thanks to a drop in demand during winter 2022-23, which was unusually mild, and to people and businesses consciously using less energy to save money. At the same time the impact of the Ukraine war is easing, supported by the EU reducing their reliance on Russian gas. Instead they’ve stocked up on liquid natural gas from worldwide sources. Energy prices fell again over summer 2023, when demand naturally fell because of the warm weather. But despite the fall, wholesale energy prices remain higher than pre-pandemic levels.

The overall picture? While wholesale energy prices have fallen, the actual cost of energy is still very high indeed.

About today’s wholesale energy prices
The ‘delivery contract rate’ is the wholesale price suppliers pay for the energy they supply to homes and businesses. As we write the cost of wholesale gas is around 135p per therm and wholesale electricity comes in at around £120 per MWh. Something called ‘day-ahead contract rates’ reveal the way prices change in the so-called ‘spot market’ which sells and buys energy as demand fluctuates. These prices affect the delivery contract rates.

The amount a business pays is calculated using the size and type of the business, and the amount of energy you use, when you use it. The area you’re based also has an effect. But the most dramatic influence on energy prices is everyday supply and demand.

Prices have been super-volatile for the last year because supply and demand have been affected more than usual by global events like war and supply chain issues. That’s why suppliers tend to trade on futures markets, a reasonable way to increase certainty about supply and prices.

At the moment some suppliers are quoting sky-high rates, some are refusing to quote at all, and others have left the market altogether until things calm down – if they ever do. As a result wholesale energy prices are stuck at record highs.

Because there’s no commercial cap, out-of-contract gas rates have shot up by an average of 180%, and out-of-contract electricity rates by 130% since August 2021. Add the closure of Nord Stream 1, severe problems with energy infrastructure like the delays to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline going live, and serious damage to the LNG plant in Texas, mean the world’s businesses are struggling – but the UK is worse off than most.

Over here we struggled to maximise wind power last year because of low winds. Some nuclear power stations had outages, which meant they used more gas than usual. And the way the UK energy system works, tying renewable energy to gas prices, forced renewable energy prices up along with gas. There was a fire at a critical National Grid in Kent, and because the UK has very low gas reserves compared to the EU we can’t stockpile it. A lack of government support completes a perfect storm that is leaving businesses with real problems affording energy.

Will the cost of energy drop in 2024?
The answer is, nobody really knows. The market remains unusually volatile and therefore hard to predict. Some forecasts say energy prices will stay horribly high throughout 2024. The Energy Bills Discount Scheme stops at the end of March. There are no plans to replace it... yet. And the government has stalled on the VAT reduction they promised.

There’s no reduction in the charges not directly linked to energy wholesale prices. And there’s very little hope that there’ll be a commercial energy price cap or emergency government energy grants on the cards despite negotiations by UK Chambers of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Retailers. Nobody knows what’s in store after the General Election either, so it’s a case of hang onto your hats and hope for the best.

The best energy saving heating and cooling for businesses
We’ve sourced today’s best, most energy-efficient ways to heat and cool business premises. They’re reliable, affordable, and do a top job of reducing the amount of power a business uses. If you’d like to know more, we’ll be pleased to discuss the potential with you.

Festive wishes to our customers and visitors

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 17:00:02 GMT

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, this time of year is all about goodwill. So here’s to a wonderful holiday and a happy and successful New Year.

The winter Solstice on 21st December is when the days start getting a little longer and the nights shorter, heralding spring. It’s always great to see the days lengthening and brightening again after a gloomy, wet winter.

We’ve had an exciting year, with more businesses than ever coming to us for innovative, contemporary, and surprisingly affordable solutions to an energy price crisis that just keeps rumbling on.

Keep life comfy in 2024 with energy-efficient evaporative cooling
Those who’ve fitted our popular evaporative cooling technology had a comfortable, cool spring and summer while others roasted, especially during the dramatic spring heatwave we suffered. Will we see another heatwave in 2024? It’s a lot more likely than it used to be even five years ago.

If you found life far too hot and sticky in 2023 you know what to do – call us for a chat about evaporative cooling tech and see your electricity bills plummet.

Harness the brilliance of FAR infrared heating or smart radiators
How about the remainder of the winter? FAR infrared heating could save you a small fortune in energy thanks to its efficiency and the powerful way it heats things, not just the air. It’s at the forefront of CO2 reduction too, a proven way to use less energy therefore emit less greenhouse gases.

Smart electric heating is another top solution to save money on electricity. While others struggle with bills and worry about turning the radiators on, you can keep cosy thanks to rads so uber-controllable they’re billed as ‘total control’.

If a state of the art commercial electric radiator system is on your radar, let’s talk. They’re controllable via laptop, phone or tablet from anywhere in the world, giving you 100% control of the temperature to +/- 0.1 degree in every room, building and location.

It goes without saying that every single item of energy efficient tech we handle is certified ad approved to the correct level.

Bring the brilliance of low-energy, high brightness LED lighting to your business
Old-school lighting tech is shockingly energy-inefficient, and ordinary bulbs have to be replaced frequently. LED lighting makes an enormous difference to bills and to the quality and reliability of the light emitted. As you’ll already know when a space is properly lit, you get productivity benefits. We’d love to talk about that with you as well!

Raising a glass to you and yours for 2024
Here’s wishing you and the people you love an excellent Xmas and your business a positive, profitable New Year.

Excellent evaporative cooling, fabulous FAR infrared heating

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 17:00:00 GMT

The climate is steadily becoming less predictable, which is in turn affecting the weather. While we’re used to varied, fast-changing and unpredictable weather conditions here in the UK, it’s going to become even harder to predict as time passes. At the same time energy prices are still hideously high with no real hope of them coming down to a reasonable rate any time soon.

Not so long ago the UK was mostly a stranger to air conditioning. Aircon was something businesses only needed in hot countries and aircon units at home were almost unheard of. Now cooling is just as important as heating, and it’s going to become more vital as the climate continues to change.

Because we’ve almost certainly missed the target of 1.5 degrees above the average temperature in the pre-industrial world, the uncertainty is only going to increase for the foreseeable future.

Is your business preparing for a profitable long haul?
Against this unpredictable energy consumption landscape, wise businesses are preparing themselves for the long haul. They’re doing what they can to become more energy efficient, keep bills under control, and gain a competitive advantage over other companies still paying a fortune for old-school heating and cooling systems.

