Turn Key Air Conditioning Ltd Air Conditioning Contractors
Call us: 0191 438 7410
Email us: office@tkac.co.uk
Turn Key Air Conditioning Ltd Air Conditioning Contractors
Call us: 0191 438 7410
Email us: office@tkac.co.uk
Turn Key Air Conditioning regularly work in partnership with architects, designers, planning departments and regulators to create the best possible solution for the customer and the end user.
An excellent example of TKAC successfully working as part of a team is the creation of a heating system for Woolley Wood Primary School in Sheffield.
Woolley Wood is a primary community special school for boys and girls with severe and complex learning difficulties and disabilities.
When the old school building, built in 1934, was deemed unsuitable for purpose, Sheffield’s local education authority called on Kier Sheffield LLP to oversee the design & construction of the new school. Within the brief was the requirement to meet the city council’s strict planning regulations which call for a minimum of 10% of the building’s energy needs to be met from renewable or low carbon energy as well as a 20% reduction in carbon emissions.
Yorkshire-based Mechanical & Engineering Consultants, Thornley & Lumb Partnership Ltd was commissioned to design and specify building services.
There were a number of specific challenges to the Sheffield School project.
With so many technical, logistical and financial limitations on the project, Thornley & Lumb approached Turn Key Air Conditioning for our expertise and our experience in rising to such challenges.
The Ecodan CAHV system installed in Woolley Wood School by TKAC reduced CO2 emissions by 30% and made a substantial impact on the heating costs to the school and the local authority. Off-site manufacture, innovative design and efficient installation also minimised costs to the customer.
“The CAHV product is an ideal heating solution for large scale underfloor heating applications such as Woolley Wood,” said Mitch. “Coupled with our new off-site construction option if offers a safer, more cost-effective installation too. Cutting both running costs and CO2 emissions it is ideal for new-build and retro-fit and can work particularly well with community heating schemes”.
The Ecodan CAHV is a unique solution to providing renewable heating to public buildings. The monobloc air source heat pumps were ideal to serve the underfloor heating system designed for the school. Underfloor heating eliminates the need for wall mounted radiators, saves space, and provides heat and hot water for the entire school.
Air source heat pumps are classified as renewable energy technology by the EU and the UK Government for the simple reason that for every 1kW of energy consumed an average of 3.2kW of usable heating energy is produced. Air source heat pumps operate effectively in ambient temperatures as low as -25°C, producing hot water of up to 70°C. Each Ecodan CAHV unit is capable of producing up to 43kW of energy and can work in combination to produce as much energy as is required.
As access to the school site was limited, TK Air Conditioning designed a heating system that could be built on two skids, both of which could be imported whole. The heating boilers were installed on the first skid and a plant room built onto the second. To fulfil the requirement for regular monitoring, specialist sensors were incorporated into the heat pump boilers that transmit real-time data that is processed and can be fed directly back to the heating engineers and the client.
Before leaving TKAC’s manufacturing premises the Ecodan CAHV units were fully tested.
In this instance, off-site manufacturing reduced the installation time by 75%, making it quicker, safer and cheaper for the client. The cost of constructing a roof plinth was also eliminated by locating the skids directly onto anti-vibration pads, ensuring they stayed comfortably within the maximum load dictated by the structural engineers.
“The process of getting equipment onto a roof can take time and involve engineers in working at height, often around other construction workers,” said Mitch Swirles, Managing Director of TK Air Conditioning . “This increases the potential for accidents and the risk of damage to the equipment itself. To avoid this we package the heat pumps onto specially constructed skids, which also incorporate an electricity supply and deliver them on a Just-In-Time basis which negates the need for other specialists to work around the plant.”
Once in place the new ‘plug and play’ solution just needed to be connected to the water and electricity supplies and were immediately able to provide heat and hot water to the whole school building.
For further information on this or any of our other projects call Turn Key Air Conditioning 0207 038 8204.
Turn Key Air Conditioning have a long history of working in partnership with some of the most notable names in the UK. We design, install and maintain air conditioning & heat recovery systems for high street chains, schools & colleges, local retailers, business parks, medical centres and office developments.
Not surprisingly our experience and expertise makes us the perfect choice for the design and installation of air conditioning & heating systems in the hotel sector. Over recent years TKAC have been appointed time after time by some of the UK’s best known hotel groups to create energy efficient heating & air conditioning systems that meet the highest expectations of their guests.
In any new build or refurbishment project Turn Key Air Conditioning is an essential wheel in a larger machine. While air conditioning & heating systems are designed to meet the long term requirements of the client – minimising energy costs while providing clean, fresh air at controllable temperatures – the installation phase has to be handled sensitively. Turn Key AC take great care to cause minimum disruption to the day to day operations of our clients and wherever possible manufacturing is carried out off-site. We also coordinate all on-site installation work with other contractors.
