Panasonic helps council to net zero

UK: Gloucester City Council has installed a Panasonic air conditioning system for its new refurbished office in the town centre.

The Council has set net zero targets for 2030 and were looking for a sustainable and energy efficient system to cool and heat their new office space to replace an old gas boiler, plus wanted to ensure that the indoor air quality catered for the well-being of their employees and visitors.  

High-Wycombe-based SFE Services specified and installed a Panasonic Mini ECOi 10HP system along with four cassettes, four TZ wall mounted units with Nanoe X technology, and three energy recovery units.

TESN was the main contractors for the refurbishment of the 700m² in the East Shopping Centre of the town. The premises has a large hot desking area, three meetings rooms and an IT room.

In addition to the restrictions created by the offices being above a busy shopping centre, the building had no previous cooling system installed.

“The space has a low floor to ceiling height with many structural beams to work around – therefore bespoke slimline ductwork was designed and installed to minimise impact on the clean lines required by the scheme,” said TESN director Marcus Griffiths. 

The Panasonic Mini ECOi system offers SEER levels of up to 8.5, SCOP levels of 5.05 and can operate in temperatures as lows a -20^ºC for heating and up to 50ºC in cooling mode.

“We wanted a system that was future proof and to improve the indoor experience for our employees and visitors. We wanted to protect and improve the quality of the air for our office workers and felt that the fresh air system was needed and fundamental in our choice,” said Gloucester City Council’s senior building works surveyor David Torrington.

“When looking at the various options available, we found that although the capital cost was lower to retain the existing gas heating, we decided to still go with the Panasonic system for environmental reasons. Environment factors were a large reason as to why we chose the Panasonic units, in addition to the Nanoe X technology, to help with the wellbeing of our staff and visitors.”  

Much of the Panasonic air conditioning range now comes with Nanoe X technology as standard. It works independently from the heating and cooling operation of its units and uses minimal energy and requires no maintenance. The technology improves air hygiene by inhibiting the transmission of certain airborne viruses and bacteria indoors.