Back in 1994, when Axair was in its early start up days, began the transformation of a brownfield site for use by The Inland Revenue to create office accommodation space for 1,800 staff. The development consisted of seven separate buildings, in the form of courtyards and L-shaped blocks which overlooked Nottingham Castle
The office buildings were extensively pre-fabricated and what is now known as The Inland Revenue Centre, was a pioneering sustainable project in the UK. At night the inherent thermal mass of the concrete is exploited and purged with fresh air to pre cool the structure. At the corners of the buildings, the air within the glass block stair towers warms and rises on sunny days, giving extra drive to the ventilation system while fabric umbrellas on the tops of the towers act as large dampers, lifting to exhaust hot air and closing, on cool days, to conserve heat.
A significant amount of time has passed since this initial 39,000 square metre construction was built, so at the time Axair were proud to supply a vast amount of motorised impellers for use within the fan coil units to facilitate the buildings general heating and ventilating. This year the system is being refurbished and as with many retrofits, a direct replacement was preferred. The Ecofit 4GRE45 200x75R, an AC fan single inlet centrifugal fan was supplied for use within the units due to its slim-line design and the limited height available in the ceiling void. For ease of installation, Axair prewired the supplied fans with a capacitor in a ‘P’ clip and then prewired to the connector block, both of which were attached to the scroll. This meant that the engineer installing the components would simply connect the fan flying leads without the need for a designated terminal box.
Refurbishments and maintenance are a necessary requirement to ensure the efficient and reliable service of fan coil units, however these units in the marketplace are now very different than what they were many years ago. The advancement in energy saving and a whole host of additional benefits of both the system and the components make this the most popular air conditioning system. The fundamental change has been the introduction of EC motors as opposed to the AC Fan versions used in this study. In general EC motors are much more efficient and can bring down the energy consumption in line with green ticket directives.
In addition to our expertise in EC technology, Axair have a wealth of knowledge in supplying technical AC solutions for use within retrofit projects and those requiring additional durability, speed control or on specialist applications where AC is deemed to be better suited.
Visit our EC page for more information on Electronically Commutated technology and fans, alternatively contact us to discuss your project in depth on 01782 349430