Project
• New stylish residential apartments on the tenth to twenty ninth floors
• A sky-deck and mechanical plant rooms on the fifteenth floor
• Roof with numerous MEP plant rooms .
challenges related to the building height ( in excess of 140 metres high ).
The mixed-use building includes several amenities for tenants including a coffee shop , art gallery , day-care centre , and gym .
© RACA Journal | Benjamin Brits
A top-view photo of the new chiller plant showing location on ground floor .
Pieter de Bod | WSP
The roof of the building prior to the start of the project .
THE CONCEPT DESIGN The current building did not have any air-conditioning system installed when we arrived on the project . The previous tenant or building owner had removed all remnants of the old airconditioning system .
A new four-pipe chilled and hot water system was designed by WSP and installed by Ductech with new air- cooled heat pump chillers . The new chillers are installed in a new secure open chiller plant room on ground floor .
The motive to install the new chillers on ground floor is to provide easy maintenance friendly access from road level . A key factor in ensuring a successful air-conditioning system design for this building was to coordinate the position and size of the brand-new chiller plant room with the developer and architect very early on in the project .
A chiller plant generally is noisy and not aesthetically pleasing and is typically pushed to the back side or the roof of a building , away from building entrances . Since the roof of this building is on the thirtieth floor it did not made sense to house the chillers there due to maintenance concerns and installation
© RACA Journal | Benjamin Brits
The inside of the chiller plant showing the chillers , pipes , and louvres .
Air-cooled heat pump chillers were carefully specified and selected taking their noise levels into account . The chillers draw air from the side and discharge vertically up onto the atmosphere .
New chilled and hot water pipes are installed in the existing riser shafts in the building and terminate on level fifteen . Chilled and hot water pipe tap-offs are installed on every level and terminated by balancing valves , shut-off
Continued on page 31
www . hvacronline . co . za RACA Journal I October 2021 29