Modern Building Services

MODERN BUILDING SERVICES JUNE 2022 9 M anufacturers can use significant amounts of energy to meet the unique climate control of their facilities, which often include very large indoor production spaces. In addition, the equipment used in the manufacturing process typically consumes a significant amount of energy and can have a huge impact on the indoor environment in production spaces. For some manufacturers, strict temperature control must be maintained during themanufacturing process to ensure the correct specifications of the final product. For these environments, a robust climate control system designed around built-for-process chillers are required to prevent product loss and maintainquality control requirements during the manufacturing process. In environments where the manufacturing process is labour- intensive, maintaining critical space conditions is also a must for workers to be productive, comfortable and safe. When thinking of high- performance manufacturing plants, the above puts the spotlight on the HVAC and process cooling systems. High performance building standards in manufacturing. The HVAC and process cooling element At their essence, high performance buildings are designed and operated tomeet specific standards for energy consumption, water use, system reliability and uptime, environmental performance, indoor air quality, noise levels, occupant health and comfort, and other mission-essential factors. Operating standards are set, measured, and continually validated to deliver established outcomes within specific tolerances. The standards vary depending on every organisation’s mission. Because manufacturing facilities have especially high energy demands and HVAC and process cooling are a big part of that equation, manufacturers should work closely with industry experts. Together they can develop solutions that can deliver a comfortable and productive working environment within specified tolerances required by the manufacturer while having in mind the expected systems performances and efficiencies that can increase energy savings, leading to lower production costs and increased profitability. Experts in the high-performance HVAC and process cooling can work with new and existing facilities and combine financial, operating and energy analysis to address a facility’s critical performance elements. With that they can find the right approach to temperature control solutions and apply economic values in order to quantify improvements and assure results. This also includes selecting the right equipment. High performance buildings need accurate close temperature control and can benefit from process-specific equipment such as the i-chiller, which achieves better performances than standard HVAC units. ➜ As energy costs continue to rise, improving the systems performance of manufacturing plants has the attention of business. Dave Palmer, general manager for the UK and Ireland at ICS Cool Energy, looks at howorganisations are focused on doingmorewith less, improving productivity, shrinking their environmental footprint, and spending scarce capital budgets in ways that will provide the best return on investment. Process cooling and HVAC for higher performance manufacturing plants FEATURE AIR CONDITIONING, COOLING & VENTILATION