REFRIGERANTS
AIR CONDITIONING
Bigger isn’t always better
Why size does matter when it comes to plant room refurbishments? Jonathan Jones director commercial and industrial at Airedale, explains.
I
n a world where the mechanical provision of clean, temperature-controlled air is increasingly important to the way we live our lives, critical cooling companies are used to being asked for larger chillers, more powerful computer room air handlers (CRAHs), and larger air handling units to work with higher capacity cooling requirements. As our population increases, so too does the capacity of our public buildings such as hospitals, museums and universities. As technology and medicine advance, our understanding of the impact contamination and pollution grows, and as such surgical theatres, laboratories and R&D development spaces demand cleaner, optimised air using larger, more effi cient air handling units (AHUs). Let's make it a question: Does this all sound like demand for cooling, heating and fi ltrated air is going big? Perhaps, but big is not always the answer. As an organisation approaching its 50th
anniversary in the industry, Airedale has
seen a lot of change over the years. However, as the saying goes, the more things change, the more things stay the same.
Without speaking in riddles, what we mean by that is that the principle of cooling down servers, cooling or heating
a building for comfort and improving indoor air quality remains the same. How we get there has evolved in terms of the technology deployed, and matching increased demand with an increase in size of the plant equipment isn’t always the answer. Whilst we are seeing an increase in demand for larger units, we also see signifi cant demand from sites that want high effi ciency, low GWP solutions but in smaller unit size, or even delivered in kit form, due to access and plant room restrictions. We look at the practical application of this later on and how it is applied in real life scenarios. Of course, big can and does work for many situations.
Organisations striving to meet Ecodesign regulations and sustainability targets might implement the use of a large unit over several smaller ones for increased effi ciencies and a reduction in components. However, as alluded to above, there are many other scenarios that demand cooling or heating where space is at a premium, access is restrictive and the footprint available to plant equipment was pre- determined long before the demand for new ventilation and air conditioning arose. This could be for example a hospital, where fi ltration is critical, but the plant room was built in the 1950s and has to remain as is. Similarly, museums are often in historic buildings with narrow entrances, located in city centres with limited loading facilities, or in locations inaccessible to large lifting machinery such as extendable cranes. Away from restrictive spaces, other examples where large plant isn’t the answer might be a business that is experiencing a growth in demand for HVAC solutions in line with the growth of their operation, or a public building where demand for cooling and ventilation signifi cantly fl uctuates throughout week, depending on things like the volume of visitors and the ambient temperature outside. None of these examples can accommodate, or justify
the upfront investment into the larger cooling equipment, but it doesn’t lessen their need for effi cient, sustainable cooling, heating and ventilation solutions. And this is when the smaller, more compact, but scalable solutions come into play, or as we often see with indoor or city centre AHUs and chillers, kit build form is the answer.
AHU and chiller kit build So many AHU and chiller projects that we work on, especially
in healthcare environments and public buildings, require kit build installation. This is where we design and build the
24 September 2023 •
www.acr-news.com Download the ACR News app today
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
