- Start-Up Cabin Cool Introduces the First Air Conditioning System for
- Open-Cab Heavy Equipment
- New M100 offers effective and efficient cooling for people, not spaces
Cabin Cool, a start-up company based out of Rockville, Maryland with
the vision of providing air conditioning where there was none before, is introducing the M100, the first
air conditioning system designed to allow a heavy equipment operator to work in comfort in an open-
cab environment. The M100 direct-cooling system helps to reduce employee fatigue and turnover,
improving worker productivity in an increasingly hot and uncomfortable world.
Weighing only 50 lbs (22.7 kg), the self-contained, compact unit is 24 in (61 cm) long, 11.5 in (29.2 cm)
wide and has a height of 8 in (20.3 cm). It’s low power requirements and operator-controlled settings
make it an ideal solution to improve worker comfort and safety in hot environments. The product can be
used indoors or outdoors, and is rugged enough for any job, withstanding dusty, dirty, demanding
environments in all sorts of weather conditions.
“As long as the heavy equipment has an electrical system and a place to mount the product, you can use
it,” said Todd Stave, CEO, of Cabin Cool. “Cool air blowing on the worker, and under that worker’s control,
provides instant relief in a hot environment. It is a very effective, affordable product and ideal for the
wide variety of open cabs in the heavy equipment industry.”
The easy-to-install, run and repair M100 A/C system is ideal for the heavy equipment industry including
material handling, aerial platforms, paving, earthmoving and excavation, agriculture and landscaping,
and general construction.
Originally conceived at the University of Maryland and funded by the Department of Energy, Cabin
Cool’s guiding principle is the idea that it takes a lot less energy to cool a person than it does the space
they occupy.
Although the M100 uses 10 percent of the power of a typical window air conditioner, it provides enough
power to comfort workers in the most extreme conditions. The M100’s small electric heat pump with a
powerful fan will cool the air around the equipment by 25 degrees F (14 C), in other words, on a 100 F (38
C) degree day, the unit will make 75 F degrees (24 C) air. The system provides up to 600W of cooling
power, even though it consumes less than 275W of electric power. The cooled air is blown at relatively
high pressure, and the operator is able to control the power, temperature, fan speed, and where the air
is directed.
Initially created for open cab environments, Cabin Cool has also received interest from customers with
closed cab environments as well. The unit comes with a one-year total system warranty. The product
works on both new and retrofitted equipment and supports both gas and electric equipment.
Ted Springer, President of Springer Equipment, a top-rated forklift and material handling dealership in
the Southeastern United States and a Cabin Cool customer said: “Cabin Cool units are very reasonably
priced, fully self-contained, easily installed, and make the equipment operator’s job much more
comfortable leading to a safer and more productive foundry employee.”
According to the Lancet Countdown, a global academic collaboration that monitors the health impacts of
climate change, the global heat season is beginning earlier, ending longer, and becoming more
intolerable. They estimate that in a rising trend since at least 1990, 295 billion hours of potential work
were lost across the globe in 2020 due to heat exposure—ie, the equivalent of 88 work hours per
employed person.
“People all over the world work in miserable conditions, and it’s only going to get worse,” said Stave.
“There is a big dichotomy between the available infrastructure to support air conditioning and where it
will ultimately be demanded. Our solution is a simple way to provide instant relief to individuals in hot
environments, and to make those environments a bit more tolerable.”
Cabin Cool’s M100 system retails for less than $4,500 USD. Manufactured by Air Innovations out of
Syracuse, New York, the product is now shipping and available through Cabin Cool’s website and
