Protection of workers against exposure to heat stress environments has been a concern of industry, labor organizations, and government. Such concern was demonstrated in the recently proposed OSHA Heat Stress Standards, which have acted as the most effective prod to action by industry.

The procedure for designing a total volume air-conditioning system is well documented in ASHRAE literature ; however, there are deficiencies and a lack of basic information available to designers of stratified and spot cooling systems. This paper deals with the design of spot cooling systems. Its objective is to identify the basic information needed for the design process. It also discusses how such information can be used with the ultimate objective of designing the spot cooling system with minimum energy usage.