Cool-Therm lands orders for HFO and HC chillers | News | Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

Cool-Therm lands orders for HFO and HC chillers | News | Refrigeration and Air Conditioning



Air intake filter screens can be easily fitted to GeoClima chillers and will massively reduce coil fin clogging. For more information see www.airintakescreen.co.uk  or email richard@rabse.com

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 Supplying air intake filter screens for the Uk and Europe. Look out for thePreVent logo.

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It pays to screen - protecting cooling towers

Air Intake Screens: An air intake screen solution

Air Intake Screens: An air intake screen solution: An air intake filter screen is a simple solution to PreVent® airborne debris contaminating HVAC equipment. A specification by one of the RAB...

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News of air intake filter screens

Fresh air supply to London’s Heathrow Airport

Fresh air intake supply to London’s Heathrow Airport

London’s Heathrow Airport started out life as a small 150 acre plot purchased from the Vicar of Harmondsworth.

“Heathrow Before World War II Map”. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons –

It now employs 76,000 people within its boundary (equivalent to the population of Guildford) and is sat on 1,227 hectares.

That is 20 times its original size with five terminal buildings covering the land previously occupied by the hamlet of Heathrow, Heathrow House and various farms, orchards and market gardens. It is still defined by its 1950’s hexagram shape and now operates as one of the busiest airports in the world.
The terminal buildings cover 686,064m² and process more than 191,000 passengers on an average of 1,200 flights per day.
In a recent article written by Cordis the author states that up to 50% of the total energy in a typical airport will be spent on HVAC to maintain a suitable environment for passengers and staff.

CASCADE: REDUCING ENERGY USE BY AIRPORTS
Airports are big energy consumers – and that’s before a plane takes off or lands. The daily electricity and thermal energy used by a large airport compares to that of a city of 100,000 people.
This article goes on to quote
“A pilot scheme has been undertaken by two Italian airports, Fiumicino in Rome and Malpensa in Milan, used by 55 million people a year.
The project engineers concentrated on the large air conditioning units, chiller plants and cooling towers at the airports. They found equipment running when it was not needed, incorrect heating and cooling settings, poor positioning of sensors and poor maintenance”.

Heathrow Airport consumes a massive 701GWh per annum which is almost 4 x the annual production of the Glendoe Hydro Scheme. However, HAL do generate a lot of their own energy through various renewable schemes and are continuing to advance that technology in the new Terminal 2.

Terminal 5 is the largest free-standing structure in the UK and the roof area is the size of five football pitches.  It requires a massive 2,500,000m³/hr of air to serve its energy-efficient displacement air-conditioning system.

The air is filtered through three 11m² banks which contain a total of 726 filters.

Even at a highly efficient 15 watts per m³ that will be costing over £4,000.00 per hour or £30 million per year (figures are an estimate only) for this air supply only.

That is why efficient air movement is so critical because face loading on filtration systems will increase the energy demand exponentially.

Although the airport itself contains almost no flora and fauna it is surrounded by open spaces and gardens which create the leaf, seed and pollen debris that is blown across its 1,227 hectares. Add to that tyre rubber from 1,200 flights per day, dust kicked up from the runways and local roads and you can see that the filters have a hard job to do.

New Permatron PreVent® air intake screens are to be installed to protect the existing filter bank and the coil fins on the frontline frost coil.

The added benefit (currently under test) is that the changeover periods for the existing filter bank will be extended by a new washable filter with only a minimal effect on airflow.
Notes:

• CORDIS is the Community Research and Development Information Service
• Click here for the full article by CORDIS
• For more information regarding air intake screens go to www.airintakescreen.co.uk
• Richard Betts is the Managing Director of RAB Specialist Engineers who are the sole UK and European distributor of Permatron Air Intake Filter Screens.

Cottonwood seed and air intake filter screens

 

  Telephone 01635 248633 or email sales@rabse.com

Cottonwood seed and air intake filter screens

Energy loss versus energy efficiency

In the USA the term Cottonwood Tree is commonly known and most people have had some experience of the windblown seeds creating a summer snow. 

What is less well known, is that the poplar species spawns its seed from catkins. This creates a "snowstorm" of fluffy white seedlings which can completely carpet the local area. For images of this seemingly delightful natural occurrence please check see http://goo.gl/7zh3TD .

Like all snows, this seed is great when it first arrives, until you realise just how much it is interfering with your life.

It gets everywhere! 

Because it is windblown, it has no respect for boundaries and can be found on the street, the roof and even in the basement. It is not that difficult to get rid of and can be easily removed with a hose. brush or vacuum.

Unless it gets sucked into your air intake plant.  

• Once it hits the cooling coils it will begin to reduce energy efficiency by forming a thermal blanket over the coil face.
• In cooling towers it enters the fill, decays and creates a biological sludge to feed bacteria.
• And finally, it is sucked into all AHU filters to reduce airflow and changeover times.

Cottonwood seed is one of nature’s marvels and looks great in the right place. Not so good when it is costing you time, energy and money.  

There is a simple and innovative solution.

Instead of drawing all of the cottonwood seed into your air movement plant, allow it to be captured by a Permatron PreVent® air intake filter screen supplied by RAB Specialist Engineers Limited. 

This unique product can be fitted to any size or shape of air intake and provides an external, electrostatic filter with minimal effect on airflow.   

Now, when you want to clean your coils, you just use a hose, brush or vacuum

It will extend filter life by up to 60% and reduce maintenance time on your cooling towers.  

For more information contact on 01635 248633 or drop an email to sales@rabse.com   

Decisions and mistakes - two sides of the same coin

Decisions

You can learn to be a decision maker but first you have to be born with the bravery to make that decision in the first place. Some are born to be leaders whilst others are born to follow but all of us have to commit at some point in our lives. 

Do I cross the road, buy those shoes, dring that coffee etc. etc.   

Many things can affect your ability to make a decision but the most damaging is a lack of confidence.   

When I was only 17 I started a new job and was told by my interviewer that I would be his understudy and would learn the business from him. 

Only a few weeks later he resigned and went to work for another company. The Director of the business was due to go on leave and he said to me 

“Whilst I am away you must make a decision. It doesn’t matter if you make a right one or a wrong one; just make one or the other.  When I get back we will talk about any that you made wrong but every single decision you make has my 100% backing”.

And so my first management job started in the days when the position of your desk counted. I moved to the manager’s desk and took over the running of the business for two whole weeks. 

Wet behind the ears, terrified and now in charge was the best thing that could have happened. And yes, I did make some wrong decisions but I also analysed the systems and brought in new processes to make everything more efficient. 

That was in 1974 and by the time I left in 1979 my boss and I had made a very successful business from an already good business. 

You may ask what the best decision you made was.

I didn’t. 

My boss did, by placing his trust in me he allowed me to express my ability (or lack of it) freely. And as they say, you always learn by the mistakes you make. 

And so, more than 40 years later I am still making decisions and, if I am honest, I still make mistakes. 

“Your best teacher is your last mistake.”

 Ralph Nader quotes (American Activist and Lawyer, b.1934)

Let's face it who doesn't? 

But at least I make a decision.