FEATURE
DON’T HEAT THE VOID
Kevin Calatin, Estimating Manager at AKON Curtains Limited, explains how micro-climate zoning helps solve the UK warehouse heating dilemma.
Ask most facilities and safety teams about heating a large, older warehouse and you will hear the same frustration. Warm air rises to the roof, the occupied floor stays cold, and the heating bill climbs regardless. For H&S managers, this is not just an energy problem. It is a workplace temperature obligation that has to be met, in buildings that were never designed to make it easy.
WHAT THE LAW ACTUALLY REQUIRES
The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 set the duty. Regulation 7 states simply that the temperature in indoor workplaces “shall be reasonable”. There is no specific figure in the law itself. The often- quoted 16C, or 13C where work involves rigorous
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physical effort, comes from the supporting Approved Code of Practice as suggested minimums, not statutory limits. Equally, contrary to common belief, there is no maximum workplace temperature set in UK law. HSE frames comfort around six factors: air temperature, radiant temperature, air movement, humidity, clothing, and work rate. Air temperature alone, HSE stresses, is not a reliable measure of a comfortable workplace.
THE PROBLEM WITH HEATING THE WHOLE BUILDING
Heating is the single largest energy end use in UK non-domestic buildings, accounting for around 42% of consumption according to the government’s Building Energy Efficiency Survey. In a high-bay warehouse, much of that heat is wasted. Warm air stratifies, collecting in the unoccupied roof void while workers at floor level stay cold. The Carbon Trust estimates that addressing this stratification in tall industrial buildings can cut heating energy by roughly 20%.
HEATING THE WORKER, NOT THE VOID
The logical response is to stop treating the entire building volume as the thing that needs heating. HSE’s own thermal comfort guidance points directly at this approach, recommending that employers “separate the source of heat or cold from workers” and “use barriers
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