To ensure the year-round safety and comfort of warehouse employees, adequate heating is essential. It’s also uniquely challenging. Not only do warehouse facilities involve vast volumes of space that require heating, but the frequent opening and shutting of warehouse doors can make climate control an uphill battle.

For warehouse managers seeking an effective and efficient heating solution, one avenue to pursue is unit heaters. These self-contained heaters can be permanently installed in walls or ceilings, providing a durable way to heat entire warehouses or simply to warm targeted areas. Although unit heaters represent a relatively straightforward heating solution, best results do require strategic installation from trained professionals.

Why Unit Heaters Make Sense for Warehouses

Unit heaters generate warmth by means of a fan, which blows air directly over a heat exchanger. Installing a unit heater does not require any kind of ductwork, which minimizes ongoing maintenance requirements. At the same time, unit heaters are considerably more powerful than portable space heaters, offering greater capacity to keep large facilities comfortable.

Not only do unit heaters provide a convenient source of warmth, but they can also help warehouse managers meet any energy efficiency or sustainability goals they have in place. Options for unit heaters span electric to hydronic to oil and gas-powered, ensuring a heating source to align with any corporate responsibility goals.

Unit heaters aren’t the only way to heat a warehouse, but they often make the most sense—not only from the standpoint of effectiveness, but also ease of installation as well as general safety. Consider the alternatives. Radiant heating units can be installed under the floor, but for existing warehouse facilities, this requires ripping up the concrete floor in its entirety—a costly undertaking, even before considering disruptions to normal productivity.

Meanwhile, individual propane heaters can be placed throughout the warehouse, but the heat they provide is often inconsistent. And, even one propane heater malfunctioning can pose a significant safety threat to the entire warehouse team.

Unit heaters can be used to mitigate each of these concerns. For example, at Modine, we’ve designed the standard-setting Amp Dawg heater to ensure consistent temperatures while also providing robust safety features. Even so, for commercial settings, professional installation is typically needed to determine strategic unit placement and to optimize results.

Making the Most of Unit Heaters

Several factors can determine the effectiveness of a unit heating system, and only a professional installer can provide the guidance needed for the best possible configuration. For example, a professional installer can assess a warehouse facility and then make a customized recommendation concerning these key variables:

• The number of unit heaters needed. The typical warehouse facility is cavernous in its scope, meaning a single unit heater will likely prove insufficient. Depending on the size of the facility, the local climate, and specific temperature regulation needs, an installer can recommend the most judicious number of units, along with ideal spacing to ensure consistent warmth.
• The placement of unit heaters. Speaking of spacing, an installer can also advise on how best to situate individual units. As a rule of thumb, warehouses that have lower ceilings tend to benefit from unit heaters placed along the perimeter of the building, particularly near doors and windows where heat more readily escapes. For narrower or high-ceilinged warehouses, it often works better to stack units vertically at the building’s center point, allowing the heat zones of these units to overlap and compound.
• The ventilation requirements for a unit heater. In cases where unit heaters are powered by natural gas, adequate ventilation is needed to maintain indoor air quality and to ensure high standards of safety. A professional installer can create the ventilation needed, or else recommend an electric heater, which does not need to be ventilated.
• Safety and durability requirements for unit heaters. Commercial warehouse facilities can be hazardous environments, which is something to account for when installing unit heaters. For example, in an environment where there are numerous flammable materials or explosion risks, opting for an electric unit heater can be a smart way to limit liability and to promote worker safety. A professional installer can offer knowledgeable guidelines for product selection.

Not all unit heater setups are created equal, and choosing the right installation partner can be a crucial step in securing the best long-term results.

Unit Heaters Can Keep Warehouses Warm, and Workers Comfortable

The conditions in a warehouse facility are not always designed with comfort in mind, but that hardly means employees must suffer through frigid temperatures. Unit heaters provide an easy and cost-effective way to deliver consistent warmth, resulting in a work environment that’s safe and accommodating year-round. The first step toward successful unit heater installation is seeking a qualified installer to help guide product selection, and to design the most effective setup.

Jamie Tuinstra is a product manager at Modine Manufacturing, where he oversees product development, profit optimization, and customer satisfaction for both new and established product lines. At Modine, we are engineering a cleaner, healthier world. Modine is a global company headquartered in Racine, Wisconsin (USA), with operations in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. For more information about Modine, visit www.modinehvac.com.