TROX BEAMS OBTAIN PLACE AT SOUTHAMPTON UNIVERSITY
15/11/2007
Leading air distribution system provider TROX UK has supplied and installed Multi Service Chilled Beams (MSCB) in the new Treble E (Engineering, Entrance & Education) building at Southampton University.
The University of Southampton is one of a small number of Higher Education facilities to be selected to take part in the pilot round of the Higher Education Carbon Management Programme that the Carbon Trust is coordinating.
The MSCBs form an integral part of the building’s low energy solution, and are being supplied with chilled water at 14ºC supply and 17ºC return, produced by an absorption chiller linked to the recently completed site-wide district heating and combined heat and power plant.
The university’s energy manager, Mark Turner, commented: “After the project team identified the need for mechanical cooling of this intensively serviced building, the next stage was to ensure that this was provided in the most energy efficient way possible. MSCBs operate at a high chilled water temperature meaning smaller temperature gradients. Linking these to an absorption chiller has ensured the best possible CoP of the plant, thereby minimising carbon emissions.”
The MSCBs provide both comfort cooling and the latest compliant lighting throughout the building, and were designed to match the particularly demanding aesthetics required by both client and architect to create an excellent teaching environment.
Particular attention was paid to the integrated lighting to show compliance to LG7 as the exposed building soffitt is unpainted self-finish reinforced concrete. TROX Design Bureau worked closely with one of its strategic lighting partners, in conjunction with the consulting engineers and the architects, to ensure that the required overall lighting effect was achieved.
“The chosen aesthetic for the chilled beam was based on a similar ‘angular’ format that had previously been successfully utilised on another university project where TROX also supplied and installed MSCBs,” said architect Nick Hacking of John McAslan & Partners.
The MSCBs were totally pre-fabricated off site and fully tested prior to their installation into the SouthamptonUniversity building, resulting in significant construction programme time saving.
