The Heal’s Building on London’s Tottenham Court Road has long been a home of innovation and high quality design. This creative spirit lives on in the newly refurbished building, with a cutting edge heating and cooling system from Panasonic, that provides a comfortable environment for the staff of companies such as Netflix and Deliveroo.
Consultants Cundall worked with Easy Air Conditioning to design and install a heating and cooling system flexible enough to meet the demands of a variety of office spaces spread over five storeys. The scale of the project demanded a powerful, efficient system, so Easy Air Conditioning and Cundall specified the Panasonic ECOi VRF system. During three phases of delivery, Easy Air Conditioning installed 24 VRF systems comprised of 42 of Panasonic’s heat pumps and heat condensing units. Each VRF system is controlled by a Panasonic CZ-256ESMC2 touchscreen controller and is integrated into the building management system of the site, to provide a flexible and user-friendly heating and cooling solution.
“When we worked out the scale of the project and how many units we would have to install, Panasonic’s VRF system became the obvious choice,” said Andy Wootton of Easy Air Conditioning. “We wanted to give the client a heating and cooling system that was easy to use and provided the capacity they needed, and Panasonic ticked all the boxes. They offer great products which are easy to install and very energy efficient.”
Panasonic heat pumps and condensing units lead the market in their ease of installation and maintenance, which were key factors on this project, as the units were to be installed on the roof of the building where space was limited. The ECOi VRF system also puts energy efficiency at the forefront, operating with a COP of 4.63, while able to offer heating and cooling simultaneously at high performance, making it the perfect solution for a large office building with hundreds of staff.
The ceilings in the Heal’s Building are lower than one might typically find in a modern office building, due to its heritage as a furniture manufacturing facility. Easy Air Conditioning installed Panasonic’s MM range of horizontal ‘slimline’ ceiling-mounted units, designed for spaces with low ceilings. They were unable to fit a false ceiling around the units because of the lack of space, which meant that the cold air from the units would flow straight down onto the people who worked below them, causing pockets of cold air around the office.
Easy Air Conditioning installed large plates around the outputs of the units to take advantage of the Coand effect, where the air flows out horizontally along the bottom of the plates, so it doesn’t fall straight out of the unit onto the people below, providing a consistent cooling effect across the office. Easy Air Conditioning also took advantage of the off coil temperature control facility of the Panasonic units to maintain the off coil temperature at 12 degrees, so that the air that was emitted from the units was already slightly warmer than a regular cooling system.
Easy Air Conditioning supplemented the ceiling-mounted units with a large number of Panasonic’s MR1 series floor standing units concealed discreetly in cabinets beneath windows. These units, specifically designed to be concealed in perimeter enclosures, enable flexible installation as supply pipes can be connected to either side of the unit from the bottom or the rear. This flexibility ensured that areas of offices nearer the windows, which can be warmer in the summer due to the sun, were cooled to a temperature consistent with the rest of the office. Without a false ceiling, the units, trunking and pipes of the air conditioning system were exposed, so the interior designers decided to embrace this and incorporate it into the stripped back, industrial-chic design aesthetic of the iconic Heal’s Building.