FALL 2023

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THE DISTRIBUTOR’S LINK
Robert Footlik
Robert B. Footlik, PE is a retired Professional Industrial Engineer. With over 50 years’
experience as a Warehouse and Logistics Consultant to a wide variety of clients including
Fastener Distributors, Bob has a wealth of valuable information for our industry and he is
willing to share it. While Footlik & Associates is now closed, his expertise is still available
to his friends and our readers. For friendly advice, a second opinion or just to start a
conversation, he can be reached at robert@footlik.net.
IS IT HOT ENOUGH FOR YOU?
If your warehouse is really hot right about now,
it is time to think about winter.
Summer heat can enter the building through a
variety of paths. Leaving south facing dock doors open
is one of the most common entry points, but I have
visited Distributor warehouses in the southern US where
they compounded the heat by using exhaust fans in the
north wall to suck make up air, superheated to over 140
degrees Fahrenheit by the black paving, into the building.
Another common heat source is a poorly insulated
or black tar roof. Heat adsorbed by a large flat surface
can raise the temperature just like a street “you can cook
an egg on.” In addition, those uninsulated brick or solid
concrete walls are just a big “heat sink” that slows down
the sun’s heat during the day so that it radiates thru the
walls all night and it is even hotter in the morning before
the sun rises. This is why old brick buildings are cool in
the early summer, ovens in the fall and iceboxes in the
winter.
Once indoors the heated air may have minimal
movement and your staff counters this with fans, large
and small. Ceiling fans intended to mix the air do nothing
to make the people feel better, because they ensure that
the hot air at the ceiling will equalize with the hot air at
the floor. The lower the ceiling height, the faster the heat
gets to the floor.
Quite simply, if summer heat is getting into your
building, winter heat is exiting at an alarming rate. You
will see this effect reflected in the heating bills, but it is
CONTRIBUTOR ARTICLE
not easily observed while standing in the snow looking at
the building. An infrared, thermal camera can be used to
see the heat losses; and where the major negative heat
flows are going when the weather is cold, but your hands
and body are all the only tools required to know what is
important about heat loss in the summer and fall. Touch
an outside wall on a hot day, then go indoors and touch it
again. If the temperatures are close, the wall has thermal
mass, but little or no insulation value. This is why most
buildings constructed before 1980 have energy costs that
can bankrupt your company.
Next, climb a ladder or staircase to visit the upper
reaches of the warehouse. If there is a notable increase
in temperature as you rise, it is because hot air rises.
Technically this is called a “thermocline” and in the winter,
a floor temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit might be
supported by a ceiling temperature 30 degrees warmer.
Even worse, a poorly insulated roof transfers heat to the
outdoors rapidly at elevated indoor temperatures. In the
winter, this effect appears as melted snow that turns to
ice, collects in low areas, expands and literally tears the
roof apart.
A sure indication that there is poor air circulation can
be observed directly. Floor stored palletized materials
in cardboard boxes, or baled packing materials will lean
toward the open dock doors on humid days. Cardboard
absorbs moisture, softens and loses stacking strength.
Aiming a fan at the loads will often drive out the humidity
and the stack will actually straighten up.
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