The growth of climate controlled self-storage and warehousing has increased dramatically over the last decade. Demanding and educated clients seek state of the art, top of the line protection for their possessions. To meet these demands, new facilities are incorporating climate control at the blue print phase and older facilities are being retrofitted to incorporate some sort of environmental protection. An inaccurate assumption is made that heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are all that is needed to protect customer goods, business reputation and to create a market differentiation and competitive advantage. decreasing AC life, while increasing the monthly electricity bill.

But to effectively control the climate, you must also control humidity. Many “climate controlled” self-storage facilities only control temperature using HVAC, but HVAC alone is inadequate due to the following reasons:

• Typical refrigerant type air conditioners cannot dry the atmosphere to below 60% humidity during peak ambient conditions.
• Air conditioning systems generally do not operate in the evening and early morning hours when it is cooler, but the humidity is also at its highest at these times.
• In winter, the condenser unit of an HVAC system that as a byproduct removes moisture from of the air may not run at all.
• That using HVAC system to dry the air requires the air conditioner to work overtime. Air conditioners (AC) are designed to lower the sensible load (temperature)  but not the latent load (moisture). The system must run longer to do both, decreasing AC life, while increasing the monthly electricity bill.