Star applies its expertise to chiller replacement
R22 chiller plant at the London offices of a global investment bank has been replaced with bespoke plant from Star Refrigeration using Turbocor compressors. Star designed, built, installed and commissioned air-cooled LPR refrigeration plant comprising four 600 kW chillers using R134a. The project was completed within six months from order to commissioning with no adverse effect on the bank’s business activity or interruption to HVAC services.
A challenging aspect to the project was retaining five air-handling units that form part of the fabric of the building. The DX cooling coils in these units were supplied with R22 refrigerant.
A detailed study into the possible use of chilled-water cooling coils to remove the use of direct refrigerant was carried out. It was concluded that the AHUs would have to be replaced to accommodate chilled water, so a similar solution using a non-ozone-depleting refrigerant (R134a) was necessary.
Star determined that a specialist flooded evaporator design was required that enabled the existing AHUs to be retained and ensured no loss of cooling capacity. Star developed a flooded-evaporator coil design that could be retrofitted to the existing AHUs. This was achieved using Star’s patented low-pressure-receiver (LPR) design.
