Hydronic balancing plays key role in achieving energy-efficiency objectives
Hydronic balancing expertise from TA Hydronics has helped the headquarters of Ceskoslovenska Obchodni Banka (CSOB) win the Gold Prize LEED Green Building Award for outstanding energy efficiency. The installation of the company’s specialist balancing valves, alongside other energy-reducing solutions, has reduced the building’s overall energy consumption by 65%.
The building has a total cooling capacity of 5 MW and a heating capacity of 3 MW.
Graeme Waugh, national technical manager with TA Hydronics, comments, ‘Considering the scale of the building, measuring some 83 000 m2. we needed to ensure that we provided an HVAC solution that would service the needs of the building efficiently and effectively. As can often be the case with large buildings, poorly commissioned and unstable systems can mean that some areas of a building do not heat or cool with the desired effect.
‘The method used to balance the system is critical. Normal proportional balancing can be a non-optimal process. Better methodology needs to be applied to buildings of this nature to ensure an absolutely optimal balance. The compensated method or TA Balance can provide this.
‘During the project, we supplied an ongoing level of both technical advice and support — particularly throughout the installation and commissioning stages to ensure the entire system was balanced in accordance with the initial design.’