MBNA, Chester
| Project: | MBNA, Chester |
|---|---|
| Overseeing Consultant: | Dave Watts, Faber Maunsell, Manchester |
| Design Consultant: | Martin Lowe, Marflow Valves |
| Mechanical Contractor: | Geoff Smethurst |
Problem
Relocating to five new buildings on a Manchester business park, a well known banking giant faced a major obstacle to installing their preferred choice of office cooling and heating system.
The American owned company favoured a standard fan coil system, which is popular in the US. But, with very little ceiling void, VAV variable volume systems used on the early phases of the project proved difficult to install and maintain.
Solution
For phase five of the project, overseeing consultants Faber Maunsell proposed a more practical active chilled and heated beam system, together with a floor displacement system.
Chilled beam technology has been developed over many years and is now more commonly used in busy office environments. It is also recognised by leading authorities as being more energy efficient than conventional systems that are not always able to generate consistent comfort levels.
“With no working parts in the limited roof space and the fan situated on the roof, the MBNA installation was installed with minimal disruption to staff,” says design consultant Martin Lowe of Marflow Hydronics. “It’s also less expensive than a VAV system and will be much easier to maintain.”
“We enjoyed working with Marflow on this project. Martin Lowe’s involvement with flow rates and manifolds was particularly useful,“ said Dave Watts of Faber Maunsell. “The system hasn’t been commissioned yet but we do not envisage any problems. We shall be looking at using this technology again in the future.”