A/c

[hithere]

A/C needs to be on laundromat? thanks

[WhatwasIThinkin]

Yes. I am new to the business. I have 3 big units going and the store can still be in the 80's. No a/c, no customers-here at least.

[Ken]

I am cheap,no A/C in all 4 stores,thinking about this every year :-) ,I still have a lot customers,they say something in summer,I always tell them,I can get A/C but will cost more to do laundry.
I was A/C serviceman when I was in Asia.A/C is very nice,just cost money.Some older stores have 200 Amps service may need to upgrade to 400 Amps to keep safe,that cost money too.

[pete f]

My a/c stores gain biz, my no a/c stores loose biz in the summer. Plus I hate going to the non a/c stores to service them. Got one more store to a/c the other is for sale. The extra customers will pay the a/c bill.

[Rich]

Airconditioned my store last summer. Business always dropped sharply for me in June, July, and August. Now summer months are as good or better then winter. The day after I turned the A/C on I raised my prices, some machines .50 cents. Not one complaint, many even said they were glad to pay it just to be cool. Has been well worth the expense for me.
But I guess it depends, Does your biz drop alot in the summer? And are your competitor's airconditioned? My answer was yes to both.

[JSVLaundry]

How do you figure how many tons you need? I am running 16 dryers

[amartlock]

I have an 1800 sq ft store with 42 washers and 19 stacks. Anyone have a ballpark for costs to purchase and have a/c installed? Just looking for round figures. If it's a few thousand dollars then I'll explore further, if it's 20k then I forget the idea.

[Anonymous]

I spent $13,000 7 years ago for 2 6 1/2 ton units and my store is 1950sqft.

[fluffy]

My thought is that if I owned the building and I had automatic doors I'd definitely do it, but I just can't make the numbers work otherwise. I saw an advertisement in the local paper for a 3 ton unit installed, so I called on it...turns out that's the residential price. The price to install that unit in my laundry (just the office area not in the general mat, was $7.2K). If I was to do the entire mat, I would need three of these systems.

[fluffy]

Whoops sorry, the residential price for the 3 ton unit was $2,000 (so the price increased by $5,000 when they found out it was to go in the laundry).

[Ken]

I can always find A/C guy willing to do side job for me in my area.I had a guy put HVAC in 4 houses ,one laundromat so far,people do side job may not be as fast as big company but much cheaper.

[JSVLaundry]

I am a general contractor in NYC & I have a few HVAC contractors that I work with that owe me a few favors. I want to ask them but I need to know what I should be getting. We all know when we get favors, we sometimes don't get favors.

I have 18 washers & 16 tumblers. Plus I have 4 washers & 2 tumblers just for my service in a rear extension.

How many tons go against how many machines? Sqaure footage of the store really doesn't count much as the heat load from the dryers are so great during peak times.

My plus is that my storefront faces north

[Anonymous]

how many sq ft are u?

[TLR]

2 tons per 1000 sq feet is general rule of thumb for residential and light commercial buildings. Double that tonnage for a laundry.

With copper and sheet metal $ so high these days - there is no rule of thumb for installation any more. Could be as high as $2000/ton. Take 3 bids - but make sure they all use same tonnage to price from. But 10.00SEER if your building has 208/3 power - and 13.00 SEER if you have 208/1 power. Split the units so you always have a unit operational if one goes down.

TLR

[Gatorlenny]

I work for a Trane dealer. There is no more 10 SEER equipment, only 13 SEER. Thats a good thing as it will cost you less to run! Square footage. Figure 200 square feet per ton. And trust me when all the dryers and washers are running, it will be hard to get it cool, but those are rare moments. Most of the time 80 degrees will work just fine. Single phase power is all you need. Back in the day 3 phase would be better, but the new SEER ratings changed all that. Install prices can be all over the board. Just make sure you get a real contractor in to do the work. That way, if you do have a problem, you can call them back to correct it.

[TLR]

3 phase equipment can still be 10.00 SEER - there is no requirement that it change to 13.00 SEER - although most manufacturers now offer a 13.00 208/3 outdoor units 1-5 tons - in addition to 10.00 SEER. Only 1 phase power is required to change to 13.00 SEER.

