Heating for Warehouses

Generally speaking, warehouses are large uninsulated buildings that often have high ceilings. Below outlines our two tried and tested approaches to heating warehouses – space heating the building with fan heaters or spot heating workers with quarts halogen heaters.

Warehouse heating systems are required to provide an acceptable working environment, and/or to protect products from the adverse effects of cold temperatures.

Generally, the requirement is for a simple, reliable, no-frills system that operates trouble-free year after year. Simple control systems are also required to ensure that the key heating objectives are met with the minimum consumption of electricity.

Industrial Fan Heaters

Because warehouses tend to be full of racking, fan-assisted heating systems are generally preferred to radiant systems as they encourage the circulation of warm air between and through the racks. A warehouse will lose heat through the fabric of the building as well as through ventilation, especially through opening doors etc. A successful fan heating system must have sufficient total kW output to offset these losses and sufficient air circulation to ensure an even air temperature throughout the warehouse.

BN Thermic industrial fan heaters are hand assembled in the UK and backed with a 5 year warranty

BN Thermic industrial fan heaters are be easily wall mounted or suspended on chains

Controlling Industrial Fan Heaters

BN Thermic has developed the OUH2 industrial fan heater specifically for this kind of application. In a large warehouse, several fan heaters will be installed and evenly distributed. Normally temperature control is provided by the heaters’ built-in thermostat. This means that in effect the heaters will operate individually perhaps responding to a localised drop in temperature resulting say from a roller shutter door opening. The heaters can however be linked in a control daisy-chain to a single programmable timer, on/off switch and/or frost thermostat if required.

Click here for full details of BN Thermic’s industrial fan heaters

Destratification Units

A major problem when heating taller buildings is a phenomenon known as temperature gradient. It is estimated that air temperature increases by around 2.5°C for every metre above floor level. Therefore, to maintain an air temperature of 20°C at floor level, in a 6m high warehouse, the air temperature at ceiling level would be around 35°C. The net result is a large body of overheated air that is expensive to generate and serves no useful purpose.

Destratification units save up to 30% off an annual heating bill

Destratification units are hand assembled in the UK and designed for years of maintenance free operation

Energy Saving

BN Thermic strongly recommends the use of destratification devices in warehouses where the ceiling height exceeds 4m. This type of device will sense when there is a differential between air temperatures at low and high levels and use a powerful fan to reduce the differential. The use of destratification devices can reduce the running costs of a warehouse heating system by up to 30%.

Click here for full details of BN Thermic’s destratification units

Quartz Halogen Heaters

In some warehouses, conventional space heating is just not practical. In these circumstances, there is often a requirement to provide localised heat in specific areas for example a packing area. We call this spot heating. The best means of spot-heating a target area within an otherwise unheated warehouse is a halogen heater. This style of heater emits shortwave energy as well as a warming red glow.

This energy is absorbed by people entering its target area who are instantly warmed, without the need to increase the surrounding air temperature. To keep operating costs to a minimum control devices such as movement sensors and time switches are often employed.

Click here for full details of BN Thermic’s halogen heaters

Quartz halogen heaters allow you to heat specific areas within a warehouse or industrial unit

A design for a warehouse measuring 18 x 24m. Three heaters (purple) and one destratification unit (green) were specified

Designing a Warehouse Heating System

Warehouse heating systems, whether using industrial fan heaters or halogen heaters, need to be carefully designed. The engineers at BN Thermic are very experienced and are always on hand to assist. When required, they will visit a warehouse, carry out a survey and provide a bespoke heating proposal. There is never a charge for this service.

Contact BN Thermic on 01293 547 361 to discuss your project.

Related: Workshop Heating Solutions

Warehouse Heating FAQs

How do I heat a warehouse?

Warehouses need to be heated either to provide an acceptable working temperature or to protect stored material from the effect of low temperatures. In most cases, this is best achieved using large electric industrial fan heaters. Here are some of the advantages of this approach.

Because each fan heater has a relatively high output, a relatively small number of heaters will be required thus keeping installation costs to a minimum.
Industrial fan heaters have high air volume flow rates which provide an even heat distribution through closely spaced racking.
Electric industrial fan heaters are easy to control economically. If required, they can provide comfortable heating during the day and frost protection at night.

The disadvantage of this type of warm air system is that very warm air can collect at high levels. This super-heated air is expensive to generate and serves no useful purpose. To combat this phenomenon, we always recommend the use of destratification units in warehouses with roofs above 4m. These devices will effectively recycle this warm air and in doing so, reduce heating bills by up to 30%.

