World News

Industry news and insights from Europe and around the World

UK News

Latest news and developments in the United Kingdom

Products

Keep up-to-date with the latest new products and technology

Features

General articles, applications and industry analysis

Toshiba VRF awarded central role

UK: Toshiba VRF air conditioning is providing high-efficiency cooling and heating for No 1 Great Central Square, part of a £50m regeneration scheme in the heart of Leicester. 

The four-and-half-acre development, being built by Morgan Sindall Construction, includes two new hotels, premium commercial offices and a new public area – Great Central Square – in Leicester’s city centre. No 1 Great Central Square comprises 35,000ft2 of open-plan office space over five floors, air conditioned by Toshiba’s SMMS-e system, installed by Ambivent Ltd.

Ten Toshiba outdoor units supply cooling and heating via 40 indoor cassettes installed across the building, with a heat recovery ventilation system in each wing. A 12kW Toshiba split system running on R32 refrigerant installed in the reception area completes the total building system. High level control and monitoring is provided by Toshiba’s Black Pear HVAC controller.

“The project was originally specified with ducted equipment from another manufacturer, however this was outside the budget,” said Joshua Medhurst, who carried out the mechanical services design under the supervision of Ambivent’s design manager Steve Thornton. “We proposed an alternative system using Toshiba’s SMMS-e two-pipe VRF with cassettes, as it met the requirements for high quality, reliability and delivery of both heating and cooling with excellent energy efficiency. It won the day.”

Related stories:

Toshiba introduces top performing VRF19 September 2015
Toshiba-SMMS-e-prodEUROPE:  Toshiba’s new SMMS-e VRF conditioning system is said to set new standards for energy efficiency and performance, offering ESEER’s of over 7 across the range. Read more…

Latest News

30th December 2025

Munters wins SEK840m data centre chiller order

SWEDEN: Munters has received a chiller order of approximately SEK840m (≈$91m) for a US colocation data centre customer. 
30th December 2025

Modine climate solutions president to retire

USA: Eric S McGinnis is to retire as president of climate solutions at Modine Manufacturing. 
30th December 2025

Dr Hywel Davies awarded OBE

UK: Dr Hywel Davies, the head of technical insight at the Chartered Association of Building Engineers, has been awarded the OBE in the new year honours list.
29th December 2025

Hitachi Energy to expand cooling systems facility

SWEDEN: Hitachi Energy is investing US$77m in an expansion of its power transmission cooling systems facilities in Landskrona, Sweden. 
27th December 2025

Daikin revises AC recycling fees

JAPAN: Daikin is to reduce its air conditioner recycling fees in Japan from February due to increased efficiency in processing at its recycling plants.
26th December 2025

India levies anti-dumping duties on Chinese R134a

INDIA: The Indian government has imposed anti-dumping duties on imports of R134a refrigerant from China.