Longley Park Sixth Form College

The College was opened in 2004 and is both unique and eye catching. It was designed and constructed to be thermally efficient, but needed an HVAC system to be installed which could provide the necessary amount of ventilation and cooling to satisfy the size and shape of the building during the summer months.

We were successful in tendering for this exciting project as we were able to offer the most innovative ideas and flexible working practices, working closely with the client to satisfy their needs and our his hands-on approach to the project was commended by the client.

Rob Ellis, Longley Park Sixth Form College was quoted as saying,

“Four Seasons Control was able to implement the best plan to ensure innovative and flexible working practices.”

We were also able to offer the client the following terms, necessary to successfully complete a job of this type:

The Equipment

Due to overheating on the on the East Wing of the building, we supplemented the existing wet system with Mitsubishi VRF Heat pumps, set for cooling only. A future opportunity for the client is to allow for both heating and cooling to be offered depending on local and seasonal requirements.

We also installed the Mitsubishi PLC Load Shedder to monitor the power consumption of the installed equipment at the College. A load shedder is programmed to automatically shed unnecessary power during times of excessive usage; this prevents an unexpected total shut down of the system. In the event of the energy consumption reaching a critical value, the system is programmed to a 4 tiered system which will shut off unnecessary units before completely switching off. In having the capacity to downgrade via a tier system it reduces the energy consumption to provide a more efficient system with lower running costs.

Finally we installed a Mitsubishi G-50 control system which allows the client to monitor and control the temperature of each classroom directly from their computers via a trend which can be programmed through the Mitsubishi website. This state of the art controls system is useful to this client as the shape of the building causes classroom temperatures to fluctuate throughout the day and allows for up to 50 rooms to be controlled at the same time.

By maintaining a closely controlled system the client can be selective in usage and reduce running costs. This type of control also benefits the environment as the system expends less energy on a daily basis.

Feedback

Since the project was completed feedback from staff at Longley Park Sixth Form College has been very positive. It was felt that the state of the art system is very user friendly and staff had noted a positive response from the students to the improved classroom conditions as the better ventilation and air quality has contributed to student motivation and learning.

Future work

We have since been invited back to Longley Park Sixth Form College to secure a maintenance contract for their HVAC system. This involves two major visits followed by one visit to conduct an indoor maintenance service. This will be followed by a F-Gas leak check visit which is now a legal requirement due to the new European F-Gas Regulation.

We have also installed a wall mount system in the reprography room and we will be replacing the existing system in the in the server room in the near future. This reflects the confidence of the client in using the Four Seasons Group for future projects.