How many kW’s do I need to heat a warehouse?

A successful warm air heating system will require industrial fan heaters with a combined kW output greater than the heat loss from the warehouse in cold conditions. Heat loss will be a combination of fabric losses (i.e. through walls, roof etc.) and ventilation losses (i.e. through open doors, windows etc.).

It should be noted that installing a system with a total output somewhat higher than is necessary will not result in higher running costs. This is because accurate temperature control devices will take over once the required air temperature is reached.

If you would like some help with a warehouse heating project, BN Thermic offers a ‘free of charge’ and ‘no obligation’ warehouse heating design service. Simply complete our enquiry form or just pick up the phone.

How do I distribute heat in a warehouse?

When using industrial fan heaters, it is important to ensure that the heaters’ fans move enough air to provide an even heat distribution. The aim is to process four times the building’s total air volume every hour. So, for a warehouse 20m x 10m x 4m the total volume is 20 x 10 x 4 = 800m³ and the minimum total combined air volume flow rate required is 4 x 800 = 3200m³/h. The air volume flow rates for all our industrial fan heaters are indicated in the technical specifications.

Once the heaters have been selected, they should be evenly spaced throughout the building.

For improved economy in taller warehouses, we recommend installing destratification units which will recycle warm air that has collected at a high level and can reduce heating costs by up to 30%. The air volume flow rate of these units can be included when calculating the actual combined air volume flow rate figure.

We are aware that there is a wide variety of pews both in style and size. If you would like BN Thermic to assist with pew heater selection and to calculate the running cost, please do not hesitate to call our experienced and friendly engineers.

What is a warm air heating system?

A warm air heating system is any heating system that relies on heat convection to maintain a body of warm air in a confined space. In a warehouse context, this is almost certain to be provided by industrial fan heaters.

The alternative to a warm air system is a direct heating system using perhaps quartz halogen heaters which can heat people directly without the need to heat the surrounding air. Direct heating systems may have a role to play in a warehouse, for example boosting local heat in a packing area, but they rarely provide a total warehouse heating solution

Do infrared heaters work in a warehouse?

Infrared heaters such as BN Thermic’s longwave radiant cassettes (sometimes known as far-infrared heaters), are not generally ideal for providing a total heating solution for a warehouse. Longwave heating systems normally use a grid of cassettes suspended at a high level and emitting longwave energy. To be effective, this energy needs to be able to reach ground level and, in a warehouse, racking tends to prevent this from happening.

Shortwave quartz halogen heaters frequently have a role to play. This type of heater heats people directly rather than heating the surrounding air and can be very useful in providing a local temperature boost perhaps in a parking area.

How can I heat a warehouse economically?

Here are some steps that you can take to ensure that your industrial fan heaters operate as economically as possible.

Limit Heat Loss

A space heating system needs to generate sufficient energy to offset heat losses from an enclosed space. Every step that can be taken to reduce heat loss from space will reduce running costs. Obvious steps include improving insulation, keeping doors and windows shut as well installing good quality industrial curtains and ensuring that they are not tied back in any way.

Programmable Thermostatic Control

The group of industrial fan heaters should be controlled by an accurate programmable thermostat such as BN Thermic’s RT26. This master thermostat should be set at the lowest acceptable temperature and the pre-heating period should be adjusted to the minimum required.

Built-in Thermostats

BN Thermic’s industrial fan heaters have a built-in adjustable thermostat. This can be used to switch off a heater if part of the warehouse has reached an acceptable temperature even if the master thermostat is ‘calling’ for heat

Destratification Units

A potential problem when using industrial fan heaters is that very warm air can collect at high levels. This super-heated air is expensive to generate and serves no useful purpose. To combat this phenomenon, we always recommend the use of destratification units in warehouses with roofs above 4m. These devices will effectively recycle this warm air and in doing so, reduce heating bills by up to 30%.

Can I heat a packing area and not the rest of the warehouse?

We have seen many instances where it was considered impractical to heat the entire warehouse but where localised heating was required for a packing area. This can be easily achieved using quartz halogen heaters which can be wall-mounted or suspended and focussed on a particular area.

Quartz halogen heaters are instantly effective meaning that devices such as push button timers and movement sensors can be used to prevent unoccupied areas from being heated. These measures keep running costs to a minimum.