Panasonic Delivers Heating and Cooling for Gloucester City Council

Gloucester City Council has recently relocated and completed a refurbishment of a 700 Sq. Metre office space in the East Shopping Centre of the town. The Council has set net zero targets for 2030 and were looking for a sustainable and energy efficient system to cool and heat their new office space to replace an old gas boiler, plus wanted to ensure that the indoor air quality catered for the well-being of their employees and visitors.  

The Council appointed TESN as the main contractors for the refurbishment project with SFE Services as the contractor who specified and installed the Panasonic Mini ECOi 10HP system along with four cassettes, four TZ wall mounted units (all with nanoe^TM X technology) and three energy recovery units to ensure good ventilation for the property. The premises has a large hot desking area, three meetings rooms and an IT room.

The main challenge for the project was that the space is above a busy shopping centre that the team had to work around during the installation process, in addition to the building having no previous cooling system installed.

Marcus Griffiths from contractors TESN commented, “The space has a low floor to ceiling height with many structural beams to work around – therefore bespoke slimline ductwork was designed and installed to minimise impact on the clean lines required by the scheme. The Panasonic system met the brief, is compliant with current regulations and highly energy efficient to run – the customer is very happy with the end result.”

The Panasonic Mini ECOi system offers outstanding efficiency with SEER levels of up to 8.5, SCOP levels of 5.05 and can operate in temperatures as lows a -20^oC for heating and when in cooling mode up to temperatures of 50^oC.

David Torrington, Senior Building Works Surveyor for Gloucester City Council said, “Following the pandemic, we had more staff working from home and therefore needed a smaller office space. We wanted a system that was futureproof and to improve the indoor experience for our employees and visitors. We wanted to protect and improve the quality of the air for our office workers and felt that the fresh air system was needed and fundamental in our choice. When looking at the various options available, we found that although the capital cost was lower to retain the existing gas heating, we decided to still go with the Panasonic system for environmental reasons, meaning that we could de-gas the office space, and use the sustainable electricity from the grid.

Environment factors were a large reason as to why we chose the Panasonic units, in addition to the nanoe^TM X technology, to help with the wellbeing of our staff and visitors.”  

Much of the Panasonic air conditioning range now come with nanoe™ X technology incorporated as standard, which can help bring incredible benefits indoors so that hard surfaces, soft furnishings, and the indoor environment can be a cleaner and more pleasant place to be. nanoe™ X works independently from the heating and cooling operation of its units and uses minimal energy and requires no maintenance.  Panasonic has been developing nanoe^TM  since 2003.

The technology is a cost-effective way to improve air hygiene by inhibiting the transmission of certain airborne viruses and bacteria indoors. The nanoe^TM 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.

Sophie Davenport of SFE Services added, “Having worked with Panasonic over the last three years, we find that the units are extremely efficient, of good quality, easy and straightforward to install and cost effective to run. The Panasonic support and technical teams are always on hand to help with any issues or questions and supply and deliver on time.”

David commented, “We now have over 30 employees working in the space - I don't think I've heard anyone complain, I have heard nothing from the staff other than 'this is fantastic'. It really helped during the recent hot summer months, plus we now have the advantage having both heating and cooling functions for a year round solution”.

For more information on Panasonic air source heat pumps, please visit www.aircon.panasonic.eu.