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  1. #1
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    Feb 2017
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    Massive condensation in office next to cold store



    Hi Guys, I hope it's alright to ask the question in this area.
    We have a 1500sqft coldstore in an industrial unit and have recently bought the unit right next door to it. We are converting this unit into offices with a mezzanine. However, we are getting an enormous amount of condensation/moisture collecting on the corrugated roof and steel uprights of the offices and it's dripping down and causing problems.
    The coldstore unit has a built in coldstore, like a separate entity, and has a gap of just 20mm to the brick wall that borders the office. There isnt any insulation on the cold store brick wall side or the office wall side.
    My 2 questions to anyone more knowledgeable than me are:
    1) Will insulating the gap (between the outside of the coldstore wall and the brick wall (20mm)) have any affect on the temperature of the office side which is creating the codensation.

    2) Is there a way to move the cold air or warm it up to stop the condensation/moisture forming.

    We have a regular freezer engineer who services our coldstores and he said to get 2 large extractors, one on each side of the unit (office side) and some ducting with holes in it and run the ducting up the wall with the extractor sucking the cold air in through the holes.
    Now he is saying to get a dehumidifier! The office unit is 1500Sqft so this seems crazy

    I hope someone can offer an alternative solution. Thank you for reading

    Mike



  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    USA
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    Re: Massive condensation in office next to cold store

    Mike:
    If I am understanding correctly you have a unit in what we call a business park on this side of the pond, and wish to use the unit next door as a office.
    I also assume that the cold store has a panel cold room box assembled 20mm from the brick wall. If this is not correct the following will be of no value to you.

    If this is correct you have an serious issue. The box being so close does not allow air circulation and will cause condensation and chill the dividing wall. I have dealt with this before. The only real cure is to move the panel away from the wall.
    You can try moving air through the 20mm space, but I doubt it would be successful. Dehumidifying the office space will help, but is not a cure. Most likely it will not help enough to be worth it.
    Filling the 20mm space with insulation will not help, and will most likely make the problem worse.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
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    telford
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    Re: Massive condensation in office next to cold store

    I have built umpteen cold stores in industrial units, self contained always use six inch panels on the sides running at minus twenty five Celsius never had any issues like you describe,sounds to me like the insulation is poor on this freezer room,seen many where there has been slight gaps in the panels ie not been correctly put together,the cold rooms we build do not leak which it sounds like your neighbours is sometimes damage can be caused by stacked trucks etc breaking the insulation but in our experience your scenario has never happened to us .

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
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    devon
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    Re: Massive condensation in office next to cold store

    What mike has forgot to mention is the freezer room store was damaged by a driver and fork truck breaking a panel this was quoted for via stancold and never done also its a sod to repair as no access to rear of building room is 120 pallets the other problem is freezer room is built exact size of room it's in even a tapered roof which makes good viewing when sliding door is open I was asked to give some advise to the owner who I have done work for for many years this is over the phone not on site the main part being the cheapest way to get rid of condensation I suggested some fans and extra insulation to draw air off as builder was building a insulated cavity wall anyway which would be the most cost effective way of addressing issue without repairing wall but there is still the issue of when door opens which is a 4 metre slider the answer which was quoted repair panels but I advised on pulling air out as most cost effective and de humid to assist because if panel done u still have the draft via a big door with no where to go the insulation has been like this for 2 to 3 years it's had expanding foam but it's never the same ta charlie

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
    Location
    United Kingdom
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    Re: Massive condensation in office next to cold store

    Alright Charlie, cheers for your input. Also thanks to other guys. Moving the air on the cold store side hasnt been considered so maybe we'll give that a go as that certainly makes sense. That, coupled with the extractors will hopefully help.

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