Weather, the great equalizer. It happens to everyone and everything outdoors. Since much of construction happens outside the “building envelope,” workers are at the mercy of the rain, heat, cold, and other climate elements. Clothing choice helps with the cold, but extreme heat is often impossible to mitigate; how much clothing can you taken off, after all?
You try to find relief—a hat, an umbrella, cover under a building—but the heat is inescapable. Most of the time you just try to deal with it. And the safety requirement for a hard hat on the jobsite makes for a hot head in hot weather, no exceptions. Or are there? What is believed to be the world’s first self-contained, portable air-conditioned headgear is now available from Feher Research. 
The AC hard hat uses Peltier thermoelectric solid-state cooling to produce sub-ambient air to cool the scalp. Head cooling has been proven in clinical trials to increase human physical endurance in ambient temperatures of 80º F and up by as much as 51%. Overall thermal comfort is improved substantially with scalp heat reduction, and in many cases, elimination of perspiration in warm and hot weather. Unlike ice pack applications, which start out excessively cold and warm quickly, the cooling caps give you dry, consistent cooling all day long … up to 22º F below ambient temperature.
Powered by solid-state high-tech materials, there are no refrigerants used to cool the hardhat and the only moving part is the air mover itself. The Air Conditioned Hardhat can be powered by a lithium battery, portable generator, via a motor vehicle, or simply plugged into a standard wall outlet. The special patented air flow structure is designed for maximum thermal transfer and air flow efficiency, which is one of the reasons that Feher AC Headgear is so lightweight, compact, and uses a small amount of power. The design contributes to the technology being very reliable and durable.
The AC Hardhat will be sized like a hat, with S, M, L, XL, XXL, etc. The reason for this is that the special high efficiency air flow structure won’t work with a one size fits all adjustable strap like plain hardhats. Because the adjustable strap system is eliminated, the overall weight of the production AC Hardhat is only about 1-to-1.5 oz. heavier than a typical hardhat.
The AC Hardhat will run for three hours on a lithium battery that weighs 6.6 oz. and easily fits in a pocket, or indefinitely from a universal 110-220v ac line power supply for stationary applications, such as at a table saw. The AC Hardhat will include the 3-hour battery and charger along with the line power supply that can also be used to charge an additional battery for rotation. Groups of AC Hardhat batteries can also be charged in multiple charging stations from line power with larger power supplies.
The suggested price for the AC Hardhat, including one 3-hour battery, one battery charger, and one universal line power supply will be approximately $140 – $150 based on direct to consumer online.
Original Article: https://constructech.com/keeping-your-cool-in-construction/
