–North Kellyville Public School | Hitachi VRF project in Sydney, Australia
VRF
The place: a near-completion middle school qualifies for the local government’s ‘Cooler Classrooms Program’
North Kellyville Public School is a purpose-built learning environment, providing 40 brand new future-focused learning spaces along with facilities to accommodate for 1000 K-6 students. The school was initially built with limited air conditioning only in specific locations, along with gas heating throughout.
Its grand opening was planned in January 2019, with January being the hottest month of the Great Australian Summer.
Then Jay Smith, Project Manager for Fredon Air Service received a request from the local New-South Wales state’s Department of Education to design and construct a complete reverse cycle refrigerated HVAC system.
Kellyville North Public School had just qualified for the ‘Cooler Classrooms Program’, a local government initiative to subsidize complete reverse HVAC systems to local schools subjected to hot temperatures, ensuring a comfortable and healthy learning environment for students1.
Due to the building being near completion, but with its original heating and cooling equipment, the pressure was on to adopt a completely new heat pump HVAC system prior to the new school year commencing.
The solution: a complete Hitachi VRF system designed, installed, and commissioned in 2 months
A completely new approach was developed to meet the New South Wales’s Department of Education requirements within the tight deadline.
Fredon Air had just 2 months to complete these works from design stage to final fit and commissioning. They designed a VRF concept with help from Hitachi, that was eventually approved and signed off by all relevant parties.
Hitachi Set Free Σ (Sigma) modular top-flow VRF – in total 24 units – was selected to cool and heat all classrooms and other spaces welcoming the students. Hitachi Set Free Σ is renowned for its high energy efficiency and reliability, leading to great cost savings.
"Hitachi VRF's combination of quality, technology and technical support made it the perfect choice for this project.”
Jay Smith (Fredon Air)
The electric heat pump based VRF eliminated the need for a fossil fuel heating system planned previously. In addition to a lower carbon footprint, it also enabled a complete comfort upgrade compared to the original building plan, by having cooling and heating in all rooms.
Inside the building, the original double ceilings, with perforated acoustic linings were not suitable for AC. The suspended ceiling needed to be removed to run the piping and install cassette units. Eventually, 95x Hitachi 4-Way cassette units were installed, enabling precise temperature and humidity control over each individual area of the building. The cassettes were fitted with a motion sensor accessory, so the AC automatically turns off when a room is vacant, resulting in extra energy savings and automatized operation.
Controls for open plan spaces are achieved through Central Station EZ touch screen controllers. Additionally, all units were also integrated to the school’s building management system (BMS) via BACnet adapters, for synchronization with other building equipment and easier maintenance.
Finally, the project was completed on time.
1The Cooler Classroom Program is a New South Wales government initiative focused on providing the local schools with healthy and comfortable learning environments. As part of the $500 million New South Wales government, eligible schools are those in areas with an average max January temperature of 30°C or more. For more information, visit the Cooler Classrooms Program - Official Website
Distributor: Temperzone
Contractor / Installer: Fredon
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Location
Kellyville, Australia
Project
Retrofit
Date of installation
2019
Total System Capacity
Cooling 1359kW / Heating 1536kW
Outdoor units
Sigma Series VRF 27
Indoor units
4-way cassette 95
Controllers
7 screen central
Distributor
Temperzone
Contractor / Installer
Fredon
