An EPIC fan coil unit manufactured by Advanced Air has been installed in the prestigious State Street Bank building in Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London — one of the first major projects to install tone of these high-efficiency units.
The unit's energy saving credentials — with a specific fan power (SFP) as low as 0.15w/l/s — was a major factor in the selection of the EPIC fan coil, which also has a unique fan deck arrangement with horizontally mounted fans utilising ECM motors.
These motors incorporate a smart card, which meant that irrespective of the external resistance, the fan volume would be held constant. With this smart card the fans could be factory calibrated and set at the desired air volume and therefore there was no need to resort to expensive on-site commissioning.
Chilled water temperatures were elevated at 12degC/17degC to maximise the energy saving available with increased periods of free cooling: with the units serving relatively large zones, cooling capacities were high and up to 5.8kW outputs were required.
Since Advanced Air designs and manufactures their fan decks they have the flexibility to change the cross section of the unit to optimise the performance. After testing at their r&d centre in Thetford, the optimum size was found to be 1500 x 975 x 333mm with air volume flow of 780 litres/s.
This particular specially designed unit was part of a £400,000 contract that included all the fan coil units and associated diffusers and plenum boxes.
