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 | | JET SYSTEM REDUCES CARBON FOOTPRINT FOR SOLIHULL OFFICE DEVELOPMENT | | | JET Environmental | | 26/08/2008 | | | A JET system is helping to improve employee comfort levels, minimise fuel bills and reduce carbon emissions for occupiers of Touchstone 2 - a new, multi-tenanted office development in Solihull.
Touchstone 2 is a modern, four storey building on the Pinewood Business Park, developed by Candlelight Property with three core functions. The building acts as the new headquarters for this fast-growing company; it provides flexible, energy efficient office space for other Solihull businesses and it also operates as a low carbon showcase for JET’s technology.
In their previous head office building, Candlelight Property experienced at first hand the failings of a VRF based split system air-conditioning approach. These included a slow control response, large temperature changes, inflexibility in the event of office churn, high energy costs, sudden drafts of warm or cold air from the packaged units and a lack of fresh air. In the design and development of Touchstone 2, the company sought to address these issues. Particular attention was paid to limiting solar heat gain, matching plant loads to demand, ensuring high levels of ventilation as well as optimising free-cooling and providing centralised control to maximise energy efficiency.
Touchstone 2 comprises a series of sub-divided offices varying from single occupancy to open plan. The JET solution treats each floor as a separate zone with dedicated, underfloor air-conditioning units, providing individual temperature control for occupants. At the heart of the design is a variable volume fresh-air system, designed to supply up to 25 l/s of fresh air per person, more than twice the normal requirement. The system volume can be regulated based on temperature requirement and occupancy levels using CO2 detection.
For large parts of the day, free-cooling is available from outside, minimising demand on the mechanical systems. The JET system monitors external conditions and automatically introduces fresh air during the night when necessary. This pre-cools the building to off-set or delay heat gains during the following day’s occupancy and utilises a proportion of recirculation air when full fresh air is not appropriate. The supply air discharge from the floor mounted, air-conditioning units is based upon the average condition within the zone. The fresh air supply is introduced into the return air path ensuring free-cooling will take priority over secondary mechanical cooling. A ducted system installed in server rooms maximises the availability of free cooling. The combination of variable airflow and recirculation allows the system to provide close temperature control under periods of low load.
David Simpson, Managing Director, Candlelight Property, said: “The end result for this building has been brilliant. By using this technology we have benefited by not only saving fuel costs, we will also reduce carbon emissions. Conditions are also much more comfortable for the office workers – it’s a perfect illustration of the benefits you can achieve through the intelligent introduction of fresh air into a building via a JET system.” | |
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