Chiller Is Set In For Standard

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• Chiller Is Set In For Standard

15 May 2019 | Updated 16 May 2019

ICBC Standard Bank recently saw a contract to replace a key chiller concluded at the world’s largest banking group' UK HQ in the City of London.

The HQ is in 24/7 operation and thus building service assets are very important to the occupiers. The bank has a suite of chillers providing cooling - including to the main computer rooms, UPS rooms, HV Transformer and switch rooms. These areas need constant cooling which is alternately split between the main 'house' chillers and a backup chiller for night time low occupation conditions (and to provide additional resilience in the event of a building cooling failure).

 

Artic conditions

Artic Building Services employs the residential maintenance teams at the property. When they began to identify trends indicating increasing problems with an existing chiller which was coming to the end of its CIBSE guidance expected life span, they suggested making the replacement.

Artic's projects team were brought in and after discussions the bank set some challenging targets to improve overall energy efficiency, future-proof the solution and minimise downtime to the bank’s operation to just one weekend.

 

Turbocor

After consideration of several options, a Turbocor chiller rated at 371kW cooling option, whilst the most expensive on capital cost, was selected as the most efficient and cost-saving option.

The energy savings per annum, when compared to more traditional chiller technologies, are immense and the pay back on the installation price differential is estimated at 1-2 years.

The chiller utilises R134a refrigerant but with Turbocor compressors already available with HFO refrigerant, the opportunity to modify existing chillers to keep abreast of gas legislation is expected in the future.

 

Road closures

With the bank’s instructions in hand, the project team set about the complex task of planning road closures, arranging permits and cranage and pre-scheduling every detailed process required to de-commission the existing chiller with is associated pumps and pressurisation unit in.

Enabling works were required to remove two spine beams that spanned above the existing chiller on the roof of the building and a specialist BMS company was appointed to re-configure the controls scenarios in order to continue to cover the affected areas over the weekend via the main house chillers.

Full decommissioning of the existing took place on a Saturday and as day broke on the Sunday, the road outside the HQ building was closed off for the specialist cranage company to set up, lift the equipment off the roof and lift the new into position.

 

Night work

Artic engineers worked into the night to connect the new chiller mechanically and electrically and associated parts into the cooling infrastructure. The unit was tested and commissioned immediately, ensuring that the new chiller was up and running by the Monday morning for a smooth and fast turnaround with no disruption to the bank’s operations or occupants.

To maximise the efficiency of the new system and ensure minimum disruption to the daily operation, rescheduling the BMS control of the 24-hour cooling to the MER and UPS rooms was the key final component.

Picture: The road outside the Standard Bank building was closed off for the specialist cranage company to lift the old equipment off the roof and lift the new into position.

Article written by Brian Shillibeer | Published 15 May 2019

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