Sizing A/C units for a Luandromat

[cbwood]

New owner of a Laundromat. I need to put in a new A/C unit. Anyone out there have suggestions on how to determine the size of the A/C unit? 2400 Sq ft building.

Thank you, CW

[chad]

Where are you located? Have you thought about putting in a Swamp cooler.

[cbwood]

Located in Michigan. Too humid for the Swamp cooler.

[bodman]

2400 sq, depends how much heat from dryers ,minimum 2 x 5 ton units I would think winter is your big issue .. lots of ceiling fans over seating and folding tables. loud music helps coo; the wild beast also.

[Brett]

I had one 1600 sq ft mat with 2 4-ton unit. cold as ice in Texas.

[Jefflange]

2 6 ton units

[bo]

Lots of difference between commercial and residential A/C units and you have a lot of issues to determine. Do you own the real estate? Is three phase available? Are you replacing a unit or is this a new installation? What is your insulation ? Do you have enough power available to add all this new equipment? Attended or unattended? How much glass? My rule of thumb for my area is 5 tons per 1000 sq ft. Good decisions now will save a lot of money in operating costs over the life of the equipment.

[MrMachine]

2 6 ton units



I agree....2 six ton units, maybe even a little more to be on the safe side. Plus, the dryers must be totally framed out and caulked from the areas you are cooling. The dryers should have adequate and separate makeup air as well, otherwise they will be sucking up precious air conditioned air.

[Adamski]

New owner of a Laundromat. I need to put in a new A/C unit. Anyone out there have suggestions on how to determine the size of the A/C unit? 2400 Sq ft building.

CW,

I think all of the responses to your question offer good guidance but if you tell your A/C installer that you have 5 ton and you need another 8 to 10 ton; he'll disagree with you. A/C men don't understand laundromats. They think one commercial building is the same as another. Laundromats, by their very nature, constantly dispense large amounts of warm air into the customer area. Every time a customer takes their hot clothes out of a dryer, all that heat goes into the customer area and must eventually be removed by the A/C units. This happens all day long and cannot be avoided. That's why laundromats require much more A/C than a commercial storefront that perhaps sells clothing.

[mjwalsh]

We had an existing large space heater ---- too timid or lazy to take it down so we mounted within it a fairly new leftover heat exchanger off of our old AO Smith Burkay Hot Water units about 7 or 8 years ago & with a few sensors & computer control we are getting by real good. It worked out so well 5 & 6 years later we added a Trane Hot Water (or steam) Unit in a strategic location with that same small Grundfos pumping icy cold Missouri River soft water as part of the loop. The dog wash has 2 more of the Trane units part of the same circulating pump & loop that keeps replenishing itself as the soft water for the car wash & the heated water in the laundry is being used. I am going to start paying attention to see how much also worthwhile degrees for the preheated wash water we gain as I do have logging going on with sensors in the pertinent spots from the very recent ethernet PLC dog wash set up. 3 ceiling fans & a back exhaust fan & both entrance doors are kept open during the summer for usually great cross circulation. Aahh fresh air! To be fair, I think we have only had 3 days a little above 80 Fahrenheit this summer so far! I do not see any moisture being added like could happen with a swamp cooler.

Mike Walsh of Bismarck

[mmurra]

We are in Michigan with @3,000 sq/ft with 10 tons. Our building is well insulated. I wish I have more AC on hot, muggy days. Mark

[surfflite]

I have 3 swamp coolers on my place (2400 sq ft) I also have 1 5 ton A/C unit but it is only ducted into the restroom & office.

My restroom is about 10' x 10' and the office 7' x 7'. So basically a 5 ton unit to cool 149 sq ft. LOL :) I have been contemplating re-ducting some of that cold A/C air into the mat area. The swamps do ok except for monsoon season. That's when I have to quite putting chocolate bars in my vend machine. Supposed to be 112 today, the swamps keep it in the mid to upper 80's when it's this hot and no humidity.

[mjwalsh]

Has anyone sought out systems with variable frequency drive air conditioning compressors? Done right, it is supposed to save significant electricity & possibly make it so you can get by with a smaller system.

MJ

[MrMachine]

Has anyone sought out systems with variable frequency drive air conditioning compressors? Done right, it is supposed to save significant electricity & possibly make it so you can get by with a smaller system.

MJ

Hmmm....That sounds like a VERY interesting idea...In theory anyway. I would like to know how that works out "in the field" as they say....

I'm using 2, three phase units. I save that way.
I have one unit with the compressor almost always going, which saves me on not having the startup "electric spike"....It's always cheaper to run an electric motor steady rather than have a series of on/off spikes.
Then I have another one that kicks in on really hot days when my first unit can't keep up. It works out nicely.

[BCW]

I blew in ceiling insulation last summer. It didn't help with summer heat. This Spring I had all of the windows tinted and that did the trick. It was 82* in there at 11:00 a.m. with all windows closed. I have 4 ceiling fans and 2 converted swamp coolers that exhaust air. Today is hot and humid as can be. 93% humidity. I just let the customers decide when to open a window. A lady last week asked me "when did you put in a/c?" I think this would work very well in Mi. too.

Tom

[Rmgsolar]

I have been doing commercial HVAC for thirty years-To get a true calculation you need to know the amount of heat generated by machines, people,lighting,
The insulation factor of walls, windows, doors. How often the doors open and close-letting air in or out, what type of floor, what type of roof

With that said, I would contact a true commercial HVAC company-have them do a load calculation. If a unit is too big-it short cycles(goes on and off to much) which creates higher electric bills, high humidity, and frequent repairs, to small and it might never catch up. Also in a Laundrymat-Unless all the lint is expelled away from the condenser
than that can cause issues -I do alot of Hotels with Laundry operations and they need to have the filters changed monthly. To compensate you need a stronger blower motor.

Any questions e-mail me at Ross@rossmechanicalgroup.com

[Charlie]

I have two stores in VA, both in the 2600 sq ft range. One has 12.5 tons, which is inadequate. The new one has 17.5 tons in three stages (5, 5, 7.5). Works great.

Charlie