In its 40-year history, Active Air has done some interesting jobs but none better than when it was hired to keep a 100-year-old building cool to assist in the production of an internationally acclaimed animated film.
According to Phil James, business development manager for Active Air Rentals, the customer required cooling for its project, which is being produced inside a heritage-listed building: the old railway workshops in the inner-Sydney suburb of Redfern.
The movie is the animated feature Happy Feet 2 and it proved to be one of Active Air’s more exotic jobs.
“We were asked to provide cooling to two office-sized areas with one of our fluid chillers and an air handler,” James says. “The chiller was mounted on a specially built (by customer) steel pedestal due the lack of available space on site.
“It was a challenge for us as an install, due to the design nature and age of the building.”
Active Air installed a 120kw fluid chiller and a 110kw air handler, diffused through a 600mm inflatable duct.
The room that was required to be cooled and where some of the post-production work on the film took place was approximately 20m by 60m with 12m high ceilings and an upstairs office. There was also a downstairs office at around 20m by 20m by 8m, with a total staff count of about 120 people. While the animators may have been drawing frozen Antarctic landscapes, the actual heat load was quite high.
“It was a very difficult installation, working around people at heights, getting temperatures correct, up and down stairs for days,” James says.
“The client was very happy with our package and that it provided the cooling that they were after to satisfy their extensive team of people and complex work.
“By using inflatable ductwork installed to provide the airflow to the office areas, the end result was that the offices were kept cool enough for the penguins, even if they were only animated ones!”
James says Active Air has the range of portable air conditioners to handle just about any type or size of building.
According to Active Air director John Sweeny, “Active Air is a company that is well used to ensuring its clients can work in a safe and timely manner and this job further shows that we understand the complexities and time constraints of all our client’s work, no matter how exotic it may be”.
www.activeair.com.au