Handelsbanken Halifax Branch

VRV spins a comfortable workplace for bankers in converted mill

An energy efficient air conditioning system from Daikin UK creates a year-round comfortable working environment for banking staff – and visiting customers – in a former spinning mill, Grade II listed and dating from the 1830s.

The Halifax branch of Handelsbanken occupies almost 3,000 sq.ft on the ground floor of Fearnley Mill – part of the Dean Clough complex, developed originally by James Akroyd and Sons. The numerous sandstone buildings alongside Hebble Brook once formed the world’s largest carpet factory. Spinning and weaving machinery is long gone, but the remaining modernised buildings live on as a hub for business and the arts.

VRV spins a comfortable workplace for bankers in converted mill

Handelsbanken shares the building with a serviced office provider. The bank’s premises includes reception area, boardroom, two smaller meeting rooms and a general office. All the rooms are kept at a comfortable temperature throughout the year by a 20hp Daikin VRV IV heat recovery system, delivering a nominal 56.0kW (heating and cooling).

The condensing unit is installed in a screened communal outdoor plant area, easily accessible for maintenance purposes, at the edge of the building’s car park.

The bank’s system is controlled through a Daikin Intelligent Touch Manager, which simplifies the setting of on-off times, temperatures and louvre positions on individual indoor units.

The three-pipe Daikin heat recovery system owes its superior efficiency to its ability to recover heat at a low condensing temperature which requires less energy. This contrasts to a two-pipe system where refrigerant gas and liquid are mixed, so a less-efficient higher condensing temperature is needed to separate them.

The Handelsbanken installation is the second Daikin heat recovery system that Heatworks has installed at Dean Clough. When the sixstorey A & B Mills building was modernised to accommodate 700 staff of French-based Covea Insurance, the condensing units were installed in a sensitvely designed part-louvred plant tower at the rear of the building because of planning constraints and physical issues on the site.

Craig Ayrton Bradford-based Daikin D1 Installer Heatworks Says

“The temperature is at a comfortable level when staff arrive in the mornings and it stays like that all day. If the weather is particularly hot or cold, it’s easy for them to adjust the air conditioning for greater comfort.”