Cooling Warehouses and Workshops in Surrey

Why large industrial spaces need a different approach

Warehouses and workshops are usually much larger in volume than offices or retail units, often with higher ceilings, roller shutter doors, and limited insulation compared with a typical commercial building. Cooling a space like this to office-like comfort levels usually isn't realistic or necessary, so the goal is often about making conditions manageable for staff and protecting goods or equipment rather than achieving a precise, uniform temperature throughout.

We start by understanding what the space is actually used for, since a warehouse storing temperature-sensitive stock has very different requirements to a workshop where staff are working at benches most of the day.

Roller doors, loading bays and air loss

Frequent opening of large doors for deliveries and dispatch means conditioned air is regularly lost to the outside, which is a significant factor in how any cooling system performs in this kind of building. We factor this into any recommendation, since a system sized without accounting for door usage patterns can end up disappointing in practice.

In some cases, targeted cooling of specific work areas, rather than trying to condition the entire warehouse volume, is a more realistic and cost-effective approach.

Process heat and equipment loads

Workshops often have machinery, welding equipment, compressors or other process heat sources that add significantly to the overall heat load. These need to be accounted for separately from the building's general heat gain through the roof and walls, since equipment heat can be concentrated in specific areas rather than spread evenly.

Common heat sources in warehouses and workshops

• Solar gain through roof lights and large areas of glazing or cladding
• Machinery, compressors and process equipment
• Frequent door openings at loading bays
• Lighting, particularly older high-bay fittings
• Occupant numbers during busy shifts

Targeted cooling versus whole-building systems

For many warehouses and workshops, cooling specific work areas, such as a packing bench, quality control station or office pod within the larger space, is more practical than attempting to cool the entire building volume evenly. This can be achieved with wall-mounted or ceiling-mounted units directed at particular zones, sometimes combined with destratification fans to move air around a high-ceilinged space more effectively.

Where a genuine whole-building requirement exists, for example due to temperature-sensitive stock, this needs a more substantial system and a proper assessment of the building's insulation and air tightness, since these buildings weren't always designed with mechanical cooling in mind.

Protecting stock and equipment

Some businesses need cooling less for staff comfort and more to protect stock that's sensitive to heat, whether that's certain packaging materials, chemicals, or products that can be affected by high temperatures. In these cases, we look at where the sensitive stock is stored within the building and whether cooling needs to be more consistent in that specific area than elsewhere.

Office pods and mezzanine areas

Many warehouses and workshops in Surrey include an office pod or mezzanine area used for administration, separate from the main working floor. These smaller enclosed spaces are usually more straightforward to cool effectively than the wider building, and often benefit from a dedicated system similar to what we'd install in a standalone small office.

Getting a realistic assessment

Given the scale and variability of industrial buildings, we'd always recommend a site visit before assuming what's achievable. We look at the building's construction, existing heat sources, door usage and what the business actually needs from a cooling system, then talk through realistic options rather than promising results that the building's construction can't practically support.