Some of the Panasonic GHP units installed on the roof of the Concentrix building by
Aircon Sales and Service of Belfast.
Given this emphasis on quality, Aircon only partners with brand-leading product suppliers. Panasonic is a prime example of this and over the years Ian and Vincent Mahony from Panasonic have worked closely on securing and executing a broad cross-section of commercial projects.
One of the most recent is the Concentrix Call Centre in Belfast. This was a very challenging project but, by working closely together, consultants Beattie Flannigan, mechanical contractors Harvey Group and Aircon Contracts’ Manager Stevie McGarry devised and delivered the perfect solution.
The design brief was to provide cooling to a new call centre located on the old Maysfield Leisure Centre site in Belfast. Cooling was required because of the shortage of electrical power to the site. The electrical power requirement in the building was at a premium because of the nature of Concentrix’s business with an enormous power load needed for lighting, computers, servers etc. This requirement was further compounded by the high sensible heat gains generated by the large volumes of computers and lighting, not to mention a staff complement approaching 1500 people.
The solution the team devised was based on larger numbers of indoor units of a lower capacity being used due to the low ceiling heights, while just under 1.2MW of Panasonic DX gas fired cooling was provided, using somewhere between 20kW and 25kW of electrical input. Full details of the equipment specifi ed were:
• 155 Panasonic VRF cassette indoor units to serve all call centre and meeting room areas;
• 13 Panasonic gas heat pump 3-pipe VRF outdoor units serving the indoors;
• Five Panasonic gas heat pump 2-pipe VRF outdoor units to server AHU DX;
• Panasonic centralised and full Modbus BMS control;
• 19 Panasonic split Hi Wall systems to serve various small UPS and comms rooms;
• Panasonic Air Off Control employed to provide a very high sensible heat ratio, 90%+;
• All indoor units were sized to meet duty at medium speed.
The Concentrix was a very complex and challenging project requiring a sophisticated solution that was high-performing, cost-effective, energy-efficient and 100% reliable. Between them the collective supplier, design and contracting team came up with the perfect answer and saw to its seamless installation and subsequent commissioning.