Summer is here, and of course the AC systems are running hard to keep us comfortable! Our quarterly AC maintenance inspection resulted in some unpleasant news. We have 5 AC units in our space that we are responsible for maintaining and replacing when necessary. Yesterday’s inspection shows one of the shop units has a failed compressor that must be replaced, so it’s offline for now. Another unit is running, but needs some TLC. A third unit is about end of life entirely. We are awaiting estimates, so no time frame on repair at the moment.
Please keep the rollup door open as little as possible as it takes a lot of energy to recover from the amount of AC that flows out. If you can spare a moment to help one another out to move equipment and material in/out as quickly as possible, it would be greatly appreciated!
Meanwhile, a big part of the problem we have is due to the amount of woodshop dust that gets in the air and then finds it’s way into the AC filters and the AC coils. You can help greatly by making sure you are controlling the dust from your work:
- Make sure the dust collector is on and that the connection at your tool is operational.
- When using the portable sanders, please use a vacuum attachment and sand on the sanding table. Make sure the table’s vacuum is also on.
- Don’t use compressed air to clean off tables and equipment if a vacuum will work, or if you can sweep it up.
- There is a compressed air hose by the rollup door that can be used on items outside if you need to blow off dust, from yourself or materials.
For our part, we will be making some changes to the dust collection at the table saws in the near future to reduce the amount of dust they are allowing to get airborne. We will also be making changes to the entire dust collection system to reduce the amount of flex tubing, which will increase it’s efficiency. Lastly, we are increasing the frequency of our filter changes to help the AC units breathe better.
We are looking for additional quotes, so if you have a recommendation for a reputable AC company, please let us know.