It’s also a matter of comfort for customers and employees alike. Whether you operate a chain of hotels, a food production factory, a public transport network or you’re in the entertainment or health sectors, comfort matters. People will soon start to abandon businesses whose premises are too darned uncomfortable to spend time in. Luckily we have the solutions to efficient, affordable heating and cooling, and they’re exceptional as regards energy conservation.

This is how businesses save money on energy bills
To save cash on heating and cooling your premises, invest in affordable FAR infrared heating. It’s a proven way to warm spaces more efficiently while slashing bills. Then fit intelligent evaporative cooling units to keep the space naturally cooler, making another impressive dent in your fixed overheads.

In a world where uncertainty can be a business-killer these innovative, proven heating and cooling technologies help give you a level of certainty around energy bills. Even if the price of energy keeps going up, your bills will be lower than businesses that are still using old-school, less efficient, power-hungry air cooling and heating systems.

Slash your home heating and cooling bills as well
You know we had a heatwave in spring 2023? It was a follow-on from the intense heat that made the first lockdown so uncomfortable for so many of us. Stuck in a city flat with big picture windows, with no way to shade the interiors, some people found it impossible to stay cool. During the unusually cold month we had in late 2022 the same applied – plenty of us struggled to stay warm, too scared to turn the heating up because of the cost.

These extreme weather events are not going away, they’re set to become more acute and more frequent. Luckily FAR infrared heating units and evaporative cooling tech are also suitable for use at home, cutting your domestic energy bills dramatically while delivering great performance to keep everyone at your place cosy when it’s cold and cool when it’s hot.

Our fantastic smart electric heaters are another great choice, each infinitely controllable at source as well as remotely using wireless tech to keep your house at the perfect temperature whatever’s happening outdoors.

When’s the best time to act?
So when’s the best time to re-think your cooling and heating systems at home and at work? Basically it’s now. Give us a call and we’ll talk you through the potential and answer your questions – no strings attached.

‘Crazy, off the charts’ climate records are being broken

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 14:53:23 GMT

“The swings from year to year due to natural variability mean that global temperatures rise like a staircase, rather than a straight line, and we’re seeing a big step up so far this year.” Professor Julie Arblaster, Monash University, Australia.

The world is seeing frequent record-shattering heatwaves and wildfires, and the warming climate is now destroying lives across both hemispheres. While we understand some of the impacts it’ll have on temperatures, in truth we’re flying blind: we just have to hope the overall global warming process isn’t accelerating faster than predicted. So let’s take a look at some of the latest heatwave record-breakers, the ever-more-frequent events that are making it increasingly important to stay cool.

July 2023 was the hottest month in human history
July 2023 was tipped as the hottest month in human history, but it could easily become the average July within as little as ten years. Climate scientists say recent events are just the tip of the iceberg, with today’s extreme heatwaves a drop in the ocean compared to what’s coming not far down the line.

Heatwave experts say it how it is
One heatwave expert, Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick at the University of New South Wales, says she’s not surprised most of the northern hemisphere had such severe heatwaves over the summer, but she was surprised by their intensity, which hints we could be reaching record-breaking extremes much sooner than expected.

Heatwave problems across the EU, USA, China, South America
130 million people across 22 states in the USA are under alert as a monster heatwave carries on, with 100 degree temperatures the norm and warnings about ‘brutal’ levels of humidity. In Texas electricity prices have soared by 6000% as people turn their aircon on full-blast.

Italy has reported its hottest day in 260 years. France has set new heatwave records. Switzerland is suffering a late summer heatwave with record-busting highs. And the Czech Republic is experiencing unseasonal record highs as well.

South America is sweltering under a horror of a heatwave, hinting that winter might actually be disappearing, and Beijing recently had its hottest June day in 60 years. In Brazil freak winter temperatures have hit 41 degrees, another record-breaker. There’s been a deadly heatwave in Jordan. Canada is struggling. And Greece has suffered terribly from heat-led wildfires, as well as the Canary island of Tenerife.

Stay cool with heavenly evaporative cooling – and save £££ on electricity
We do evaporative cooling. It’s highly effective as well as being great value for money, a cooling method offering excitingly low electricity usage. If you’d like to get cool while competing businesses are sweltering, let’s talk.

How creatures and humans keep cool

Wed, 23 Aug 2023 14:35:12 GMT

Lemurs hug tree trunks to cool off when temperatures hit 30C, enjoying the fact that the bottom of a tree trunk is always as much as 5C cooler as the surrounding air. Rodents, cats and whales don’t have sweat glands, nor do birds. Mammals that don’t sweat cool off via their kidneys as well as by panting. Cats use the same evaporative cooling as our systems, moistening their coat with saliva before panting to cool down. Big animals like elephants simply move more slowly than small ones to stay at a comfortable temperature.

Some desert-based antelopes, including the east African oryx, let their body temperature rise to as much as 45 °C, panting to preferentially cool the arterial blood feeding their brains. This helps them conserve water they’d otherwise have to use for evaporative cooling.

Because birds’ body temperatures are a few degrees higher than ours, they don’t always need to cool down as much as we do. But some storks, cormorants and vultures use a method called urohydrosis, urinating down their own legs to get wet, therefore stay cooler.

Infrared pictures of ostriches reveal they keep their necks cool when it gets hot, reducing heat stress and helping them reproduce more successfully. And the world’s second largest bird, the cassowary, has a fin-like structure on its head that acts like a radiator, helping it lose heat in Australia’s super-hot summers.

It’s all about thermoregulation. So how do humans stay cool?

About thermoregulation
Thermoregulation lets our bodies maintain their core internal temperature, supported by various mechanisms that keep us in the right state of equilibrium. The average human’s baseline temperature falls between 98°F (37°C) and 100°F (37.8°C).

If it falls lower than 96°F (35°C) you’re at risk of hypothermia. If your body temperature rises above 104°F (40°C) you can end up with heatstroke. If it continues to go up, it can lead to brain damage or death.

Fever, exercise, everyday digestion and high temperatures all make us heat up. When the hypothalamus, which controls how hot we get, senses our internal temperature is too high it signals to the muscles, organs, glands, and nervous system, all of which do their best to fix things.

If your body needs to cool down your sweat glands will start to release sweat, which cools the skin as it evaporates. Vasodilatation widens the blood vessels under the skin, increasing the blood flow to the skin and away from the warm inner body, letting the heat radiate out.

When it’s humid as well as hot, we feel even more uncomfortable because high humidity makes it harder to cool down. Because our sweat doesn’t evaporate as quickly, our skin temperature goes up and the weather feels hotter than it actually is.

