Project
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The challenge then continued immediately with the requirement of a 16 working day deadline to be ready for the late December 2020 festive season shoppers . The deadline included to strip out everything , install the new plant , and get everything up and running within that time . The completion of the plant in terms of painting and aesthetic was only completed later in February this year ( 2021 ), however the deadline was met with everything complete from a functional point of view . The extreme timeline also meant that a chillersolution was already excluded as generally it can take up to 15 weeks to get units to site , whereas the VRF units could just be ordered and delivered almost immediately .
What ensued as Pengelly described it , was an “ extremely well-orchestrated delivery ” that was fantastic to witness while everyone took the challenge very seriously knowing the stakes were very high and not wanting to fail . At times , visiting the site you would see so much happening at the same time and the teams on this project really deserve recognition for what they achieved as the client was well impressed with the delivery being met as well as the quality of work delivered .
Frikkie Kleyn , director at Elmecair noted that they have done several of these types of plant replacements but each one is unique . This one however was marked as the largest of its kind completed to-date . With projects like these , all hands are required and himself and his team , he says , worked hard on-site to complete all the tasks which included building work , manufacturing , installation of the LG MultiV condensing units , piping , and commissioning with LG .
Douglas Scott , mechanical engineer at HCM Contractors adds that “ HCM and Elmec have been collaborating on a number of plant room builds and we have developed “ a successful formula ” that seems to work well . “ Before the rooftop concept became popular , the plant room method was quite prevalent for large scale HVAC systems . It ’ s not really practical to replace these plant rooms after the fact , but they do require service and updating ,” says Scott .
HCM Contractors was tasked with the implementation of the AHU equipment into the existing plant room . Due to the age of the previous installation , this required some special planning and site fabrication to integrate the newest air-conditioning technologies into the traditional plant room layout . This included implementing HCM ’ s now “ signature plug fan in-barrel solution ” to make use of EBM ’ s range of EC plug fans . HCM Contractors was also involved in the PLC integration , control , and commissioning of the plant room in collaboration with LG and Elmecair .
1 and 2 . The old plant room before the stripping and changes .
www . hvacronline . co . za RACA Journal I August 2021 37