The Service & After Sales division of Walter Meier (Climate UK) has recently completed installation of a Hitachi VRF air conditioning system at the University of Sheffield’s S10health fitness centre. As well as meeting increased cooling demands, the new system is expected to achieve significant energy savings compared to the previous system.
S10health is a state-of-the-art fitness centre with 150 pieces of equipment over two floors. Increasing use of electrical equipment in recent years, combined with the growing popularity of the centre and a consequent rise in occupancy, meant that the existing VRF system was no longer able to meet cooling demands, while noise levels were also proving to be a nuisance to users.
“It was clear that we needed to renew the system and, having identified the Hitachi VRF system as the most suitable for our needs, we produced a very detailed specification that was then put out to tender,” explained the University’s head of engineering operations Barry Whittles. “Walter Meier’s proposals stood out from the rest for their attention to detail, which gave us the confidence they would meet our requirements,” he added.
The new 2-pipe Set Free system provides up to 80kW of cooling, controlled precisely to match heat loads. The refurbishment also included addition of a recuperator to the air handling system so that extract air can be used to pre-cool incoming air.
“We anticipate this combination of a more efficient air conditioning system and recuperation from extract air will deliver energy savings of around 15%, while also improving comfort levels for users. We received an excellent service from Walter Meier throughout the project and the company continues to maintain the system,” Barry Whittles concluded.