Hero

First large 180kW Mitsubishi E Series chiller installed in the UK

The Project

Cooltherm was chosen to design and install a replacement chiller for a prime office building in Aztec West, North Bristol. The existing Chiller had reached the end of its economic lifespan, after 20 years’ of service it had become very costly to run and maintain and was deemed commercially unviable to remain in operation.

Customer Requirements

The specification for the replacement chiller was clear, it had to offer unparalleled levels of energy efficiency and be available ‘off the shelf’ with the installation needing to be completed within a few weeks.

Like many commercial buildings in the UK this building’s cooling load is very dynamic with winter cooling loads dropping to around one-tenth of that of the peak design point; traditional machines like the one being replaced struggle to match the low ambient
cooling loads and this often leads to regular premature component failures through ‘short cycling of the compressors’, therefore we needed to select a machine which was designed from the outset to match the sites cooling loads exactly, be it a few kilowatts or the full machine capacity without detrimental effect on the refrigeration circuit components.

The greatest challenge was the timescale given to complete the project, only 4 weeks from point of order to having the chiller lifted into position and fully commissioned into operation! Cooltherm project managed the whole process from start to finish, which included all main primary chilled water components including replacing the old inefficient primary water pumps with the latest integrated inverter inline variety, Cooltherm closely managed all aspects of the job to ensure timings were achieved and that customer expectations were exceeded.

The Cooltherm Solution

The 180kW Mitsubishi E Series chiller is the largest single module unit available from the new range and is the first installed into the UK market, testament to Cooltherm’s passion and commitment to deliver the best solutions for our clients and the environment. The original E-series chiller design was a 90kW module and the projects team knew from our past installations that the compressor technology within the E-series chillers were capable of delivering phenomenal turn-down ratios with 7% of peak load capacity being regularly delivered without off-cycling the plant.

Client Testimonial

We have worked with the client on a couple of occasions before. This was the biggest challenge yet, but everyone involved worked incredibly hard to ensure the project ran smoothly and we were able to exceed customer expectations. We are now working with them to develop and install chillers for another project.

- Gareth Johns, Technical Manager, Cooltherm