Keeping comfortable when the weather’s roasting hot
It’s hard to think straight when you’re too hot, and if you’re too hot at work it means lost productivity. You need a low cost, efficient and deliciously cool way to keep your place at a comfortable temperature employees and anyone else at your place will love. That’s where our popular evaporative cooling systems come into their own. Our tech is perfect for gaining a competitive advantage when everyone else is wilting, a great way to ensure employee welfare as the climate heats up.

Save money and help curb climate change with LED lighting

Sun, 06 Aug 2023 13:15:00 GMT

You’ll notice the reduction in your bills. LED lighting drastically cuts the cost of illuminating homes and commercial premises, and it’s super-easy to install. It’s a simple change – but it makes an enormous difference. Here’s what you need to know about our LED lighting services, and how LEDs could change your life.

LED lighting: Improve productivity, enjoy better light, cut maintenance
The LED lighting systems we design for our clients cut maintenance, give people brighter light, and improve performance and productivity. Because we implement the system for you, and maintain it on your behalf, you can relax and more or less forget about it!

LED lighting is a brilliant solution for the many UK facility managers struggling with old fashioned, ineffective legacy lighting using vacuum fluorescent tubes and regular glass bulbs. The moment old bulbs fail you can start experiencing productivity and maintenance issues. LED lighting is different.

LED Lighting saves money compared to Halogen bulbs and fluorescent tubes – with LEDs, as much as 95% of the energy you pay for goes to heat the bulbs
LEDs cut your CO2 emissions and slash maintenance costs - Up to 90% energy saving compared to ordinary bulbs, plus as much as 50% fewer carbon emitted
You’ll see a fast return on your investment
LED bulbs have a very long life, making them a LOT cheaper in the long run - Fluorescent lighting tubes last 8,000 to 10,000 hours while LEDs last around 5 times longer
Very high quality light
They hit full power and full brightness instantly
No reduction in luminosity no matter how often the lights are turned on and off
Unlike regular bulbs LEDs don’t contain mercury, lead or any other toxic substances
They’re tough, not fragile, which means they’re safer
The bulbs stay cool so they’re safer – and they don’t make the space hot
Because there’s no UV light they don’t attract insects
Really easy to retrofit
Dimmable

How the LED installation process works
We start off by making an expert analysis of your current commercial lighting, and your needs. Our comprehensive knowledge of every aspect of the technology means the solution we recommend will save you money as well as vastly improving people’s ability to see clearly and cutting maintenance.

Our five year product warranties say it all. They prove the quality of our planning, the work we do, and the units we fit. And our on-site warranty means we’re happy to replace any failed lights at our own cost. That’s how confident we are.

We design systems based on science and data
Our reliable 3 step precision planning process means you get the perfect solution: a survey of the premises, an analysis of your needs, plus advanced computer modelling
Our 100% accurate simulations let you test various lighting scenarios before making a decision
You have full control and sign off
Every light is carefully chosen
We use existing power cables whenever possible
We make all the right health and safety assessments before the work starts
Our technicians are fully IPAF and IEEE accredited
LEDs place less load on the grid so there’s no need to upgrade your supply
The products we fit are proven, tried and tested
There’s minimal downtime while we’re installing your system

About our LED lighting systems
We use the excellent Mean W ell driver s which is, in our experience, the world’s best LED lighting transformer. Solid state parts means there’s nothing to break down. Clever lenses focus the light at the angle you need and you can position the heads directionally. Because LEDs run cool there’s no need for fans - so there’s no noise pollution.

Our lights are significantly tougher than most. They last for years with almost no light degradation, so you won’t need to do anything for the first 4-5 years.

Compared to a traditional 50W halogen bulb our 3W LED can reduce your energy costs by as much as 94%. Advanced lighting control uses Boolean logic and sensor arrays to control the lighting so you don’t have to. Motion detecting and auto-response to seasonal changes makes such a difference, taking humans out of the equation. Our control systems maximise the natural light while hitting recommended light levels whatever the season.

Let’s illuminate your business!
Want to know how our LED systems will boost your business? Get in touch for an inspiring conversation.

Reduce bills and slash CO2

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 13:11:32 GMT

All about FAR infrared heating

Why heat the whole environment unless you have to? It’s a question that has become ever-more important since the energy price crisis started to bite, eating holes in business’ profit margins.

Most of us are consciously making savings, and all of us are becoming a lot more aware of the way we use energy. But how many of us know about FAR infrared heating?

Far Infrared heating can be as much as 70% cheaper to run than most electric heating systems – and it’s an impressive 40-50% cheaper than gas and oil. Let’s take a look.

About FAR infrared heating - An energy saving alternative to gas and oil
You want to save money on gas or oil heating. You want to achieve a lovely, comfortable indoor temperature. You want to reduce your CO2 emissions. FAR does it all, whether you’re fitting it on an industrial scale or in a small space.

The benefits of FAR infrared heaters in bullets

As natural as the sun – and it feels just like sunshine
Free from ALL emissions including CO2
When you use green energy to run the system it is genuinely 100% CO2 free
Certified as 'low electrosmog' by TÜV, an international independent service company that tests, inspects and certifies technical systems to GS standards as well as CE standards, meeting every safety standard for UK use
No pipes or radiators – the heaters either fix to a wall or ceiling for connection to the mains or can be simply fitted with a plug that goes into an ordinary socket
Heats people and surfaces, not the air
Reduced dust and fewer pollutants - great for people who suffer from asthma or allergies
Reduces damp and mould because it heats the fabric of the building, not the air
The entire room or space reaches the same comfortable temperature
Up to 70% cheaper to run than most electric heating systems
40-50% cheaper than gas and oil
Keeps the environment cosy 24/7

How does FAR infrared heating work?
Traditional radiators heat spaces with convection heat, while FAR infrared heats people and objects. The heaters convert electricity into radiant heat, which then transfers to people and surfaces without heating the air in between.

Because all the surfaces are heated - the walls, floors and ceilings – a good amount of thermal mass is built up. This keeps the room warm even when you open a window or door, making it particularly handy in places where people are always coming in and out, for example offices and shops.

Infrared heating is instant. It starts getting up to temperature straight away and reaches the temperature you want within a few minutes. Programmable and WiFi-controlled heaters are even more energy efficient because you can fine-tune the settings so well.

Find out more about FAR infrared heating
Would you like to know how FAR infrared heating will save you money and do a top job of keeping the place perfectly warm? Give us a call or send us a message.

