How did people survive the summer months working in the late 18th century textile mills strung along the Stroud valleys. The processes of scouring, dyeing and finishing of woollen cloth generated a lot of heat yet the buildings were closed with no windows. In fact, the buildings were designed to be light-tight to stop the daylight penetrating and bleaching the dye. Also, the humidity had to be strictly controlled in order to achieve the correct finish to the cloth.
The ingenious architects of the period were for the most part self-taught. They used their knowledge of physics to devise ways of shedding heat without sacrificing light. The monitor roof, a raised horizontal section of wall with vertical slots cut in it, created a current of air that rose upwards and left the building by the ridge. Clerestory windows cut into the upper parts of the walls allowed the hot air to escape from the upper reaches of the building. The thick stone walls of the old Cotswold mills acted slowly as a heat store during the day, releasing the heat at night. Many of the older mills were supplied with cold water from rivers such as the Frome via underground channels and this was used to cool the floor and the lowest level of air before it rose.
These ingenious solutions worked for about two hundred years. But, when a couple of people, some computers and a load of LED lighting are added to a loom room, a whole new set of problems are created. The thermal mass of the old building is just not able to keep up with these new demands. There is a useful background explanation of Historic England’s record of Stroud’s listed mill buildings.
Why Air con Stroud is becoming increasingly popular for Offices in Old Buildings. Searches for Air con Stroud have dramatically increased in recent years as the old Mill Buildings in the area are being converted into Offices and Apartments. The old buildings have excellent thermal mass and many have large open spaces. However, the way in which the buildings produce heat is vastly different from when they were used as loom rooms and how the heat is to be removed by air con Stroud is an important consideration. There is more on Air con Stroud at https://acecc.co.uk/air-conditioning-near-me/air-conditioning-stroud/.
The mills outlived the looms but the heating in the buildings did not. Simple heating of the air in the buildings that once contained the heat of work in progress of making cloth is required and this does not need to be a lot more than a simple hole in the wall.