lotsoskiing;c-51966 wrotenewpylong;c-51960 wroteWe would target 40 degrees for our compressed air leaving the air plant up the hill.
Diesel air happens to be hotter by nature by its creation and needs to be cooled more. After we retired our diesel and were just electric we seldom had to use our external after cooler because the compressors themselves have built in after coolers.
Remember, fans (mostly) have onboard compressors that still need to mechanically create compressed air, so it is not ambient temp. The only thing the fan itself is used for is for throw. If you put your hand on a nozzle ring with just the compressor running on a fan the air can be warm too, especially with the nozzle ring heaters on.
As mentioned, it all depends on what model fans you have to work with. The TAs at Killington are older models and would not be as efficient in marginal. The Demac Titan's they are demoing still make decent snow in higher wet bulb.
What about the new TecnoAlpin ones like at Oak?
If I understand it correctly, and for sure Newpylong has WAY knowledge than I do, but with fan guns, #1 there are multiple banks of nozzles that can or not be turned on. When the temps are marginal, they tend to run less nozzle banks (less total gallons of water per minute) to be affected by the same amount of compressed air the gun can generate at all times, to produce the product. So with say 1 nozzle bank only running, and the same amount of compressed air generated when all nozzle banks are open and running, you get something like when the big air hog guns are running and producing product (albeit limited vs in optimal wet bulb temps) in marginal temps.
Bottom line is you get much more product made much more cost effectively at a wet bulb of say 22 degrees compared to a wet bulb of say 27 or 28 degrees
