HVAC Case Study
Southbank Grand Apartments

Challenge

The project requirements were:

• A cost and energy efficient solution for the lobby and open area ventilation system
• A smaller footprint compared to a traditional air conditioning plant
• To achieve a higher green star rating for the development

Solution: AIRA installed an IDC unit to provide lobby heating, cooling and ventilation

With these key requirements in mind, the solution offered was an AIRA IDC unit to provide lobby heating, cooling and ventilation. The standard refrigerated load for this project was 160kW, however by precooling the outside air the equipment capacity was reduced to 85kW. This reduction led to a smaller plant size, reduction in the electricity costs and reduced power consumption. Since project completion, the system is working exactly as intended, meeting the design requirements of the consulting engineer. The unit runs 75% of the time solely in evaporative cooling mode, which reduces running costs dramatically due to fans and pumps running and not refrigerated air conditioning. Southbank Grand has also been successful in obtaining an enhanced green star rating, contributed to by AIRA IDC technology.

“You can count on AIRA to provide the support, technical information and quality products a mechanical/ design engineer needs. I’ve used AIRA on a number of projects and have never had any failures come back. They give me confidence that performance will be what was specified and with their involvement, it’s one less concern for the project delivery.” – Wayne Smith, Mechanical and Design Engineer, Southbank Apartments.