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Guest Blog: City of College Station Fleet Services keeps cool in Texas heat
The veterans and newbies alike agree that working in the facility can be downright unbearable in the summer. Temperatures can often run 90° F to well over 100° for six months out of the year – a hot, uncomfortable environment that can make focusing very difficult. That is until they discovered Portacool portable evaporative coolers.
Prior to using Portacool evaporative coolers, the shop employees ran traditional oversized shop fans to try to make it bearable. “Believe it or not, those other fans made the air more humid. These Portacool evaporative coolers don’t,” says Frank Gonzales, another long-time mechanic in the shop.
They ‘dipped their toes’ in the portable evaporative cooler world by renting a couple of Portacool products from a distributor. After they actually felt how much they helped keep employees cool, they knew they had to buy a few for themselves. The shop’s two Portacool Jetstream 240s, which they’ve had for going on two years, are used to spot cool the technicians as they work on the range of vehicles and equipment that come through the shop. This is important given that the large trucks – like the fire engines – almost function as walls since they stand 14′ high and block any airflow, which adds to the heat impact. The technicians note in the summer when it gets really hot, they put the evaporative coolers directly in their tight working spaces to get max cooling. In fact, Kirk adds they are thankful they don’t have to leave them hooked up to a hose because of the built-in reservoirs, as they move the coolers around quite a lot.
The technicians have declared their Portacool Jetstreams are an everyday necessity for their work. Kirk says he typically notices cooler temperatures in the double digits. As a result, on top of keeping the employees safe, he’s even noticed an increase in productivity. After all, when the technicians work in good conditions it’s easier for them to keep the city of College Station’s vehicles and equipment in good condition too.