New chillers in Harrogate help protect the environment
The end of the road was reached for two technically obsolete chillers using ozone-depleting R11 refrigerant at the Harrogate International Centre (HIC) when they were replaced with Two Airedale Ultima water-cooled 1200D chillers. HIC has a 2000-seat auditorium interlinked with eight exhibition halls and a hotel and offers integrated conference, exhibition and entertainment facilities with diverse cooling-load requirements. The old chillers dated from the early 1980s and were struggling to provide reliable service. Without disrupting normal business operation, HIC’s design consultant Silcock Leedham worked closely with Airedale. The Ultima chillers were engineered to provide enhanced, energy-efficient cooling and fit into the restricted space of the existing plant room. Bill Leedham of Silcock Leedham says, ‘Rather than rely on a straight like-for-like cooling-duty replacement, we carried out a detailed cooling-load calculation and analysis to include diversified loads from the auditorium, hotels and exhibition halls to give a realistic “dynamic” cooling duty for the water chiller selections in order to minimise running costs.’ Access limitations necessitated building and structural modifications to the plan to facilitate removal and installation works. Maintaining cooling throughout installation to ensure the normal, continued business operation of HIC was pivotal to the programming and implementation of the replacement of the water chillers. The chillers were installed at times of the year when demand was low. Thys were built and configured to fit into the plant room and be manoeuvred through restricted access into position. Pipework and to be diverted and pumps moved to maintain cooling.
Related links:
