Ac in the shop

[Albion]

Ac in the shop

[Alex]

12 minutes ago, Albion said:

Ac in the shop

Its definitely hot out there! Are you asking about A/C options for your shop?

[flacvabeach]

We have two shops, the larger of which has a three-car bay that has two large window units in the wall.  During our current heat wave (90-plus temp and 90-plus humidity) they have kept the work space relatively comfortable.  One drawback - the guys set the units to 60 degrees, thinking the lower they set it, the better it will cool.  Well, on a hot day they can't bring the bay down to less than about 80, but at night or on the weekend they turn the place into an icebox.  We don't work weekends, so I'm not sure what that costs me.  It's a training issue.

We are all competing for a diminishing pool of talented people to work on cars and AC is a way to help bring them in, as is the five day work week.

Our other shop is an old (circa 1964) Shell gas station with three bays which is not air conditioned.  July has been tough on my guys who work there, but we are looking at ways to cool things off.  Swamp fans DO NOT WORK in a high humidity environment like Tidewater Virginia, so AC is the only practical answer.  You don't need to maintain 72 degrees like a typical office building.  You just need to knock the temp and humidity down to bearable levels.  The bay doors go up and down continuously, anyway, so there is little hope of maintaining a stable temperature.

I watch the talented, loyal guys working out in my service station  and just hope they will hang in there until I come up with a practical, affordable solution.

[JimO]

I put in an oversized central A/C unit about 15 to 20 years ago and it was one of the best improvements to date. Our entire shop, office and bathrooms are taken care of. The thermostat is set to 68F day and night during the week and then raised to 72 for weekends when the shop is closed (but I am there doing paperwork and maintenance inside the building). I find that if I get the temp down as low as possible at night the floors and masonry walls get a chance to also cool down which helps maintain cooler temps as the day progresses with bay doors opening/closing and hot vehicles being pulled in and out. This past week the outdoor temps here in North East Jersey peaked at 95-100F with high humidity. Opening at 6am the shop was usually 68F and slowly climbed to upper 70’s by 1 or 2pm then gradually fell back down to 68F by early evening. My employees all appreciate and respect the A/C and try to economize by performing small, quick tasks outside so as to not open and close huge overhead doors. When needed the techs assists each other by  raising and lowering overhead doors while another tech quickly pulls in or out of the shop. This is obviously costly but summer was bad enough when I was younger, the A/C now allows me to walk out to my truck at the end of the day instead of crawling out to my truck. My techs are more comfortable so in turn they are more productive.

[Wadesauto]

We installed a/c in our 4 bay shop plus office.  It was one of the best things that we did.  The techs are more productive and happy.  Our electric bill goes up $100 in the summer months and the thermostat is set at 70 all summer long including the weekends when we are closed.