ACR Journal

February | March 2021 36 Volume 7 No.2 VRF with heat recovery is becoming the new ‘go to’ option for building designers in the UK The addition of hydro kits - one of the most topical areas currently for the specification of VRF installations is their specification alongside hydro kits. These units extract heat from a VRF heat pump or heat recovery system to provide domestic hot water. This sees the building using heat that would otherwise be wasted. From the designer’s point of view, VRF combined with hydro kit technology presents an opportunity to combine space heating and hot water provision through a single highly ecient system with cooling as an added option where required. Hydro kits can provide hot water up to 80° C from high temperature units, or to 50° C from medium temperature models. Because multiple hydro kits can connect to a single outdoor unit, the system can cope with sizeable loads. This means it’s an approach which can work on a range of projects where heating – perhaps via underfloor heating for example, and hot water supply are required. And, of course the system is also capable of delivering heating and cooling via fan coil units. One market that is seeing more interest in this type of system is the multi-residential market, particularly the build-to-rent sector which is mainly apartment-based development. Despite the issues with Covid-19 across the UK at the end of September 2020, there were just over 140,000 apartments under construction in the UK, a large proportion of which were in city centres where there is increasing pressure to move away from heating systems that only add to the air quality problems of inner cities. Legislation for NOx levels is making the use of traditional boilers or CHP units less attractive and finding alternatives like the VRF system combined with hydro kits is a pressing requirement for building designers in particular. Replace the gas boiler A technology such as VRF teamed with hydro kits can readily replace the gas boiler in multi-residential buildings. The ability to provide heating and domestic hot water and cooling – on an electrically driven system is an ideal solution for many. LG’s 16kW Multi V S VRF heat recovery air conditioning system is a solution tailor made for residential apartment buildings along with small and medium sized stores and oces – oering enhanced eciency benefits with an impressive SEER of up to 8.9. The combination of this system with the addition of heat recovery and a hydro kit to provide domestic hot water, is a high eciency solution that oers much more flexibility with a total piping length of up to 300 metres for building designers and installers saving those two key resources – time and money. New ‘thinking’ dual vane cassettes Recent installations have been paired with the new LG 4-way dual vane cassettes combined with their air purification kits. The new dual vane cassettes feature a new square grille design rather than the familiar narrow grille design which makes these cassettes more aesthetically pleasing. The inlet area for the air intake is larger than for previous designs of cassettes, increasing airflow. The feature for each side of the cassette allows for a variety of angles for air flow. The airflow is controlled by a six-step angle feature - 10° to 85° - to ensure coverage for wider room spaces as required. A dual vane version suers no air flow loss, enabling these cassettes to cool and heat room space more quickly and eciently than standard vanes. Because of the wide swing angle range, it is possible for the air flow to reach floor level from higher ceilinged rooms – up to five metres. Before installing, installers need to carry out a mode setting, that will depend upon the ceiling height – a standard ceiling – up to 3.2 metres, a high ceiling – up to 3.6 metres and a super high ceiling – up to 5 metres. www.partner.lge.com/uk VRF with heat recovery - taking o in the UK HEAT RECOVERY STEP 1 Pre-filter STEP 2 Dust electrification STEP 3 PM 1.0 filter STEP 4 Deoderization filter