Cooling an entire warehouse

[pnh2atl]

We are getting an additional suite that has a 40' x 30' area. We looked at putting a typical walk in box in it and we can do this. But it has to be smaller to allow access to the roll up door/loading dock and fire exit. We have tossed around the idea of cooling the entire space to the mid 40's to keep as much space as possible. Anyone out there have any suggestions or advice. We are located in metro Atlanta.

[Ted Briggs]

Before making the decision I would find out how much it would cost to insulate the entire place to appx. R-50, ie. about 5" of foam, and then make the walls and ceiling a washable surface. It could be Refrigeration panels are the best way of doing this.

[Starcat]

Moisture Dynamics

I would expect that a correctly installed Walk in box would be the best way to go in your area which is a humid one.
I have dealt with refrigeration systems in both humid and dry climates.
Remember the flow of water is always INTO the conditioned space, so if things are not perfect on the build out it will rain inside the walls.
As a Tech its always interesting and common to see especially with Walk in Freezers how poorly they are installed and how water, then ice find its way into the weakness of box penetrations etc. that are really not that difficult to do correctly.
I cannot tell you how many calls I ran on walk in freezers back in Texas where the customer wants to know why and solve the matter of ice breaking into the box, which generally cannot be done without a shutdown.
If things are put together correctly from the start water will be contained where it is supposed to.
In your case what is called the " latent load " is high.
Really good walk in installs are rare.

[gvh_Dan]

pnh2atl, maybe I'm miss-reading your post but it almost seems like you are thinking of cooling the space down without adding any insulation or vapor barrier? If so, that would be a bad idea for the reasons Starcat mentioned. Yes, you would be using way more energy but you would also be pulling massive amounts of moisture into the facility.

Likewise, if you build a cooler inside the space make sure you leave room for air to flow between the outside of the insulated panels and the original walls of the building. I worked on a large cooler in California. They built a concrete box (for seismic load) and then built a insulated panel cooler inside that without leaving any way for air to flow through the 6 inch gap between the walls. Fast forward 3 years, the cooler walls pulled moisture out of (or through) the concrete walls, the moisture condensed in the gap and the entire interstitial space was a solid mass of black mold. I walked away from the job and told them to push it over.

Whatever you do, make sure there is a thick vapor barrier that is continuous (floor too) to keep water out.