The recent extremely hot weather reminds us at ACS of some important actions you can take to reduce the heat load on your CA equipment.
Questions to ask yourself
- Is your plant room well ventilated, can you improve air flow?
- Can you fit a temperature controlled ventilation fan?
Your power consumption increases markedly when equipment is running at the extreme end of its range.
- Do you have to continue the room trimming right through the hottest part of the day?
- Can it wait until the cooler part of the evening?
Filters
On the equipment itself, dirty air inlet filters for say, fresh air on a CO2 absorber or an oxygen scrubber, will cause the equipment to work harder.
If ACS services your system, the filters are cleaned or replaced at each service, but in the summer with more dirt and dust in the air, the filters will start to block quicker—you can clean the filters yourself to improve performance.
Implementing these simple steps will reduce power consumption and hopefully reduce wear and tear on your equipment.
For more information, see Tree Fruit January 2014