Professional servicing for evaporative cooling systems

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 12:14:08 GMT

Service your evaporative coolers at least once a year

Some suppliers sell and run. We sell and stick around, giving you the ongoing support you need to comply with maintenance recommendations and stay cool. Here’s how we’ll help you, with professional servicing of the evaporative cooling systems we provide and fit.

Service your evaporative coolers at least once a year
Manufacturers recommend servicing an evaporative cooling system at least once a year. If it’s out in the open air, twice a year is a sensible frequency. At Cool Technology we provide handy full maintenance and servicing agreements for every brand of evaporative cooler.

We’re highly experienced in accessing coolers wherever they happen to be, thanks to our own 17m boom lift, 7.5m scissor lift, and ladders, and our engineers are properly qualified to operate the equipment.

Cleanliness matters so we clean the units thoroughly every time, using a pressure washer and/or vacuum cleaner depending on the situation. We’ll also clean any fly screens, or replace them with clean screens. All we use is elbow grease - no chemical cleaning products.

We check the configuration, parameters and dip switches on every unit to make sure the coolers are running at optimum efficiency according to the conditions, and we check every moving part including pumps, valves, solenoids and more, replacing them if necessary. We can put our hands on most spare parts immediately, at the manufacturers recommended retail price.

We’ll also make recommendations around how to improve the system and warn you if any future repairs or replacements are likely. If your unit is outdoors we’ll turn off the water supply in winter, when you don’t need to be cooled, to prevent pipes and valves freezing. We’ll isolate and drain the water supply where possible, and in spring we’ll reconnect it for you.

A Bond Strap might come in handy. If so we can fit one for you, protecting the unit against extreme weather and keeping unauthorised people away. At the end, before we leave, we’ll give you a detailed written report about any servicing, maintenance and parts replacement, including our observations and recommendations.

Legionella Risk Assessment is a big deal, and we include that too. As long as there are no worries about your system we’ll issue a Legionella Risk Assessment after each visit, valid for a year and meeting your Health and Safety Commission (HSC) Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) Legionnaires Disease: The control of legionella bacteria in water systems L8 obligations.

Evaporative cooling system support whenever you need it
We’ll provide mobile contact numbers in case you need emergency help or instant advice, and if we can fix things over the phone we won’t charge extra. Your annual agreement lays out the costs of in-person emergency support.

Our 24 Hour Response Agreement is perfect when your coolers are business-critical, for example in a server room. Emergency fault finding and repairing is never a problem, and we’ll always quote you beforehand so you know what to expect.

Do you use evaporative cooling at your business? If not, have you explored the potential? It’s low cost, highly efficient and very effective. And we’re always delighted to talk things through. Just get in touch.

How to improve indoor air quality for human health and comfort

Fri, 14 Jul 2023 09:00:00 GMT

“People don’t imagine that there is pollution indoors; it is perceived as a protective place. But there are more pollutants in buildings than in outdoor air.” Corinne Mandin, Scientific and Technical Building Centre, France.

Did you know the air in your premises – and indeed your home - can be just as dangerous as the polluted air outside, as bad as a busy city street at rush hour? It’s worrying, but it also heralds a new era where more people are becoming aware of the dangers behind poor indoor air quality.

Thanks to covid, we’re better informed about the dangers of the stale, chemical-laden air that gathers inside the places we work, shop, exercise, learn and play. The pandemic focused people’s minds on air quality and the ventilation – or lack of it – in enclosed spaces, and indoor pollution is finally being taken seriously. And it looks like indoor pollutants are a major cause of illness and death.

In places where people habitually use solid fuel or kerosene for cooking indoors, for example, scientists reckon deaths related to poor air quality run to millions. In the USA the average person spends 69% of their time indoors at home and another 18% indoors at other locations: shops, gyms, schools, work and so on. Because pathogens tend to hang around for longer indoors – something that came home to roost with covid – we’re more likely to breathe them in.

1986 saw the World Health Organization create the term ‘sick building syndrome’ after a rash of illnesses thanks to poor ventilation, furnishings giving off toxic chemicals, and smoking indoors. Tobacco smoke, carbon monoxide, radon gas, trichloroethylene and benzene turned out to be the worst culprits, now called Volatile Organic Compounds or VOCs, since they evaporate at room temperature, given off by paint, furnishings, flooring, and electrical equipment. Then there’s particulate stuff like soot, metals, oil and dust less than 2.5 micrometres across. Together, the effect on human health can be horrible.

More than a quarter of a century after Sick Building Syndrome became a thing, more nasties have joined the WHO’s list of indoor pollutants. Many synthetic dyes are toxic, carcinogenic and bio accumulative. Ultrafine particles 0.1 micrometres easily move from the lungs into the bloodstream, landing in our organs where they increase the risk of cardiovascular and neurological conditions. Dust itself can carry smaller particles of toxins around a room.

You might think opening a window will clean the air indoors. Sadly it depends where you are. Outdoor air in built-up areas and near roads is full of particulates, nitrous oxides and VOCs from traffic, plus ozone, which makes otherwise harmless things like fragrance turn dangerous. Think formaldehyde for a start, and airborne toxins called N-chloraldimines, which are created in gyms thanks to a reaction between the amino acids in sweat and a type of bleach used to clean exercise equipment.

All these pollutants can affect each other, as thousands of chemicals in an indoor environment mix together with unknown, unforeseen effects. Take the awful VOC trichloroethylene, an industrial solvent. It turns up in glues, varnishes and cleaning fluids, a known carcinogen linked to brain, liver and kidney damage. As the WHO says, “all exposures indoors are considered relevant and no threshold can be determined.” The same goes for acrolein, generated by gas stoves, wood burners, deep fat fryers, vapers and actual cigarettes. Benzene from cigarette smoke and car exhaust fumes boosts the risk of leukaemia and asthma.

The list goes on. But because there are so many chemicals involved and so many potential different interactions between them, it’s a real challenge to know what’s safe and what isn’t.

How to improve indoor air quality
It makes sense to keep the air indoors as fresh and clean as possible, at work and at home. There are a few ways to do it, including boiling or steaming food instead of frying it, and cooking less meat because meat can be an especially high source of particulate pollution indoors. An extractor fan is an excellent idea however you cook your food.

Wood burners and open fires are lovely but they throw out a lot of indoor pollution. Scented candles, air fresheners, incense sticks, essential oils and cleaning products all emit pollution. While house plants have a good reputation as air cleaners, you’d actually need thousands of them to make a difference to indoor air quality.

