Efficient ventilation for sustainable development from Fl?kt Woods

Environmental protection in cities is usually considered as public investments such as treatment plants, green energy or traffic management. Private sustainable investments are seen are crucial for industry which in modern cities is practically absent. The vital problem of municipal environment - both in Poland and worldwide - is energy consumption by different kinds of buildings: residential, public and commercial.

 To minimize the energy consumption, the European Union introduced The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and - subsequently - a number of Directives dealing with energy efficiency of specific energy related products and devices. The main example is Energy related Products Directive (ErP).

 The guidelines for energy efficiency are stated in, for example, Regulation of the Minister of Infrastructure on the technical conditions to be fulfilled by buildings and their location. Yet, they are very general and do not actually influence higher performance standard of new buildings. That is why the grassroots initiatives of the construction sector are so important. More and more developers go beyond the obligatory minimum and create sustainable buildings of tomorrow. As there are no legal frames, parameters defining the environmental impact of building are rated in international certification programmes.

 In Poland LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) or BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology) certification is becoming popular. The “green certificate” of office building becomes its competitive advantage. Very few of buildings are certified as Gold (LEED) or Very Good (BREEAM). There is however an investment - one of a few in Europe - certified as Platinum (LEED) which is the highest standard. The investment is Alchemia (Gdańsk), developed by Torus.

 When the stage one of the investment was certified the design team one again looked through all the technical solutions and the stage two will be equipped with even more efficient systems. The culmination of the team efforts has been the highest rate in Poland - 89/110. This make the Alchemia II the most energy efficient and yet most sustainable building in Poland. The impressive energy efficiency is consistent with top indoor air quality. The equality is as a matter of fact one of the most important determinants of the Alchemia II high standard. During certification process, the Indoor Environmental Quality was rated as 11 (of 12) points.

 The air quality is ensured by six eQ air handling units by Fl?kt Woods, equipped with the biggest heat pump modules eQ ReCooler HP, of a total capacity of 267 000 m3/h. The thermal comfort in the building goes with low exploitation costs. ReCooler HP - Fl?kt Woods newest solution - has the highest performance, including fe. energy efficiency. It is because of SEMCO adsorption rotor. In winter it humidifies the supply air by humidity recovery from the exhaust air, while in summer the supply air is dried and humidity is transferred from fresh air to the discharge side. Thanks to processes occurring in SEMCO rotor, the energy supply for steam generation was significantly reduced. Moreover, the compressor motor is more efficient than asynchronous one - it is equipped with permanent magnet (PM) and driven by direct current (DC), which diminishes Joule's effect. The frequency inverter allows controlling the pump operation with variable load - it ensures the highest efficiency of hat while working with partial load of the system. The ReCooler HP module and SEMCO adsorption rotor allow achieving the demanded air temperature without technology heat, for temperature from -15°C. The control system allows full system optimization for ventilation, heating and cooling. Additional defrosting system ensures stable pump operation for ambient temperature even down to -20°C and proper control system minimizes defrosting cycle which is shorter than 8 minutes. Modular construction and exceptional efficiency of the AHU with ReCooler HP module allow eliminating a lot of typical units: coolers, heaters, chillers, dry-coolers etc. as well as long heat and cool pipelines.

 The modules eQ ReCooler HP of 72 size are the biggest heat pump units produced by Swedish factory of Fl?kt Woods. This makes the Alchemia II ventilation and air conditioning system the biggest global installation with these modules so far.

 The Alchemia complex is not the first outstanding, sustainability-focused Torus investment. The developer is widely experienced with designing and constructing modern “buildings of the future”. Some of them were created together with Fl?kt Woods, like Arkońska Business Park or Arkon Park Hotel (both in Gdansk). There work car park Jet Thrust ventilation systems, specially designed chilled beams system and other energy efficient solution for AHUs - Twin Weel modules.