Ciat keeps cool on hottest day
9th October 2019
UK: Planning was everything for the team carrying out the replacement of chillers at a cooling dependent UK hospital on the hottest day ever recorded in the UK.
The project at the Central Middlesex Hospital in North London included the removal of existing chillers and installation and commissioning of two air-cooled PowerCiat chillers with a combined cooling capacity of over 1.5MW.
Ciat UK completed the major turnkey project for Bouygues Energies & Services, with one of the chillers being installed on July 25, the hottest day ever recorded in the UK.
The units supply critical cooling for the hospital’s operating theatres, wards, public spaces and administration offices. The project required careful planning to ensure continuity of cooling to the hospital throughout the changeover, allowing for uninterrupted vital services.
“The chillers were replaced in two stages with a four-week proving stage in between, to ensure cooling could be maintained without pause,” said project manager Cammy Singh of Bouygues E&S FM.
“We were fortunate in that one of the existing chillers was no longer operational, and we were able to remove this first and replace it with one of the new PowerCiat units while the other chiller continued to meet cooling demand.”
He added: “Once we were happy the new Ciat unit was performing well and rock solid, we were able to switch off the legacy chiller and lift the second PowerCiat into position. Installation and commissioning of the second chiller coincided with the hottest day ever recorded in the UK – 38.7ºC in nearby Cambridge.”
The project included fabrication of new pipework to accommodate the different connections required for the new chillers, managing craneage and logistics for lift-and-shift of the old units, installation of the new chillers, and pressure testing, refilling and commissioning.
The new chillers are now being connected to the hospital’s Building Management System to optimise energy efficiency and control of conditions across the building.
