A new mixed-use building in London, One Benjamin, has installed AET’s underfloor air conditioning system which utilises the few inches of space beneath a raised access floor for the distribution of air, eliminating most ducting and pipework.
The original air conditioning design specified four downflow units per floor: two supplying the rear zone of the building and two for the front zone. Each zone was split into two further zones; one supplying cool air towards the perimeter of the building (where it is needed more to combat solar gain), and the other providing warmer air to the central areas of the office space where there is less heat generated by the sun.
The main contractor, Knight Harwood, saw an opportunity to redesign the original Stage 3 hot/cold aisle design and to implement AET’s underfloor air conditioning solution for the three floors of office space.
Knight Harwood felt that AET’s highly flexible system would be more suited to cope with the variations in temperature across the building caused by increased/decreased sunlight.
At One Benjamin, each of the three floors was divided into zones of up to 300m2 depending on the potential use and occupancy density of the area. Each zone is then supplied with chilled or warmed air by a zonal air handling unit or CAM (Conditioned Air Module) and the conditioned air is then delivered into the space using a number of recessed fan terminals (Fantile).
One Benjamin selected AET’s most flexible system, the CAM-V, which makes use of the raised floor void as a plenum for the distribution of supply air, whilst receiving return air back to the CAM unit at ceiling or high level.
With a CAM-V system there is a considerable amount of flexibility in where the fantiles can be placed, allowing for easy reconfiguration depending on the particular needs or layout of an office.
For maximum flexibility each fantile is supplied with onboard Fanspeed and Set Point adjustment, but in meeting rooms and cellular space AET offers Flextouch wall-mounted controllers which allow users not only to adjust the fan speed and temperature, but also CO2 and humidity monitoring and control.
With a UfAC system, the floor is divided into zones of up to 300m2 depending on the potential use and occupancy density of the area.
Each zone is supplied with chilled or warmed air by a zonal air handling unit or CAM (Conditioned Air Module) and the conditioned air is then delivered into the space using a recessed (Fantile) or floor standing fan terminal. Both CAM-C and CAM-V systems can be configured to be either chilled water (CW) or direct expansion (DX).