Modern Serviced Offices benefit from Panasonic AC with nanoe X

St John’s Innovation Centre, a fully serviced office building situated Silicon Fen in Cambridgeshire, has undergone an extensive upgrade of its air conditioning system. The new Panasonic 3-pipe ECOi-EX VRF system was designed, specified, and installed by Pitkin and Ruddock in collaboration with Panasonic in over 60 of the office spaces.

St John’s Innovation Centre is an ideal workspace solution for today’s hybrid working practices, offering purpose-built conference spaces and office leasing to cater for all sizes of businesses. With 88 current tenants, and a quality internal environment as a priority, St John’s Innovation Centre was looking to update its air conditioning system in key areas of the premises, including the east and west wings, ground, first and second floors as well as the phase four area, where the current system was starting to fail. Knowing the integral role precise climate control plays in cultivating a comfortable and productive environment, St John’s Innovation Centre wanted to provide high-quality, energy-efficient air-conditioning that was also cost-effective for their budget. Additionally, with all the offices fully occupied, the installation needed to keep disruption to a minimum, so knowing stock of Panasonic units was readily available was a key component to the decision-making.

Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning experts Pitkin & Ruddock were tasked with finding the ideal solution to meet performance, budget, and availability demands. The team ultimately specified eight 3 pipe ECOi-EX; one for phase four, four systems for the east wing, and three for the west wing. The outdoor units are linked altogether to 64 indoor compact cassette units ranging from 2.2kW to 5.6kW, going into offices, meeting rooms, and hallways across each of the three areas. All the units come with Panasonic’s air purification technology, nanoe X, as standard.

The team arranged a rolling schedule with the office managers, where individual office spaces would be vacated one at a time by the tenants, and Pitkin and Ruddock’s team of engineers would complete the works, installing the indoor units and linking them with the outdoor units. Then, once the units were operational, the team would clean up for the office tenants to return and utilise their brand-new AC system. This process took the Pitkin and Ruddock engineers no more than two days, delivering a large installation project within extremely tight turnarounds whilst incurring as little disruption as possible.

The eight outdoor ECOi-EX 3-pipe units had to be placed at ground level next to the building, as the roof space was already at capacity. The flexible piping length of up to 500m ensured the units were able to reach the indoor units, no matter where they are situated in the building. Additionally, the units had a silent outdoor operation with a minimum of 54dB(A) meaning the outdoor environment is not disturbed.

As well as its highly energy efficient performance, the ECOi-EX units have built-in nanoe X as standard. This technology can help bring the incredible benefits of hydroxyl radicals indoors, cleaning hard surfaces and soft furnishings, improving the indoor environment, and protecting against the growth of certain viruses, bacteria and allergens. The nanoe X generator collects invisible moisture in the air and applies a high voltage to generate hydroxyl radicals in water. Hydroxyl radicals, abundant in nature, inhibit the growth of certain viruses, bacteria and allergens. Contained in tiny water particles, nanoe X generates particles that have a long lifespan and can spread over long distances.