But it is not just on the construction site where TKAC work in partnership. Turn Key AC have developed lasting and effective partnerships with all the major names in HVAC manufacturing, including technology giants Mitsubishi Electrics. For the Crowne Plaza Hotel, TKAC opted for a Mitsubishi Electric Multi Heat Recovery System.
The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire is a 147 bedroom hotel and conference centre. It was recently bought by the Cairn Hotel Group and has undergone a total refurbishment. TKAC has an ongoing relationship with the Cairn Group – as consultants and as air conditioning maintenance engineers – and worked with them on the Crowne Plaza project from day one to design a system that meets all the requirements of guest comfort, energy and legislation.
One of the challenges in the Crowne Plaza Hotel was that each room is distinctive but to TKAC every challenge offers an opportunity. In this case the opportunity was to use Mitsubishi City Multi System where the unique two pipe heat recovery system provides much more flexibility in design and installation. More than this, the combination of inspired design and innovative product meant that we were able to design out the need for leak detection.
Current legislation – EN378 in particular – restricts the use of refrigerants to minimise potential hazards to people, property and the environment. TKAC worked closely with Mitsubishi Electric Value Added Reseller (VAR) PACAIR to design the system to minimise the amount of refrigerant in each bedroom to comply with EN378.
Working with PACAIR also saw Turn Key install Mitsubishi’s Melcotel ™ hotel control system which links every individual room to the Ving cards to stop the system from operating when the room is unoccupied. Melcotel gives a significant energy cost saving to the hotel with no loss of comfort for customers.
One of the many benefits of the TKAC design of the air conditioning & heat recovery system for the Crowne Plaza Hotel was that installation could be carried out in 5 phases to fit in with the requirements of the whole refurbishment project.
Turn Key AC fitted the infrastructure to the ground floor before installing ducted fancoil units in the hotel bedrooms. Mitsubishi City Multi ceiling cassettes were installed in all public areas and Lossnay ventilation and heat recovery units were used to maximise the flow of fresh air into the building.
Both Mitsubishi Electric and TK Air Conditioning have a strong relationship with the major hotel group Premier Inn, TK Air Conditioning being a Business Solutions Partner of Mitsubishi Electric and also a preferred contractor for Premier Inn. This project involved a major air conditioning installation in one of the group’s central London hotels. A critical client requirement was minimisation of disruption to the hotel’s activity, and also minimum contractor time on site to undertake the installation.
Please click here to view a pdf of the detail of this London hotel air conditioning project, created by our partners Mitsubishi Electric.
These requirements were met by TK Air Conditioning’s innovative offsite manufacturing process. The air conditioning cassettes were configured off site on 2 large skids. Here all of the electrical and piping requirements were installed, meaning that the system simply required connection to the hotel’s systems when on site.
Roof space was at an absolute premium for this project, and the 2 skids were required to locate onto the hotel roof with only a 3mm tolerance for pipework connection. The installation also had to synchronise with kitchen operating times, as the kitchen extraction system had to be removed during installation.
Instead of TK Air Conditioning’s contracting team being onsite for 3 weeks, with all of the attendant disruption and inconvenience to hotel staff and guests, the project was completed in 6 hours on a quiet Sunday morning.
Please see the video for an appreciation of this joint Mitsubishi Electric / TK Air Conditioning project.
This building in Glasgow was originally built in the 19th century as a power station and more recently converted to a call centre for a large insurance company. The offices in the building were open plan and for the conversion into a state of the art 96 bedroom hotel, a 5th floor has been added.
Castle Building Services were appointed as the M&E contractors, who in turn appointed TK Air Conditioning as the specialist air conditioning contractor.
The building has an imposing listed facade and internally, TK Air Conditioning had to design the air conditioning system emanating from the hotel’s central lobby configuration.
For ease of cleaning and maintenance retractable air conditioning fan coils were introduced in each room.
Mitsubishi heat recovery VRF air conditioning units were installed. This system design allowed the client to benefit from the advanced capital allowance scheme. The system is designed to have very low operating cost and to reduce the client’s carbon footprint.
Mitsubishi have a strong relationship with this up market chocolate manufacturer and retailer. Thornton’s have appointed Mitsubishi as Business Solutions partners, the objective being that one partner specifies, designs, installs and maintains the air conditioning system for the group.
TK Air Conditioning are the appointed contractor, working on behalf of Mitsubishi. As such we service the whole of the Thornton’s estate, involving the design, installation and maintenance of the air conditioning systems.
Thornton’s presents some specific challenges when specifying the most appropriate air conditioning system for their premises. Temperature must be tightly and evenly controlled at 18 – 19 Deg C for the shopfloor and 14 Deg C for the storerooms.
An important part of the brief for this flagship project was the replacement of R22 refrigerant based system (See Replace Technology). A Mitsubishi power inverter split system was selected and installed. This system has proven to be very effective and cost efficient. Carbon emissions have been reduced by over 40% and the client has benefited from the Enhanced capital Allowance Scheme, which is intended to encourage companies to install sustainable systems to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, whilst also saving on running costs.