Your best bet is good ventilation, which genuinely cuts the concentration of pollutants generated indoors. High-efficiency particulate air filters and air conditioning units can help. It’s sensible to cut right down on cleaning products, using cream cleaners rather than sprays, and use a wet cloth to pick up dust instead of just spreading it around with a dry duster. It’s wise to let brand new furniture settle in a well-ventilated place for a few days, where it will emit a lot of VOCs, before bringing it into a room.

Covid has driven new worries about indoor air quality
Covid has shown the world how important it is to have clean, safe air to breathe indoors. Our highly effective UVC disinfection units clean indoor air by killing a huge list of pathogens, from viruses and spores to bacteria and more. And our evaporative cooling units keep the air indoors cool, fresh and pleasant to breathe.

Now all we need is a way to ensure the countless human-made substances generated and brought into our homes don’t pose a danger to our health. The research continues. As one expert says, we’ll know more in ten years’ time. In the meantime, they recommend “ventilation, ventilation, ventilation”

Cooling technology news in a fast-warming world

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 12:08:59 GMT

Search Google for climate change news and you get a list of distressing headlines: the government is being slammed for delaying climate change action, with the UK’s progress described as ‘worryingly slow’. Traditional farming is still emitting ‘stubbornly high’ amounts of CO2, second only to transport. Deforestation is ‘surging’ despite pledges by the world’s leaders. The environment minister Zac Goldsmith has just quit his job over government climate change ‘apathy’. France is unprepared for the ‘serious impacts’ of climate change. We could go on.

On the bright side China is making impressive inroads into reducing emissions as their ‘green power surge’ offers hope to the world. But we’re headed for significant warming whatever we do, and that means we’re going to have to make more of an effort to keep cool.

It isn’t even a future risk – it’s happening now. There’s a heating revolution on the cards as we transition from fossil fuels to renewable power. And there’s also a cooling revolution going on in parallel as power stations, heavy engineering firms, and a huge variety of smaller businesses attempt to cool things down.

It’s no surprise the Data Centre liquid cooling market alone is set to hit a value of US$ 15,974.3 million by 2023, representing a ‘monumental’ CAGR of 19.6%. Plant cooling systems are being revolutionised and cooling lines in manufacturing are coming under scrutiny. The global water-based heating and cooling systems market is predicted to be worth US$ 37.7 billion in 2023 with a CAGR of 7.9% between now and 2028.

In Singapore almost 10,000 households have signed up for a new, energy-efficient, Centralised Cooling System or CCS, which uses centralised chillers installed at the top of HDB blocks to cool water, which is then piped to people’s homes to cool the interiors. The KEPPEL Corporation has won a contract to design, build, own and operate a huge district cooling system or DCS plant for three decades. Closer to home, the Harrogate company Pirta has spent two years developing a paint that passively cools structures to make them less reliant on energy-dependent cooling systems, cleverly reflecting solar heat away from surfaces so they shed more heat than they absorb.

Clearly, the race is on. So what can businesses in the UK do to keep employees and consumers cool? It’s a pressing question. Luckily we have some answers, and the systems we recommend are relatively simple as far as fitting and retro-fitting goes. The tech relies on a perfectly natural phenomenon: the simple fact that when you draw air over cool water it creates a fresh breeze like you get at the seaside. It’s called evaporative cooling, and this video reveals how it works.

If you’d like to know more about how evaporative cooling could future-proof your premises and provide a competitive advantage, contact us for an inspiring discussion.

Heatwave Alert

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 14:36:05 GMT

Prepare for a hot future with great ventilation

A recent report says summertime in the Arctic could be ice-free within a decade thanks to climate change. Over in the USA a ’game changing’ suite of massive lawsuits is being brought on the heads of ‘big oil’ companies for their role in the climate crisis. The UK’s Met Office says 2023 is due to be hotter than 2022, with temperatures forecast to be anything from 1.08C to 1.32C above the pre-industrial average. And summer 2023 signals the start of a new system of Met Office Heat-Health Alerts that better reveal the heat’s impact , giving people more insight than simple predictions about when heatwaves are due.

While there might be a few outliers who think they know better than climate scientists, people who still think it’s all hype, they’re looking crazier by the minute. This is the future. It’s happening now. The planet’s climate is changing faster than many scientists thought it would. And all this means ventilation isn’t just a nice thing to have. It’s already a commercial essential.

It’s hard to do business when it’s far too hot

If you’ve ever tried to focus when it’s just too hot indoors, you’ll know how impossible it is to do a good job under unusually hot and sticky conditions. As someone who runs a business, whatever size or type of business it is, this is the time to start thinking about keeping people, products, production lines, machinery and everything else cool.

Why wait until your business’ productivity and profitability
starts to suffer?

You could wait, of course, until things become acute. But every hot day, every hot week, every heatwave means productivity suffers. Depending on the products or services your business provides, they could suffer as well.

Food producers struggle to keep things safe and hygienic the hotter it gets. If you run a public-facing business you’ll find customers steer clear when it’s too hot to be comfortable in your premises. What would that do to the bottom line of your restaurant or pub, factory or office, sports centre, gym, holiday home or cruise ship?

If your business involves caring for vulnerable people or looking after animals, their health can easily be threatened by a run of unusually hot days and unpleasantly sticky nights. Holidaymakers need a comfortably cool place to relax and sleep. Take certain electronic products over a given temperature and they don’t work properly. Heat has so many impacts, and they can be very serious.

Plan ahead, keep it simple, invest in brilliant evaporative cooling

All this means planning is going to be more important than ever. Getting your ventilation sorted now rather than waiting for things to become acute means a lot. We’re going to see less predictable, more dramatic weather of every kind, and it’s happening right now. Whenever high pressure hot weather systems get stuck above the UK, like the one we’re having right now, living things start to suffer.

Luckily there’s no need to spend an absolute fortune on cooling systems, or on the power they run on. Evaporative cooling is wonderfully simple as well as highly effective and cheap to run. Get it sorted now for a happy hard-working workforce and a pleasant workspace. Create a place visitors feel comfortable, a premises where the products you make and the services you provide aren’t adversely affected by the heat.

To know more, feel free to get in touch with our experts. You’ll find our evaporative cooling units an exciting choice: low cost to buy, highly effective, and cheap to run.

A revolutionary modern mobile lighting tower

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 11:02:48 GMT

You need light, it has to be good, bright light, and you need it fast? You want it to be wholly reliable, and you need to deploy it in some pretty tricky situations? Not a problem. Our popular CT-400 Light Tower gives you the easily-deployable portable lighting you need, all in one bespoke, super-tough package.

