MHI Delivers Heating and Cooling Solution for Westpac Office
Project Description
Located in a modern business park in Canterbury, Christchurch, 2 Showplace Court is a high profile office building that currently serves as one of Westpac’s main offices.
The 1,882sqm complex boasts a modern contemporary design, including large concrete fascia and contains multiple open plan office areas with meeting rooms, boardroom, kitchen and reception spread across three levels.
PROJECT REQUIREMENTS & challenges
The three storey office building required a reliable and energy efficient heating and cooling solution to replace the existing system. The new system needed to be retrofitted throughout the entire complex including all open plan office spaces, meeting rooms, reception and all other communal areas.
The solution would need to be capable of delivering a reliable heating and cooling solution to the entire building during Christchurch’s hot summers (which can reach up to 30c) and cold winters (which regularly reach 0c) with the ability to function in both heating and cooling modes simultaneously and deliver an even and comfortable airflow to all office spaces.
To minimise downtime and disturbance to business operations, the project had an extremely tight turn around, with the whole project needing to be completed as soon as possible.
Mhi’s solution
After considering the existing HVAC setup, varying yearly temperatures and heat load from the building’s large, floor to wall windows, MHI’s KXZRE1 series of high performance, high efficiency, three pipe, heat recovery VRF systems were selected as condensers for all three floors with a single 67kW unit powering the ground floor, a combined 73.5Kw system powering the first floor and combined 85kW system powering the 2nd floor.
The KXZRE1 hi-COP, heat recovery VRF systems deliver high energy efficiencies and lower running costs, achieving COP in heating mode of up to 4.8 and EER in cooling mode of up to 4.3. A new defrosting control also delivers higher capacity during low ambient temperatures with pressure being automatically controlled allowing for longer periods of heating and a shorter defrosting time during winter.
The KXZRE1’s wide operating range also allows for the unit to operate in temperatures as cold as -20c and as hot as 46c while the industry leading total piping length of up to 1000m makes it a versatile solution and allows it to be used in a variety of large commercial applications.
To distribute air throughout the three floors, a mixture of FDUM ducted fan coils and FDT four way, ceiling cassettes were selected. The draught prevention panel of the FDT ceiling cassettes utilises 4 specially designed louvres to direct airflow horizontally along the ceiling, allowing it to evenly disperse – eliminating uncomfortable and annoying draughts – perfect for offices and communal commercial spaces.
The FDUM slim profile ducted system were used in many of the office spaces across all three floors. The FDUM’s slim profile design, boasting a height of only 280mm, allowed them to be easily retrofitted into existing ceiling spaces in the office and offered an efficient and quiet heating and cooling solution for the entire building. All systems were controlled via MHI’s SC-SL4-AE central controller, which will allow for advanced energy monitoring while SC-THB remote thermistors were also mounted on return grilles of all ducted systems.
By working closely with experience contractors Airtech NZ, MHI was able to quickly deliver a reliable and energy efficient solution for this modern office, that will keep workers comfortable all year round.
