FAQ CATEGORY: ICE

Standard air conditioning and industrial air filtration are two separate systems, each with its own equipment, energy draw and maintenance requirements. You run your dust collector for compliance and your AC for comfort, independently, simultaneously, at full cost.

Senturion ICE integrates refrigerant cooling coils directly into your dust collection system, so the air you're already moving for compliance gets cooled as well as cleaned. A rooftop condenser connects to the indoor coils via refrigerant lines. It’s the same split-system architecture used in conventional AC, but integrated into your filtration infrastructure.

The maintenance benefits are significant. Cooling coils only ever see filtered air, virtually eliminating coil maintenance. And because shop air is cleaned before it reaches your conventional HVAC system, those filters stay cleaner longer, meaning fewer changeouts and lower overall HVAC maintenance costs.

The result: lower energy costs, reduced HVAC strain, virtually no coil maintenance, and a facility that's both clean and cool.

There is currently no federal OSHA standard specifically regulating indoor workplace temperatures. However, several guidelines and enforcement mechanisms apply, and employers should be aware of the current landscape.

NIOSH Recommended Exposure Limits (RELs): NIOSH recommends that no worker be exposed to combinations of metabolic and environmental heat exceeding established limits, assessed using Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) — a measure that incorporates temperature, humidity, and air movement. These are recommendations, not enforceable regulations, but they represent the recognized standard of care.

ACGIH Threshold Limit Values (TLVs): The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists publishes TLVs for heat stress, also based on WBGT measurements, that define exposure limits by workload intensity and acclimatization status. Like NIOSH RELs, ACGIH TLVs are recommendations rather than enforceable regulations — but they are widely referenced by industrial hygienists and safety professionals as benchmarks for acceptable heat exposure.

OSHA General Duty Clause: In the absence of a specific heat standard, OSHA can cite employers under the General Duty Clause for exposing workers to recognized heat hazards. In April 2026, OSHA updated its National Emphasis Program on outdoor and indoor heat-related hazards, directing inspection resources to 55 high-risk industries, including manufacturing, based on heat illness rates and citation history from 2022 to 2025. The updated program includes random inspections on days when the National Weather Service issues heat advisories or warnings.

State standards: Several states have enacted their own heat standards. California's Heat Illness Prevention Standard triggers requirements at 80°F. Maryland, Washington, Minnesota, Oregon and Colorado have also enacted specific occupational heat exposure laws.

For some shops that currently operate without air conditioning, ICE can serve as a complete cooling solution, delivering cool air where it is needed most. In other facilities, ICE works alongside your existing HVAC system rather than replacing it entirely. ICE typically provides 30-40% of total facility cooling tonnage, significantly reducing the load on conventional AC and allowing you to right-size new installations or reduce strain on existing equipment.

The Vortex configuration is the standard ICE setup: a ductless ambient filtration unit that captures and filters air throughout the facility. Refrigerant cooling coils are mounted inside the Vortex plenum, so filtered air is cooled before being returned to the facility. No source-capture ductwork required.

The ducted configuration is designed for applications requiring contained source capture or for ducted ambient push/pull systems. In these configurations, cooling coils are integrated into the ductwork or a dedicated coil box, allowing the system to handle higher air volumes while maintaining the same clean-air-first principle.

In both configurations, heat exchange is handled by a rooftop condenser connected to the indoor coils via refrigerant lines.

Not sure which configuration is right for your facility? Talk to a RoboVent Solution Specialist.

Senturion ICE is available exclusively on RoboVent Senturion dust collectors in two configurations:

• Vortex ICE: the ductless ambient filtration configuration
• Senturion ducted: for source capture or ducted push/pull ambient configurations

ICE is engineered specifically for RoboVent Senturion units and is not available as an add-on for third-party dust collection equipment. Contact a RoboVent engineer to discuss whether your facility is a candidate for a new Senturion installation with integrated cooling.

Two factors drive the energy savings with Senturion ICE. First, filtration and recirculation eliminates the need to constantly condition outside make-up air. Recirculating cleaned air rather than exhausting it can reduce cooling-related energy costs by up to 65%. Second, by providing 30-40% of your facility's cooling tonnage through your existing filtration infrastructure, ICE reduces the volume of air your conventional HVAC system needs to move, lowering energy consumption and operating costs.

Significantly simpler. Because Senturion ICE filters air before it reaches the cooling coils, those coils stay clean — virtually eliminating the coil maintenance that plagues conventional AC systems in dirty manufacturing environments. Ongoing maintenance is primarily filter replacement on the filtration side, which you're already managing as part of your dust collection system.

Senturion ICE uses a split-system AC configuration: refrigerant cooling coils are integrated into the dust collection unit, with refrigerant lines running to a condenser on the rooftop. Because half the system is already built into the dust collector, installation with a new RoboVent dust collection system is straightforward. RoboVent's project management team handles system design, engineering, installation and project management. Contact a RoboVent engineer to discuss what installation looks like for your specific facility configuration.