Office Refurbishment

Portcullis House

Daikin VRV delivers a healthy extra benefit – more lettable space

Portcullis House is near the Millennium Stadium and Cardiff city centre.

It consists of three storeys of open plan offices fronting Cowbridge Road East, with seven storeys of smaller offices and meeting rooms in a taller wing behind.

It had an old four-pipe air conditioning system, with floor-mounted fan coil units (FCUs), piping and associated trunking on perimeter walls.

Heating and cooling for the old system was provided by boilers and chillers – all of which were in a poor condition.

The complex includes 12 flats, known as Belgrave Court, which are not included in the air conditioning system.

Matther Williams, Director, Cool Solution

"Design flexibility of Daikin BS boxes simplified the piping requirements for serving large and small rooms on different floors. We considered an alternative system, but if we’d used it we would have been in danger of exceeding maximum piping lengths.

We would have had to pipe down to a box on the lowest level, then up again to reach the fan coils on the higher floors. With the new design BS boxes included within the Daikin VRV IV solution, we simply branched off on the way down.The Daikin design was perfect for this application.”

Daikin VRV IV delivers a healthy extra benefit – more lettable space

Daikin’s VRV IV heat recovery air conditioning was specified for its cutting edge technology and high efficiency – and refrigerant piping, branch selector boxes and cassettes could be accommodated within existing ceiling voids.

There are 38 Roundflow cassettes from1.8kW to 7.2kW in the open plan offices and other large spaces, and 21 wall-mounted FCUs from 1.2kW to 2.9kW for smaller offices and meeting rooms.

The indoor units are served by three roof-mounted VRV IV heat recovery systems, totalling 74hp. Each system serves one of the three open plan areas and a range of other rooms. Connection ratios of 110%-120% maximise capaciy utilisation.