Charity begins with air conditioning
The refurbishment of a 5-storey office block in the Old Street area just to the north of the City of London to provide accommodation for charitable and voluntary organisations is air-conditioned by a Mitsubishi energy-recovery VRF systems. These offices will accommodate some 80 different organisations at 280 desks.
The building is owned and run by the sustainable social enterprise CAN Mezzanine, which specialises in providing high-quality, affordable serviced office space for third-sector charity and voluntary organisations.
The company has a policy of finding sites in prime locations, well serviced by local transport and rents space per desk to enable third-sector bodies to work flexibly in professional space in the heart of the business community. It tries to create a community spirit of social interest by housing like-minded organisations in the same building.
Coolair Equipment was the air-conditioning and ventilation contractor and recommended Mitsubishi’s City Multi system to replace a variety of different split systems. There is also a gas-fired air-handling unit.
Neil Gibbard of Coolair says, ‘We installed 10 outdoor units to provide full heating and cooling throughout the buildngs. These work together to transfer energy from areas that need cooling, such as data rooms and meeting rooms, to parts of the building that require heating. This helps minimise the costs of the overall system.
‘Using City Multi has allowed us to build flexibility into the scheme and gives CAC Mezzanine the complete control over the use of air conditioning, the temperatures and operating times it runs.’
Each floor has an average of 14 indoor units to serve open-pan areas and meeting rooms. The whole system is controlled by Mitsubishi’s G50 controller and TG2000.
