Agricultural

Refrigerated storage systems for the agricultural industry are essential to extend quality for seasonal and perishable products. Seaman’s Mechanical can provide the right storage environment for lasting flavor, color, weight, and texture of a product. We set the industry standard and utilize the latest technology in our system designs.

Partial Client List

  • Frosted Farms (Grow Facility)
  • Symponia Farms (Grow Facility)
  • Revolution Farms
  • Green Ridge Fruits

Agriculture Case Study

The situation: A local fruit wholesaler is struggling with 50 plus year old drive-in storage coolers. Although it has given them many years of reliable service, the constant break downs and loss of refrigeration capacity associated with time and age had finally caught up to them.

Seaman’s was called: Discussions were had with the owner regarding immediate and future needs. The immediate need was more reliable up-dated refrigeration systems. There were no plans for future expansion, so future needs were not part of the discussions. A pretty straight forward retrofit, or is it?

Seaman's solution: Based on the information provided by the client, load calculations were performed to determine proper sizing of the equipment to existing coolers. The load calculations indicated a slight increase in capacity was required but the original equipment sizing was close. However, the equipment selected was much different. The original Evaporators were large floor mounted units. Although being floor mounted allowed for more convenient servicing, the air circulation in the box was poor. Product being stacked in front and around the air handers caused uneven temperatures, not to mention the loss of floor space that could be used to store additional product. Seaman's solution was to hang the evaporators high near the ceiling, allowing for much better air circulation, more even temperatures throughout, and provide additional floor space. Packaged condensing units were selected shrinking the over-all footprint of the equipment outside on the existing concrete pads, and temperature monitoring controls were added to alert the owners via text message or email if the temperature in the cooler boxes went out of range.

Bigger issues were discovered when Seaman's brought in their Electrical Department to evaluate the clients available power. Because buildings and systems had been added over the years much of the electrical wiring was not up to current codes and standards. The overhead high voltage lines feeding the individual buildings spider webbed out from one main utility pole on the complex. Not only were the overhead lines not allowed under today’s current code they also posed a safety hazard for workers moving product around on the complex. Seaman's solution was to work with the local utility company and have a single upsized service horizontally bored underground to one of the buildings eliminating the overhead lines. Much of the electrical services were consolidated in one room then distributed to the rest of the buildings. The service was upsized to accommodate future growth if needed, disconnects were added so individual buildings could be easily and safely serviced without calling the utility company, and Phase Monitors were added to the equipment to protect against Over/Under Voltages and Phase loss.