RACA Journal July 2024 RACA_July_2024_digital | Page 37

Project

• No architectural limits

• High reliability

• Optimal hygienic conditions

Hydronic underfloor heating provides energy savings because it works with radiant heat , which is distributed throughout a room . Due to the radiant heating concept , it is generally 600 % more energy efficient than electrical underfloor heating . There is also a massive advantage of being able to achieve even higher efficiency by combining it with solar thermal panels and heat recovery . Hydronic underfloor heating makes no noise while heating up the room .

The fan coils used are of high quality and the ducting is sonic lined to ensure any noise from the fan coil is not transported down the ducting . The fan coils are designed to run at lower fan settings , and therefore they are extremely quiet . The hydronic towel rails involve hot or cold water flowing through the pipes at low velocities , so as not to make noise .

Equipment that usually makes most of the noise – such as heat pumps and pumps – are installed in the plantroom far away from the guests . This is an extremely big benefit of an integrated central system .

To design the most energy efficient system , the engineering team had a specialist consulting engineer , Q-Mech , who helped with the detailed heat load analysis . The energy model of the lodge was built to see what would happen in an hourly interval for a whole year . This information was used to see what equipment will run at the same time , and which equipment should be used to make the system as efficient as possible . Due to the heat recovery and solar thermal panels and the water-based central cooling system , the integrated system is using a fraction of the energy that conventional systems would have used altogether .

The system is architecturally pleasing as the only thing the guests can see is a black slot in a bulkhead and a thermostat on the wall . You cannot see the rest of the equipment and can only enjoy the comfort thereof . It would not be typical for guests to go the plantroom , but that is the only other component of the system that they can see . The plantroom houses all imported equipment of the highest quality and is also aesthetically pleasing .

To integrate the system to different buildings that are vast distances apart was a design challenge , and the solution was to dig a trench from the plantroom to all the villas and to use closed cell polyurethane foam to insulate the pipes . The foam is closed cell and therefore does not allow water to pass through the foam , which makes it an excellent solution for insulating pipes underground between buildings . RACA