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Air handling units
Weather-proof bespoke solution
The construction of the Thames Tideway Tunnel (TTT) required access to the West Putney Storm Relief (CSO), which necessitated the removal and subsequent rebuilding of the Barn Elms Sports Centre changing rooms. As part of this process, contractors Kent Structures needed to install a number of weather-proof energy recovery units and culminated in Elta Fans being tasked with the challenge of designing bespoke versions of its Air Design Prema range
L
ondon’s sewerage system is under immense strain. It relies on a network of sewers originally built for a population of less than half the number of people currently living in the capital. As a result, action is urgently required to prevent millions of tonnes of raw, untreated sewage entering the River Thames. This is the reasoning behind the Thames Tideway Scheme, which involves the construction of a 25km tunnel running under the tidal section of the river. The project is due for completion in 2024, spanning construction sites from Acton in West London, to Beckton in the East, and is the biggest infrastructure project ever undertaken by the UK water industry.
Barn Elms
The project presents an opportunity to redevelop areas along the river, with one such site being the Barn Elms Sports Centre. The West Putney Storm Relief CSO is located close to the sports centre, and is a prime example of a section of old sewerage network that is causing significant pollution to enter the Thames. In an average year, the CSO spills approximately 30 times, discharging 35,000m3 of untreated sewage into the river. The plan is to connect the sewer overflow to the TTT, which will reduce the number of spill events to an estimated one per year. In order to complete this part of the project, a worksite is required at the Barn Elms location, necessitating the removal of the sports centre’s changing rooms. As part of the scheme, the changing room facilities are being replaced, which represents an opportunity to incorporate sustainable elements into the design of the permanent structure.
Energy recovery units
A crucial part of changing room design is to ensure that they are well-ventilated, creating a comfortable and temperate environment for its inhabitants. The typical issue surrounding ventilation is that of balancing thermal comfort with indoor air quality (IAQ). Natural ventilation is ideal for dissipating air pollutants away from indoor spaces, but this often comes at the cost of warmth. Understandably, changing rooms must consider temperature as a key priority,and too often this results in high heating bills.
The solution to this problem is to opt for an energy recovery unit which is capable of managing both air quality and thermal comfort. Elta Fans’ Air Design Prema range is said to boast one of the lightest units on the market and using a range of intelligent technologies, can provide air quality and temperature, without running up high energy bills.
One of the ways in which it does this is by using a heat/coolth recovery
mode, which utilises the heat in the extracted air to warm the incoming air, thus increasing the incoming external supply air to the desired temperature. This process can also operate in reverse, which equips facilities managers with a tremendous amount of versatility in thermal comfort controls. By way of managing energy costs, the range includes the Kinaritico control system. This IAQ and energy recovery management device offers various modes of operation, according to an adjustable set of parameters. It uses sensors to detect alterations in occupancy levels and is capable of adjusting ventilation of the occupied space accordingly.
Daniel Calnan, director at Kent Structure, says: “The ability to control the level of ventilation in a changing room facility is obviously very important. The range provides the ideal balance between air quality and thermal comfort, in a way that reduces running costs by intelligently monitoring the environment.”
Installation
Aside from the aforementioned energy credentials of the range, their volume and pressure characteristics marked them out as a suitable solution for the Barn Elms project. The fact that they are one of the lightest on the market further enhanced their suitability, and the decision was made to opt for Elta Fans’ standard range. Due to size constraints, the decision was made to install the units on the roof of the changing rooms. As such, a challenge was posed to Elta Fans: could the units be weather-proofed in order to position them externally? Given that the units are usually stored indoors, in ceilings, for example, the request was made to optimise them for outdoor use.
Elta Fans responded to the challenge, working with the design team to meet the requirements of the site and create a weather-proof version of the unit. This predominantly involved external changes, such as the introduction of a new base frame, alongside a protective roof.
The design team also opted for a new material, changing from galvanised steel to GreenCoat MICA BT. Blake Mansell, business development manager, AHU sales, at Elta Fans says: “This type of material isn’t usually found on the standard Prema units, but we have opted for it on some of our bespoke units in the past. It is optimised for weathering resistance, providing excellent protection against corrosion, and was therefore perfectly suited to this application.” The agility of Elta Fans AHU division enabled it to design and manufacture the five weather-proofed units swiftly, with a turn-around time of just under eight weeks. The bespoke units were delivered to the site, built to match the customers’ requirements, and provided the benefits of the Prema range to a location which necessitated external mounting.
www.heatingandventilating.net
May 2020
27
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