We call it ‘Airius Conditioning’ Find out more here….
The cost of air conditioning a space is driven by the methodology to cool or heat the air and the mixing and distribution infrastructure, commonly known as ductwork.
The use of ductwork to mix and distribute air doesn’t just add a large amount of cost to a project in it’s own right. It also results in more energy to push air through the ductwork and mix it around the space, which means more pressure, which results in more electrical energy and therefore more running costs.
Plus, with air conditioning ductwork you also have the impositions on floor to ceiling heights and related design constraints around aesthetics and building costs, (floor to ceiling height cost reductions with no ductwork) suspended ceilings to hide the ductwork and resultant commissioning and maintenance costs. Not to mention the constraints to put lights where you want and increased plantroom size and related limitations that creates.
For a while now Airius fans have been used to mix and distribute conditioned air in large facilities without ductwork in the UK and in India where cooling is a key driver.
Recently, Airius installed a duct free solution for a small sized (300 sq. mts, 4.5 mts high) retail space in Perth, WA.
99 Bikes Using Airius Fans in Lieu of A/C Ductwork
The client was refurbishing their building and Gareth Halliday, General Manager from ECO climate Solutions, based in Perth, had seen some of the Airius publications about the efficacy of their duct free distribution solution and was keen to implement it for their client (99 Bikes) a nationwide push bike retailing chain.
– You can download the full 99 Bikes Case Study Here –
Gareth’s business specialises in energy efficient cooling and heating outcomes, so the Airius solution held great interest for his company and his client.
Eco Climate Solutions removed the existing suspended ceiling and the ductwork while leaving the four x 14kW Panasonic ducted reverse cycle air conditioning systems in the ceiling space.
Using just seven small, quiet and lightweight and unobtrusive Airius S1 Pearl Fans and 1 x speed controller (the Pearls use only 14 watts each) the system (costing approximately $3,000.00 in total) was designed by Airius Engineers and installed in August 2018. Right across spring and summer, this unique solution has proved to be very effective, with the client experiencing no issues around comfort or any other issues around the fans in that time.
Four Airius Fans were suspended horizontally adjacent the air conditioning units near their discharge register, to circulate the cooler air and mix it across the space. The other three fans were mounted vertically up under the roof, located equally around the space, to capture any of the stratified warm air during the winter and push it back down to the floor.
Gareth advises though, that significant energy and cost savings have certainly been achieved with the removal/ non replacement of ductwork and the reduced static pressure issues combined with a substantial reduction in cap ex, materials, maintenance, coordination, commissioning and plant size expenditure.
The results have been very interesting: –
• No complaints at all from customers or client regarding the comfort inside the store across a very hot summer
• Very low supply install costs
• Significant expected energy savings (monitoring of energy savings is beginning next month)
Gareth Halliday from Eco Climate Solutions says:-
“We are really happy with the effectiveness and low energy properties of the Airius fans. They were very easy to install, and all seven fans could be controlled from one device as required. This is a great, cost effective way of traversing the aesthetics issues with flexible duct in open ceiling spaces.” – Gareth Halliday, ECO – Climate Solutions
Due to the unique Airius air flow methodology, only Airius Fans can provide this type of air conditioning solution.
Airius have also shown the efficacy of this solution through the use of CFD modelling works by Dr Colin Allison from Similitude. His report also indicates that this concept, pioneered by Airius, is an excellent cost-effective solution for mixing and distributing air-conditioned air. Please contact Airius if you would like to see his report.
The opportunities for architectural and engineering freedom and massive installation and running cost savings certainly demand further investigation by any interested parties.
