"Is It Possible to Install a Regular Air Conditioner in a Logistics Center?"... Here's Why It Doesn't Work

Customized Cooling Is Effective for Open Large-Scale Logistics Centers

Coupang Logistics Center

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) has drawn attention to the working conditions at Coupang’s logistics centers, a leading e-commerce company, by demanding the installation of air conditioners. The union has occupied the lobby of Coupang’s headquarters and continued holding rallies, calling for various measures against the heatwave, with “air conditioner installation” as their top priority. In response to claims that “workers endure nine hours with only one bottle of water and have no rest time or rest areas,” Coupang rebutted on the 20th, stating, “Open large-scale logistics centers are best cooled with customized air conditioning; we have installed thousands of ceiling fans and air circulators, and there are also thousands of water purifiers.” But is it feasible to install conventional air conditioners in logistics centers? We asked experts who have supplied industrial air conditioners to various manufacturing sites for decades.

One of Coupang’s logistics centers in Gyeonggi Province spans a total floor area of 132,231㎡ (approximately 40,000 pyeong) across seven floors, employing about 1,000 workers. Coupang explains that the size is equivalent to 17 soccer fields. Typically, to cool a 40,000-pyeong logistics center as comfortably as a home, it is estimated that 2,666 15-pyeong air conditioners would be required. The problem is that the open logistics center, with all sides open, is not an enclosed space. A representative from mid-sized air conditioner supplier Company D said, “Because hot air constantly flows in from the loading dock, no matter how many conventional air conditioners people know of are installed, it is difficult for the air inside the logistics center to become cool like in a house or office.” The heat emitted from the outdoor units of air conditioners, which extract cold air, is also an issue. Since air conditioners blow cold air from the front and emit heat from the back, increasing the number of cooling units without limit could actually raise the temperature inside the logistics center significantly.

This problem is common to all large logistics centers with loading docks. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s National Logistics Integrated Information Center, as of July, there are 4,706 logistics centers nationwide, employing 89,827 workers. From 2014 to 2016, 140 to 170 new logistics centers were established annually, but with industrial growth, the number has increased by 400 to 500 each year since the 2019s. Among these, large-scale logistics centers like Coupang’s, spanning tens of thousands of pyeong, mostly operate loading docks that are open both inside and outside.

Given these circumstances, Coupang explained that comprehensive cooling like that in typical homes and offices is difficult in logistics centers. Safety-related regulations such as the Industrial Safety and Health Act do not mandate the installation of cooling equipment in logistics centers except for special workplaces where high-temperature work is conducted. Professor Jeong Jin-woo of the Department of Safety Engineering at Seoul National University of Science and Technology said, “The intention is for each company to implement realistic heatwave countermeasures suitable for their sites.”

Instead, facilities that partially and intensively cool the workspaces where workers are located are used. A representative example is portable air conditioners that do not have outdoor units emitting hot air but use long ducts to blow cool air intensively into specific zones. Common cooling auxiliary devices include air circulators that ventilate with cool air and industrial ceiling fans with a diameter of 2.5 meters installed on the ceiling. Additionally, Coupang provides enclosed employee rest areas on each floor of the logistics center, equipped with conventional air conditioners for operation.

Meanwhile, on the 20th, the Coupang union held a press conference in front of Coupang’s headquarters in Songpa-gu, Seoul, demanding the installation of air conditioners inside the logistics centers. The union stated that the company has not responded to their demands and launched a march called the “Air Conditioner Rocket Delivery.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.