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It's Big! It's Wet! It's next to an airplane hanger. What is it?

Fall is in the air down here in the Deep South! That mean cool mornings (65 degrees) and moderate days (80 degrees).

I started this morning atop an airplane hanger in Gulf Shores, Alabama as part of my due diligence inspection for a client. It's a tough life. What a beautiful day!

Now for the quiz...

What's this?

It was sitting outside of the hanger. Here's another clue...

I'll post the answer shortly.

Have a great fall.

Tom Sinclair

About the House - Home Inspections

Fairhope, Alabama

251-990-3169

www.InspectTestAnalyze.com

Posted by Tom Sinclair : About the House - Home Inspections on 10/09/2007 11:47 PM

Comments (10)

airplane, hanger, due diligence, gulf shores

This post has been included in Alabama Information Baldwin County, AL Information Gulf Shores, AL Information
Post is included in group: Alabama Gulf Coast Inspector

10 Comments on It's Big! It's Wet! It's next to an airplane hanger. What is it?

OCT

2007

I love this time of year. Fall is so beatiful. Can't wait for the answer -- I don't have a clue!

OCT

2007

Dehumidifier or Geothermal Air Conditioner or Swamp cooler

I want to say it is a swamp cooler but would they have those and would they be effective in a humid climate?

Cooling tower.

I got to thinking, if it was a 'Dehumidifier' it would need a soffit or a conduit of some sort for the 'cooled or dried air' to travel through. There does not appear to be any structure of that sort. I wanted to be the winner of that all expenses paid trip to Lake Titticaca that Tom was offering. But nooooooo, Mitchell Captain . . . . . . had to beat me out. Mitchell, did you have prior experience? I cheated, I googled 'amcot'.

http://middletonsales.com/amcotcoolingtowers/default.htm

http://www.amcot.com/

Why a cooling tower? What were they doing in that hanger that produced that much heat? Was it part of a two loop cooling system? Was it using water as the external heat exchange medium rather than 'outside air', as a home unit does?

What's google?

What's google? <<< You're not serious?

Google, that little company that runs the Google Search Engine. That little 195 Billion Market Capitalization company that is trying to own the internet and the world and you and me !! The Google that is like $615 per share on the stock exchange.

<<< That Google

Mitchell is correct! It's a small cooling tower. The cooling tower serves two air handlers inside the hanger. While the inside temp will never get to 75F in the summer, it's certainly cooler than the 100F outside!

A 20 ton cooling tower might only cost $3K or $4K, so it's great way to provide some cooling for a huge space like a hanger.

And here's the air handler.

BTW... Google is just a good research tool. That's not cheating, Dwight!

Tom, So the inside unit is just heat exchangers / coils? That is, no compressor?

OCT

2007

Dwight,

Correct. The air handler's evaporator coil have chilled water flowing through it rather than a refrigerant gas. This does tend to limit its cooling ability, but for a large volume of air like a hanger, it's an ideal solution.

No compressor, just a large volume water pump and the cooling tower.

Pretty neat!

Tom

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