Project
The Mediclinic corporate office complex in Stellenbosch , Western Cape .
Mediclinic Southern Africa operates a range of multi-disciplinary acute-care private hospitals and day clinics in South Africa and Namibia . Their focus is on providing value to patients through safe , quality care in a patient-friendly environment .
The Mediclinic story that began in 1983 with a feasibility study on private healthcare in the Western Cape province of South Africa , resulted in a network today of over 50 facilities across South Africa and Namibia .
The Mediclinic corporate office building is located in Stellenbosch , Western Cape . The building had an aging HVAC system that consisted of a mixture of Daikin VRV 2 , 3 and 4 systems , in conjunction with heat recovery wheels on the ventilation side .
While some heat recovery was implemented using these systems , there was still much to be desired in terms of energy efficiency . The building layout and large size further made it ideal for a central chilled water plant where leverage of economy of scale was possible .
A central plant would optimise heat recovery and Lombard Consulting Engineers ( LCE ) was able to reduce the required plant size using the building ’ s intrinsic load diversity profile to their advantage . This project was initiated in December 2020 and was completed in June 2021 .
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS / CLIENT BRIEF As mentioned , Mediclinic wanted a system that ticked multiple boxes such as reliability , energy-efficient and scalability to
www . hvacronline . co . za RACA Journal I September 2021 43