Just one person can do what it takes. The unit is easy to transport and carry-able by hand. It’s just as simple to deploy, and you can adjust the lighting within seconds. Here’s what you need to know.

The CT-400 light tower in bullets

Swift deployment – One simple latch deploys or folds to release or retract the tripod
Drag and lock the self-locking pole at any position, then store it safely again with an easy push
In-built dampening means you can adjust the light a full 60 degrees to cover the exact area you want
Perfect for emergency lighting, maintenance work, railways, mining, events, sports grounds, construction sites and more
As long as 30 hours of operation at extreme mode with just one battery, and more than 100 hours of bright light in extreme mode with all 3 batteries
Easily portable using the comfy dual handle and strap
A suite of accessories to choose from

About the batteries – Reliable light for long periods of time

The CT-400 unit runs on a modern Lithium-Ion battery pack, just one of which gives you 30 hours of light at high mode. Bring all three battery packs into play for 10 hours or more of full light at extreme mode. Each battery pack can power the tower lamp for 3.3 hours at 8000 Lumen.

Depending on the temperature, you get a week or more of light at half the maximum 15000 Lumen light output when you install all three battery packs. In extreme mode, the light output is 1/10 or so of the high output 800 Lumen, which means each battery pack powers it for about 33 hours, more than 100 hours when using all three battery packs.

About charging the batteries

Charging the battery packs for just 100 minutes brings them back to full power. As well as the dual charger, the nine battery simultaneous rapid charger charges as many as nine Lithium Battery Packs at once. And because it’s specifically designed for off-grid operation, with a handy portable plug-in solar panel charger available separately, you can use the tower light in the middle of nowhere at full capacity.

About the build – A rugged light tower with cool accessories

The case is fully water proof. The battery compartment and storage bins are hermetically sealed. And there are some handy accessories that make the light tower even more useful and flexible:

MC-2 Charger
X1-75-56BH Driver
D24-100 Battery
S3 Flashlight
T2 Headlight

Our CT-400 light tower doubles as a USB charger for the CT-T2 headlight, CT-S3 flashlight, and mobile devices. You can get 15000LM full brightness using the driver - or alternatively control it wirelessly using a battery and charger.

Dazzlingly good, reliable light for a multitude of purposes

Like all of our technologies this dazzlingly good light source is made with energy efficiency in mind, which means it’s a wise environmental solution as well as a very useful and flexible light source.

Whatever the circumstances or context, when you need reliable bright light for long periods of time the CT-400 delivers. If you’d like to talk things through we’ll be pleased to discuss the potential, the tech itself, and anything else you’d like to explore.

25 advantages of smart commercial electric radiators

Wed, 31 May 2023 11:38:58 GMT

All over the country people are fitting smart electric radiators in their homes as a replacement for standard radiators and ordinary central heating systems. It makes a lot of sense. There’s no electric, oil or gas boiler to worry about. And you can set each individual radiator’s temperature and timing incredibly efficiently to heat spaces individually.

Now you can do the same in your business premises with one exciting addition – you can plumb the intelligent radiators we sell directly into your solar panels. They’re called Intelli Heat Smart Radiators and because they can be fitted to solar panels, they provide free energy.

As the authorised reseller and installer of the IntelliHeat WiFi smart radiators range, we see them in action and we can confirm they’re impressive. As energy bills continue to fly sky high, every saving made is worth having. And because they’re so efficient and controllable, good environmental credentials come as standard.

Each unit is independently programmable, literally for every minute of the day 24/7, which means you don’t end up heating rooms and areas you’re not using. And because they connect to 3G or Wi-Fi, you can control them remotely by phone. The free dedicated Heating Management System app included connects to your radiators via any laptop or smartphone, from anywhere on the planet.

This kind of radiant heat is around a third more efficient than any fossil fuel or heat storage system, so it doesn’t just reduce your bills. These amazing radiators permanently cut your organisation’s CO2 while heating your premises beautifully. They use green energy and they comply with all the latest Eco Design Regulations, ticking every certification and approvals box as well.

Designed in Italy to an extremely high standard and made to an equally high standard, this type of electric radiator system is bringing savings, efficiency, reduced emissions and comfort to commercial premises of all sorts, right across the UK. In a world where the cost of energy can eat huge holes in your profit margins, they can also provide a strong competitive advantage.

25 advantages of IntelliHeat thermodynamic electric radiators

State-of-the-art commercial electric radiator systems
Sleek, unintrusive and good-looking
Fully accredited to UKCA, CE Certifications, and British Standards
NF *** rated energy Performance accreditation
Meets the requirements of ECO DESIGN LOT 20 with a 40% Energy Efficiency score rating
Complies with NEW Building Regulations Part L1 and L2 Energy efficiency requirements
Meets Eco-Design Lot 20 Directive 2018
Online Intelligent Heating Control and energy consumption monitoring for as many as 1000 Radiators and 100 Zones
No need to mess around with dials and switches – the app’s simple dashboard does it all
Control the temperature of every unit finely to +/- 0.1 degree
Manufactured and tested to the highest standards
On site and remote control for individual radiators via a secure, cloud based WiFi system
Adaptive temperature controls
Eco Start functionality
Check the integrated real-time energy consumption for each radiators in one click
Remotely switch them on or off, up or down
Smart Open Window Technology detects sudden falls in temperature and switches off instantly to save energy
Detects people’s presence to save energy when nobody is in the area
The free app dashboard provides printouts to manage your records
Accurately sets temperature limits
Opti Power, Self-learning program, High Thermal Output
7 day and daily multizone programming by the minute
Child lock, Rental housing PIN code lock
3 Pre-set programs
Settings back up

If you’d like to discuss the potential with an expert who understands every aspect of this exciting technology, we’ll be pleased to help.

Evaporative Cooling FAQs

Mon, 22 May 2023 12:26:15 GMT

The low cost way to stay cool

Evaporative cooling is a brilliant way to bring fresh, cool, clean air into your premises in an affordable way. Here’s our evaporative cooling FAQ. If you’d like to discuss the potential for your organisation, we’ll be pleased to talk.

Q: Can you define evaporative cooling?
A: Also called adiabatic cooling, evaporative cooling uses water as a refrigerant instead of chemicals. The process involves evaporating water in a stream of air, effectively changing the water from a liquid into a gas. The transition needs energy, which it extracts from the air in the form of heat.

Evaporative cooling forces hot outside air through water-saturated cooling pads via a fan driven by a motor. The cooled down air is blown into the building. A pump keeps the cooling pads wet.

