Nortek talks ventilation and air distribution requirements

20 Jul 2018

Danny Packham European product Manager – Warm Air and radiant for Nortek Global HVAC UK Ltd explains the developments in make-up air heating solutions to meet ventilation and air distribution requirements at a time when energy costs are escalating.

In commercial buildings, good ventilation will keep bad odours, irritating pollutants and potentially
harmful gases like carbon monoxide at bay. Plus, it prevents the formation of mould and/or mildew,
which is vital for employee health and building hygiene – especially important when in a kitchen or
food processing environment.

When production processes get underway, air quality can quickly deteriorate. Raised levels of indoor air pollution may reduce productivity, as well as having negative effects on the comfort of the building’s occupants.

An extract only ventilation system will create a negative pressure environment, therefore, a more suitable solution would be a ‘make-up air’ or supply air heating system that replaces the extracted air with conditioned fresh air. In this way, the environment within the building can be closely controlled, and never left to the mercy of external weather conditions as they create even temperatures throughout a building.

Make-up air heating units provide a highly effective solution to the problem of maintaining both air
quality and stable internal temperatures. They deliver a balanced volume of replacement air into the
body of the building. This creates a slight but uniform positive pressure throughout the internal space
that inhibits the infiltration of cold external air and airborne dust.

Reznor offers various packaged make-up air units such as PREEVA, IDF-BDX and RTU, which provide replacement air tempered to a pre-determined design temperature and maintain this temperature whilst extraction in operation, whilst 100% thermal efficiency provides reduced energy usage. Where extracts rates vary, further energy savings can be achieved by using a variable air volume make-up air unit. The
volume of replacement air provided automatically adjusts with the changing extract rate thereby reducing both the electrical and gas usage. In summer, the make-up air units also provide ‘free fresh air cooling’.

McDonald’s Restaurant’s Ltd was looking to create a comfortable environment for customers through
a more energy efficient heating, ventilation and cooling system. Reznor joined forces with Mitsubishi Electric to develop a bespoke heating, ventilation and cooling system solution which combined Reznor’s IDF Units with Mitsubishi Electric’s Air Source Heat Pumps.

The solution significantly reduced running costs at McDonald’s and was transferable across sites and improved customer experiences with a reliable, consistent and comfortable temperature inside all restaurants. The unit also offers great carbon emission reductions and enabled McDonald’s to reduce its energy consumption by 35% across 650 UK restaurants.

Dave Holden Building Services Consultant: UK & Ireland for McDonalds said, “Our customers expect McDonald’s to have a comfortable internal temperature and the ability to offer that, reliably and consistently, is part of our relationship with customers.” He added, “When we started looking at replacing our air conditioning equipment we quickly realised we needed a bespoke system. We were coming at this with very specific requirements and off-the-shelf systems didn’t satisfy the need.”

Contact:

Nortek Global HVAC UK,
Fens Pool Avenue,
Brierely Hill,
West Midlands,
United Kingdom,
DY5 1QA

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