Climate & Ventilation System for Sorting Hall

A new Heating, Cooling and Ventilation System for the company’s new South Midlands sorting hall.

Client – Royal Mail

Project Scope & Objectives

To design and install a Heating, Cooling, and Ventilation System into the new sorting hall at Swan Valley, meeting the specific business requirements of the mail sorting warehouse and its staff, for a temperature-controlled environment.

Challenges

This project presented several challenges that we needed to overcome, including:

  • Maintaining a comfortable controlled temperature, for staff working in the sorting hall
  • Infiltration of outside temperatures, through large loading doors
  • Designing a solution that would provide low ongoing energy costs
  • Meeting the sustainability requirements of Royal Mail

Solution

Air Technology Systems designed and installed an air induction system using our high velocity nozzle technology with four air handling units (AHUs), two of which are connected to a solar wall.

The AHUs provide in excess of 1000kW of mechanical cooling and 600kW of heating with AHU 1 being supplied by a building biomass system, AHUs 2 & 3 being indirect gas-fired units connected to the solar wall and AHU 4 being an indirect gas-fired unit for discharging the exhaust gases.

The system is controlled via the Trend DDC Controller to maximize the renewable energy source during daylight hours.

Result

The sorting hall’s Heating, Cooling and Ventilation System at Swan Valley is saving Royal Mail 233,396 kW a year to deliver energy and cost savings.

The system also reduces CO² output by 59 tonnes a year, which helps meet the company’s sustainability and environmental requirements.

As the system is based on central plant arrangements and a self-balancing system, there is now no need for any high-level maintenance. Running costs are reduced by positioning the AHU’s close to the gas and electrical supplies, along with the added benefit of the solar wall.

The Industrial Heating, Cooling & Ventilation System can also be operated on full fresh air in summer to provide free cooling and ventilation, and further savings on running costs.