An evaporative cooler effectively helps an interior ‘sweat’ to cool off. The unit speeds up the natural evaporation process by drawing in hot, dry air and emitting chilled, humid air. If the setting is very dry it the humid air generated makes things a lot more comfortable, giving you the moisture your body needs to help fight pathogens.

Q: When was evaporative cooling invented?
A: Drawings of evaporative cooling systems have been found in Egyptian murals dating back to 2500 BC. They placed clay pots full of water next to air inlets inside buildings to provide cooling. In Iran there’s a tradition of hanging wet rags in a high tower called a wind catcher to provide indoor cooling.

Q: What’s the difference between air conditioning and evaporative cooling?
A: Evaporative cooling uses fresh air to cool and ventilate a space constantly, filtering the air to remove dust and allergens. It doesn’t re-circulate warm, polluted indoor air. It brings 100% fresh, filtered, clean, cool air into a room or building, and the indoor air quality improves dramatically. This helps people fend off viruses and helps prevent the dry eyes and itchy throat you can develop when the air is too dry.

In contrast air conditioning simply cools re-circulated indoor air, and dehumidifies the air in the process to leave it very dry.

Q: Who uses evaporative cooling?
A: Being such a sustainable, energy-efficient cooling method, evaporative coolers are widely used in factories, distribution centres and offices. A main activity is keeping server rooms and data centres cool, all at one tenth of the running cost of conventional refrigerant air conditioning. We also have a large presence in the pharmaceutical sector, since stored medicines are regulated and must be temperature controlled.

Q: Will evaporative cooling technology work for me?
A: If it's a large space and air changes can be achieved, this platform is perfect. Unlike air conditioning the technology works on air changes, which means fresh cooled air in and warm exhausted air out. Open windows and doors are not a problem.

Q: How much energy does evaporative cooling use compared to aircon?
A: Evaporative coolers use just 10% of the energy needed for ordinary mechanical cooling.

Q: What happens when the temperature keeps on rising?
A: On very hot days the cooling efficiency of an evaporative cooling system increases. Higher temperatures means the air normally contains less moisture, which means the dryer the air the more turn down in temperature it can achieve. The more water is evaporated into the air the more cooling power the system has, without increasing your energy consumption.

With air conditioning, the hotter it gets outdoors the more energy you’ll use to get the level of cooling you want. As climate change progresses, conventional air conditioning is going to become ever-less energy efficient.

Q: What chemicals are used in traditional air conditioning?
A: Modern air conditioning units and systems use chlorine-free refrigerants like hydrofluorocarbons as cooling agents. They’re constantly evaporated and condensed in a closed system to provide the cooling effect.

This takes as much as 90% more energy than a two-stage evaporative cooling system and there’s regular re-filling to think about if you want the unit or system to remain efficient, simply because some of the chemical refrigerant will escape into the open air over time.

Q: Why is water better than chemical refrigerants?
A: Evaporative cooling uses water, which comes with an unusually high latent heat of vaporisation of 2501 kJ/kg at 0 °C. This means 1 m3 of water creates as much as 695 kW cooling power, an impressive feat. The evaporated water joins the planet’s natural system and will eventually come back down as rain.

In contrast traditional air conditioning tech needs at least 250 kWh of energy to create the same amount of cooling power.

How keeping people cool improves productivity

Mon, 15 May 2023 12:00:39 GMT

In spring 2022 we saw a clutch of extreme heat health warnings issued for England, with temperatures rocketing to 35C (95F) in some places. As the climate warms our weather is set to get steadily warmer, wetter, and less predictable. We’re due to see more heat waves, defined as above average temperatures for three days or more. So how do you keep your employees cool? Here’s what you need to know.

Is there a maximum temperature for places of work?
In the UK there are no laws around working temperatures being either too hot or too cold. But the Health and Safety Executive says the workplace must be a ‘reasonable’ temperature and provide ‘clean and fresh air’. They advise against making people work in temperatures below 13C for indoors and 16C outdoors, but there’s no upper temperature limit.

What is a comfortable upper working temperature?
Some say there should be a legal upper limit of 30C in most workplaces, 27C if you’re doing hard physical work, but it isn’t a legal requirement... yet. So far workers don’t have any rights. It’s down to the employer to decide what ‘too hot’ means.

At the same time the Health and Safety at Work Act says those who run businesses are generally responsible for employee welfare, and the union Unite says employers have a legal and moral duty to ensure people’s health isn’t damaged during hot weather.

2022’s heat waves led to the HSE recommending employers respond to the changing climate by fitting things like ventilation and air conditioning, and they’re also asking workers to speak out if they’re struggling with heat at work.

How does heat affect our performance at work?
As the body gets hotter our blood vessels open up, which reduces our blood pressure. This means the heart has to work harder to pump blood, and can lead to a heat rash or swollen feet when the blood vessels start to leak. Sweating heavily makes the body lose fluids and salt, the balance of which changes. Combine this with low blood pressure and it can lead to heat exhaustion, whose symptoms include dizziness and nausea, confusion, losing consciousness, muscle cramps, headaches, tiredness and – in the worst case scenario – the risk of a heart attack.

Our bodies work hard to stay at 37C, the temperature at which we perform best. The hotter we get, the harder we have to work to keep our core temperature at 37C. If you’re vulnerable, for example older or younger, diabetic or overweight, it can be even harder for the body to cope.

All this means a hot workplace isn’t a happy workplace. People slow down, feel sleepy, can’t think about anything else except the fact they’re uncomfortably hot. Some will go off sick, others will see their productivity levels plummet. So it makes a lot of business sense to keep people at the most comfortable possible temperature at work.

Affordable evaporative cooling for comfortable workplaces
Money matters more than ever, with margins being squeezed by the cost of living crisis, inflation and more. You need affordable ways to cool your premises, and that means evaporative cooling.

Evaporative cooling works by consuming the heat energy in the air naturally into cool air, pulling a constant flow of fresh air over water-soaked pads to provide an effect very like a refreshing sea breeze.

At the same time warm, used air is removed from the building to cool the place in an environmentally friendly way, with a tiny carbon footprint thanks to using an impressive 90% less energy than regular aircon.

No chemical refrigerants. No complex systems. Just a simple way to achieve cool, fresh, clean air and a lovely working environment.
Happy people work better. When your people are cool but the people working for your competitors are too hot, you win with higher productivity. You’ll have the chance to attract the best people to work for you, and because it’s such a comfortable place to work they may even stay with you for longer. That’s what we call a win-win!

