When trying to heat your construction site, preventing moisture production may be on the top of your list. You may think the level of moisture that gets trapped in your construction site can only be prevented through the types of heaters you rent. Yet, that’s not necessarily the case.
There are several steps that can be taken to prevent moisture from being produced on your construction site. These include: the placement of the heater, pulling in only fresh air, and the proper ventilation. We’re going to walk you through our recommendations to ensure your construction site stays dry.
Pull in Fresh Air
Preventing moisture on your construction site should be taken into consideration when first placing your construction heater. Fresh air is very important when using direct fired or direct fired enclosed flame heaters.
We first have to get a little technical about how these heaters work. Direct fired and direct fired enclosed flame heaters produce heat by pulling air directly over a flame, which is produced by burning either propane or natural gas. This heat generates small amounts of moisture from coming in direct contact with the flame. That’s why they’re called direct fired heaters.
If you’re trying to prevent moisture from gathering in your enclosed construction site, you’ll want to make sure these heaters are pulling in 100% fresh air. The air being pulled in from outside will by dryer than the air inside of the building. By burning this dryer air, the heater will create as little moisture as possible.
Proper Ventilation
When looking at preventing moisture on your construction site, you’re going to need proper ventilation. Let’s get into a little bit of science for a minute. We all know that warmer air rises and forces cooler air down. If we’re talking about ventilation, you’re going to want to have a place for the warm air to escape. This warm air is going to carry your moisture out with it.
The figure next to us shows an example of what we’re talking about. In this example you have a direct fired heater producing warm air on the ground level of this structure. This heater is creating a bit of moisture as we explained in the previous section. To help you vent out this moisture, you’ll need to create ventilation at the top of your structure so this warm air and moisture can get out.
We’re not talking about a lot of ventilation either. We would recommend that you create a small opening or open a window on the top floor, and do the same on the main floor. It’s also a good idea to create these openings in the path of the heat so it can easily escape. Don’t just open a window in an area of the house where you’re heat isn’t traveling to. Create the opening near stairwells or other spaces in the direct path of the heater.
Placement of Your Heater
In the past section we spoke about proper ventilation of your construction site. The final thing to keep in mind when preventing moisture is where you’re placing your heater. For venting, we recommended creating openings in the path of your heater. To reduce the total moisture in your job site effectively, you’ll also want to place your heaters in an area where the heat can flow throughout the structure.
Try to place your heaters by stairwells or open spaces. By placing your construction heaters by stairwells, the hot air can easily flow throughout your structure. This means more efficiently heating your space, while also allowing the moisture to vent out easier. This placement can save you money in fuel costs, and allow as much moisture as possible to escape.
Types of Heaters You Rent
If you’re working in an environment where you can’t have ANY excess moisture created by your temporary heaters, there are also heaters that don’t create any moisture at all. These heaters include indirect fired heaters and electric heaters.
We spoke earlier about direct fired heaters. These heaters create some moisture because they generate heat by running air directly over a fuel burning flame. Indirect fired heaters heat the air without running it directly over a flame. Because of this, they don’t come in contact with any fuel.
Electric heaters also won’t create any moisture since they don’t use a fuel source to produce the heat. These heaters are great to heat homes, places of work or medical spaces, because they don’t have any fumes that need to be vented out.
While these heaters won’t create any additional moisture, if you are simply looking to reduce moisture on your construction sites you may not need electric or indirect fired heaters.
So now you have the tools and knowhow to help reduce moisture from building up on your construction site. You should be sure to only heat fresh air, create proper ventilation opportunities, and place your heater in a way that encourages airflow. You could also consider renting indirect fired or electric heaters.
On Site Companies is a construction equipment rental company out of St. Paul, Rochester, Cromwell, and Mankato MN, and St. Louis MO. For more questions about direct fired heaters or renting heaters for your construction site, call us at 651.429.3781 or email us at [email protected].