A refurbishment at the School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of NSW will ensure Australia's future engineers keep a cool head.
Modern building designs are tightly sealed, minimizing infiltration of outside air. It is imperative that mechanically ventilated outdoor air, free of harmful concentrations of pollutants is made available to the building.
This needs to be supplied at comfortable temperatures and humidity levels to ensure occupant health, wellbeing and comfort.
If a conventional HVAC system is required to condition high levels of outdoor air, running costs become prohibitive and therefore, only minimal levels of outdoor air can be introduced. The quality of indoor air is therefore compromised when there are insufficient levels of outdoor air.
By implementing heat recovery technology to capture the energy embodied in the exhaust air, HVAC plant size and running costs can be significantly reduced.
Australian HVAC manufacturer, Air Change employ an internationally patented air to air counter-flow heat exchanger across its entire product suite, creating high quality, energy efficient products for a variety of applications.
The heat exchanger comprises of numerous air guiding passages which are separated by a ‘transfer media’. This creates two separated air paths, one for the exhausting air from the building and one for supply air.
In summer; cooler exhaust air absorbs the heat from the warmer outside air. In winter, the opposite occurs where warmer exhaust air transfers heat to the incoming cold outside air.
Air Change offer the heat exchanger in an ‘enthalpy’ media variant which can also dehumidify the outside air. This technology is ideal for universities that have many auditoriums, teaching spaces and laboratories that inherently need high amounts of outside air.
The School Of Mechanical Engineering at the University of NSW has educated many of our industry members and after 50 years it is now the subject of a major capital renewal project. The refurbishment’s key features include a new collaborative student space, cafe area, laboratory and workshop improvements, new teaching areas and new state of the art 350 seat lecture theatres.
As with all auditorium spaces a significant challenge in designing the lecture theatre is to supply large volumes of outside air efficiently. Air Change has supplied two 6000 l/s energy recovery ventilator units with patented enthalpy heat exchangers to UNSW.
The heat exchangers are able to precondition outside air, leading to a fresh air load saving of 75 per cent. The two units for the Mechanical Engineering lecture theatre were built with a fully integrated external steel frame which allowed one unit to be installed on top of the other in a stacked configuration.
This allowed the system to easily fit into the available plant room space. The ERV’s also incorporated Ziehl Abegg EC plug fans for superior energy efficiency and variable airflow control.
To ensure reliable operation once on site, the systems come fully prewired including all electrical safety devices and are fully tested in factory prior to being dispatched.
“We pride ourselves on designing and manufacturing reliable, tailor made systems to meet the ever growing demands of our fast moving industry,” an Air Change spokesperson said.
“For any application that requires a customised design or innovative solution its best to contact our knowledgeable sales engineering team.”
Visit www.airchange.com.au