If you’d like to prepare for a warmer world, we’ll be pleased to discuss the potential of evaporative cooling with you.

Climate-friendly, low cost mobile cooling for people and places

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 15:16:25 GMT

Summer’s on the horizon and it’s time to think ‘cool’. If you usually struggle to keep your premises and the people who work in and visit it cool, there’s a bright new way to do it that’ll save you a fortune in electricity – and it’s called evaporative cooling. Let’s explore.

The CT801 cooler - A fraction of the cost of any other cooling system
There’s no need to fit costly air conditioning tech. Use this instead. Our portable evaporative air cooler is the perfect solution to personnel cooling as well as ideal for quick-deployment cooling. It’s exactly what you need to keep outdoor and indoor workplaces comfortable, and it’s just as good for home use.

This is a cleaner, greener way to cool businesses and homes. It’s really easy to install and has already proved itself in schools, universities, offices, reception areas, warehouses, food outlets, marquees, hotels, sports halls, garden centres, offices, gyms, industrial units and more.

It’ll cool any size of enclosed space as well as open spaces, where it creates lovely air movement that feels like a pleasant sea breeze. And the fresh, non-recycled air it outputs is naturally safe from disease.

How does evaporative cooling work?
Evaporative Cooling transforms the heat energy in the air into cool air by pulling a constant flow of fresh air over special pads saturated with water. This removes the heat in a process called the latent heat of evaporation.

The unit blows cool, fresh air into the area while removing the warm, used air to give you environmentally friendly cooling with a tiny carbon footprint. The unit uses an impressive 90% less energy than ordinary air conditioning.

Our CT801 evaporative air cooler unit
Oscillating louvres, simple remote control, low noise operation, removable air filters, multi speed airflow, ioniser, auto temperature and timer control, lockable mobile castors and either a manual or auto water inlet means it’s extremely efficient and very easy to use.

Maximum airflow in m3/hour: 8000
Axial fan with 0.38kW power
Net weight 31kg, operating weight 117kg including the water
Uses 8-10L water an hour
Sound level – equal or less than 62 decibels
Size 80cm x 48cmx 138cm
Easy to use LED control panel

Watch the video

Take a look at this video to see the mobile cooling unit in action. This is how you enjoy a comfortable, cool summer no matter what the climate throws at us. Buy or hire and treat your family, employees and customers to cool, safe summer comfort.

If you’d like to know more or talk things through, we’ll be pleased to help. Contact us to establish the potential for your business or home.

Welcome to our new Website!

Tue, 13 Aug 2019 15:56:23 GMT

Our new and improved website has now launched!

Welcome to Cool-Tech Ltd's new website! We have been working on this for a while and are pleased with the results. We will constantly update our website with new and upcoming products, services and information. So stay tuned and see how our business grows from strength to strength.

Travels to Southend-on-Sea

Thu, 09 Aug 2018 09:26:07 GMT

Welcome to Blog Post Number 7

A change is as good as a rest as they say; and we at Cool Technology Ltd were happy to assist one of our valued customers; Thames Loose Leaf, with the job of re sting some cooling machinery. As a company that has a reputation in various fields from individual promotional products, to maps for the Ordinance Survey they have an understandable interest in the being correct to the tiniest detail. This mirrors our own commitment to everything being present and correct. We moved some ductwork and installed some coolers for them, to help with their cooling requirements; including some safety safety walkways around their units.

We were pleased that the works all went all to plan, and happy to keep the customer satisfied.

Promotional Video

Wed, 11 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Welcome to Blog Post Number 6!

Today, we thought we'd show you our new Promotional Video out this year: "Welcome to Cool Technology"

Video Blog from Engineer Steve

Thu, 15 Feb 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Welcome to Blog Post Number 5!

Today, we bring you a video blog from Steve, one of our engineers who today has been replacing parts on the Evaporative Coolers at Frank Robert's Bakery in Northwich near Manchester. Steve brings you a happy and positive message from the rooftops of the Bakery.

Link to Facebook Page and VLOG - https://www.facebook.com/CoolTechnologyLtd/videos/2086684864893993/

Going The Extra Mile!

Mon, 12 Feb 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Welcome to Blog Post Number 4!

No distance is too far for the crew at Cool Technology.

Electrician Darryl certainly went the extra mile; 534 of them from our base to be precise! Aberdeen's Royal Infirmary was the latest site of a successful lighting upgrade for one of our regular customers.

Stock Shop had been wanting a more efficient, cost effective solution to their lighting requirements, with their high profile retail outlets situated in the concourses of hospitals all over the country, we at Cool Technology are always ready, willing and able to help them in their needs.

Preparations for Spring Servicing

Sun, 04 Feb 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Welcome to Blog Post Number 3! This week, we are prepping and planning for the Spring season; servicing our products and helping out more businesses.

Here at Cool Technology, we are preparing and planning for the forthcoming spring servicing season of evaporative cooling. The requirements of new and existing customers are being thoroughly checked; replacement parts and being preordered and the schedule is being constructed for maximum efficiency. Installation projects are coming to fruition also from Scotland to Sussex, and Bristol to Bury St Edmunds; our Technicians are attending to our clients needs in the field of Cooling, Heating and Lighting.

The only photograph this week from a dour and draughty Northwick, is of crew member Steve exchanging media filters wrappers on a cooler at Frank Roberts Bakery.

Travels to Surrey

Sun, 21 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Welcome to Blog Post Number 2, here we have a project we have been recently working on. This took our travels to Surrey!

Our engineers were in Surrey last week, for a scheduled Media filter exchange at a prestigious data centre that we visit 6 times a year. The photos show how much airborne pollution the external filters have caught when compared to the fresh filters. With a long day, some fair weather and the crew’s expertise all went well the Cool Tech way!

Photo below shows before:

And After:

Welcome to 2018

Sun, 14 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the new Blog of Cool Technology Ltd; we hope that you will enjoy some insights into our worlds of Cooling, Lighting and Heating. We will be updating our blog every week with new updates, projects and news throughout 2018.

2018 has begun as 2017 left off, with us visiting our clients and maintaining their evaporative cooling units, LED Lighting and Far Infrared Heating.

Back in December, we visited Greene King's 'Old Speckled Hen' Hall in Bury St Edmunds to take some photographs and videos of the LED Lighting installation we completed for the building. As you can see in the photographs, we provided many different LED Lights for both inside and outside the building to help with lighting conditions and factory production. Here are the photographs that were taken on the day. (Photographs by Patrick Foster).