Air conditioning
The changing face of commercial buildings
Alexis Roberts, brand manager at Diffusion, explains how modular fan coil design is ideal for commercial buildings that are being adapted to accommodate flexible working patterns since the units can be easily reconfigured to suit the building’s new purpose, while helping reduce carbon emissions too
T
imes have changed. Commercial building owners are reassessing their properties and opting for redesigns as they adapt to flexible working pattens. In addition, they are also facing new regulations designed to curb carbon emissions from commercial buildings. Driven by the Government’s legally binding target to meet Net Zero by 2050, all commercial buildings are now required to have an energy performance certificate (EPC) rated E or above, rising to C in 2027 and B in 2030. This heralds a wave of commercial property refurbishments since nearly three quarters of London’s commercial buildings are currently rated at D or below, according to estate agents Savills1. The winners will be the property owners who reduce building carbon emissions while adapting swiftly to the challenge of flexible-working patterns, modifying existing buildings as needs change. Fortunately, forward-thinking manufacturers have been designing flexible low carbon products to meet the changing needs of commercial property owners. A prime example of this innovation lies in the latest high efficiency fan coils. The units have been developed following extensive R&D and feature a fundamental redesign with the first modular, repeatable system that leads the market in energy efficiency and low sound levels. For instance, Diffusion’s new Modular Highline 235 fan coil range has eight models, 13 fan combinations and nearly 300,000 configurations to suit any application.
Change of use
Modular fan coil design is particularly important to buildings with a change of use. Modular fan coil units can be reconfigured on-site to align with a building’s new purpose resulting in substantial sustainability benefits. The modular design avoids the need to buy entirely new fan coil units and eliminates the need to discard existing ones, this approach significantly minimises capital cost, on- site disruption and waste. Instead, the Diffusion modular design enables fan coils to be reused, reducing a building’s overall embodied energy. If a space transitions from open plan to an office as an example, the units can be easily reconfigured to meet the required noise regulations by simply adding an attenuator to the modular design. An attractive solution for architects designing buildings with an industrial look, the units can be ceiling exposed, as well as ceiling concealed. The new
14 May 2024
Left: Alexis Roberts, brand manager at Diffusion
other benefits that improve health and wellbeing of occupants. For example, it helps to reduce absenteeism, increases productivity and increases a building’s rental opportunities. The latest fan coil units are therefore equipped with heat exchangers specifically designed to achieve optimum heating and cooling, improving thermal comfort for building occupants.
modular Highline 235 therefore offers customers flexibility, quality and the ability to adapt to future use, ensuring longevity and delivering significant cost advantages.
Reducing carbon
The latest fan coil units are also more energy efficient than ever before, helping commercial property owners reduce a building’s carbon emissions and so improving its EPC. For example, the new Diffusion Highline 235 modular fan coil range is designed with high efficiency EC motor and fan assemblies that provide improved Specific Fan Powers (SFP) as low as 0.14 W/l/s, reducing overall building energy consumption. Creating a comfortable environment for building
occupants is crucial too. The latest fan coil units have therefore been designed with exceptionally quiet operation boasting noise ratings as so low as NR25. These fan coils are rigorously tested in our own test laboratory and are then independently tested at the Sound Research Laboratory giving customers further assurance of their credentials. As a result, they are well-suited to various types of buildings especially residential spaces and hotels where quiet operation is critical. Meanwhile, enhancing thermal comfort not only eliminates draughts but provides several
The modular design also allows customers to choose the exact fan coil they need for a project, by manufacturing a wider range of units Diffusion help customers avoid over specification and reducing energy waste. At its core the unit contains components such as filters, heat exchangers and fans. Contractors can then choose from a variety of attenuator and plenum options. Discharge plenums come in rectangular or circular spigots, and inlet and discharge attenuators have different lengths to meet the specific acoustic requirements. An additional benefit of the modular design is its positive impact on the fan coil’s life span. Each component is conveniently accessible for maintenance and can be replaced or serviced as needed. For instance, fan coil units can be supplied with either ISO grade media filters or a more sustainable lifetime wire mesh filter, like Diffusion’s ‘Eco’ filter which is supplied as standard. Diffusion’s ‘Eco’ filter offers a reduction in waste of thousands of non-biodegradable filters. The ‘Eco’ filter provides a robust environmentally conscious solution that lasts a lifetime, it can be easily accessed and simply vacuum cleaned in situ, making maintenance simple.
Modular fan coil units are also designed to have a lower embodied energy. This has been central to the development of the new Modular Highline 235. For transparency Diffusion has also used the CIBSE TM65 data collection methodology to collect accurate and detailed embodied carbon information for the new Modular Highline 235. Working from a component level, this methodology ensures data is comprehensive, and up-to-date. With the pandemic changing the commercial building environment for good while the Net-Zero 2050 target is driving carbon reductions, property owners need to be agile in making changes to their buildings. When it comes to refurbishments energy efficient modular fan coil units tick all the boxes, since they are easy to adapt and maintain while offering high efficiencies and significant sustainability benefits. ‘
www.heatingandventilating.net
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