Specialist
fan coil test laboratory 
Carrier Air Conditioning - Carrier completes 3000 unit fan coil test project
Carrier’s new specialist fan coil test laboratory, which was
opened last year at its chiller manufacturing facility in
France, and has been used by several of Carrier’s UK customers
since opening, has just completed an unusually large fan coil
test project.
Three thousand Carrier fan coil units will be installed later
this year in the forty-two storey ‘Granite’ office tower
development at La Défense in Paris, as part of the integrated
Carrier six chiller based air conditioning installation. So
demanding is the specification, that it is anticipated that the
building will achieve certification of compliance to the HQE
(“Haute Qualité Environnementale”, equivalent to the Energy
Performance of Building Directive at the European level)
delivered by the CSTB (Centre Scientifique et Technique du
Batiment). In order to validate the equipment performance data
of the required fan coil units, extensive testing was carried
out at the Carrier laboratory.
The laboratory offers clients the facility to simulate exact
room conditions in most building types. Developer NEXITY-SARI
commissioned the four-month test on behalf of Société Générale,
future owners of the 85,000m2 Tour Granite, and the developer,
end-user, consulting engineers and installer all witnessed the
tests at some point.
Several room conditions in the tower were reproduced precisely
in the laboratory, including two ceiling heights, variable wall
and floor dimensions, the main furniture, the customer’s lights
and blinds, and the unusually high windows and very deep window
recesses (0,9m) which radically affect the airflow in the room.
As a result of the tests, Carrier has even influenced the design
of the ceiling diffusers. Twenty-eight different office room
configurations were validated, in both heating and cooling mode.
European norms accept a three degree variation in temperature
gradients in the so called “occupied zone” of each office.
However, with the improvements in airflow that resulted from the
testing, there will be less than one degree variance from the
floor up to 1.85m in the offices using the fan coil units and
diffusers, customised and tested in this “state of the art”
demonstration suite. Some room configurations also required the
simulation of a two metre diameter central pillar, part of the
building structure, while maintaining the temperature gradient
and air velocity at the specified level (less than 0.2 m/s in
the cooling mode).
The fan coils will operate in conjunction with a variable flow
fresh air valve system controlled by CO2 sensors. Validation of
the correct fresh air flow, dependent on the level of occupancy
detected by the CO2 sensor, demonstrated that this new building
will offer the ultimate level of comfort to the proposed 4800
occupants.
Email:
uk.marketing@carrier.utc.com