In addition - some supply house and manufactuers warehouses still have 10.00 SEER 1 phase units that they need to sell off to deplete inventory. Ask your local dealer if he can find you a deal on a surplus unit - it will be cheaper than the new 13.00 SEER.

TLR

[blueridgemat]

I have a/c in my mat but rarely run it since I am unattended. I have a lock box so people can't play with thermosat, but the main problem is once someone comes in or out with a bunch of laundry, they leave the doors propped open. any suggestions?

[pete f]

this is knid of a double thead! I agree on the 2 a/c if you can do that.

http://www.coinwash.com/mb/showthread.php?t=6022

[DaveLevenson]

I have a/c in my mat but rarely run it since I am unattended. I have a lock box so people can't play with thermosat, but the main problem is once someone comes in or out with a bunch of laundry, they leave the doors propped open. any suggestions?

I have put large, blue and white "Air Conditioned" signs on my doors. I did this because my nearest competitor is not air conditioned, and it's hot and muggy here in July and August. Since then, nobody has propped open my doors.

I also pulled the control knobs off my air conditioner units to keep people from playing around with the settings.

[Gary C]

My mat is 1200 sq ft and I only have two wall units at 12,000 btu's each and that does it for the most part. I have 24 dryers and 23 washers. To me the wall units seem to be the way to go if you can. I bought both of mine for $700.00 and put them in myself. If i ever feel like it I may up grade one of them to a 23K btu unit so I can make it cold in there.

Gary

[pete f]

I was in one mat today, I have 4 ton a/c plus a 12k or better wall unit, not sure, don;t remember, anyway, t-stat read 87 degrees, did not seem hot, but not cool, Fans blowing, dryers churning. The a/c runs all the time, so no humidity. Probably need another 2 ton,. about 1600 Sq ft flat uninsulated roof. Dexter dryers

[mjwalsh]

Has anyone figured out how much it costs extra on a busy day to keep a 2000 sq ft laundry nice & cool on a day that reaches 107 degrees with a convection oven type wind driving the heat? Remember, I am talking about just the extra electricity alone on a busy weekend day that the dryers are going most of the day. We have been getting record highs the past week. It is a real dry heat though because of our present drought if that makes much difference in the electricity cost.

[Bob]

It costs me about $350 per month extra to air condition my 1500 square foot store. I think that it is well worth it. An elderly lady told me today that she sent her friend in to make sure the A/C was working before she came in. A friend told her to come to my store because it is so clean and cool.

Bob

[DAVID BLANTON]

have your a/c contractor do a load calculation. that will tell you how much capacity you need.

[The wizard]

I cannot offer any suggestion on the right size of ac, However, you must check your makeup air for your dryers. You cannot afford to have an inbalance of air flow while trying to cool or heat you mat. Your dryers air flow should be neutral to the rest of the laundry. Your make up air should freely flow into the dryer area no matter how many are operating. The dryers should be boxed in to keep the areas seperated.
An easy check is by opening and checking air flow through the access door when all dryer are operating. Close slowly and check if you get a breeze. A better way is with an air flow meter , balancer or mamnometer. Do not try to heat or cool the world just the area you want. One more thing filters and lint. Make sure the filters are accessable and easy to get to they will lint up quickly. Use quality filters. Keep the inside coil from clogging check your concensate drain it tends to clog more from lint. Make sure your out side unit is not in the path of the dryers exhaust or lint.

[Walter]

The Wizard's reply is great - especially read the last sentence. For many mats with AC or swamp coolers that are roof-mounted, the units are set up in the path of the prevailing wind - which often will blow the dryer lint from the exhaust ducts right into the path of the units. You won't believe how quickly this lint can foul the filters..

If you're thinking of putting in roof-mounted units (on a new build-out, or existing mat) it's very important not to neglect this issue...

Walter

[Bob]

I have the problem that Walter talks about. I have a roof top A/C unit and I have to clean the coils regularly and I have to change the filters every week in the summer.

Bob

[TLR]

A coil fin brush can be purchased for about $20 at a local HVAC parts store. Be sure not to spray hard powered water on the coils since it will push the lint into the middle of the coil and clog it up further and if the water power is hard enough it will bend your fins to the point you can not get airflow across the fins and it will cause a high head pressure condition that will cause your compressor to cut off and eventually fail.

TLR

[Anonymous]

I thought many HVAC contractors clean the coils with a pressure washer?