Ascent Farnborough

'Easy' ducted solution ensures comfort in new tenant's huddle zones

An office building at the edge of Farnborough Airport – regarded as the cradle of the UK’s ‘air’ industry – has a pioneer installation of new air conditioning delivery technology from Daikin. Ascent 3 is one of four commercial buildings forming the Farnborough Aerospace Centre, on the south side of the airport. The 45,000 sq.ft, three storey building was recently refurbished and has since been let to the UK arm of an international financial services group.

As part of the Category A fit-out prior to re-marketing the 30-year old building. A Daikin VRV IV heat recovery air conditioning system was installed. Roof-mounted condensing units served concealed ducted units that discharged through ceiling and perimeter grilles.

‘Easy’ ducted solution ensures comfort in new tenant’s huddle zones

Much of the working space is open plan, but the new tenant had specific requirements for partitioned meeting rooms – some with audio visual systems – and informal huddle spaces. There is also a staff café on the first floor.

To minimise alterations to the already installed Daikin system, the solution was to install Daikin Easyzone units and additional ductwork to 21 fan coils – including two 8kW ducted units – that were added to the system.

One of the consultants said: “It was the first time I’d come across Easyzone. If it hadn’t been for them we would probably have had to take out some of existing fan coil units and replace them with smaller units for the meeting rooms. There was congestion of services within the ceiling voids, so this would have been quite problematic. From a co-ordination and cost point of view, Easyzone was a great piece of kit enabling us to reuse what was already there. I think it’s a more sustainable solution as well.”

Easyzone is a recent addition to the Daikin solutions portfolio. Easyzone units enable a single ducted fan coil to serve between two and eight separate zones through individual ducts.

Occupants of each zone can select a temperature set point via a Blue face controller. Sensors within the controller adjust a motorised damper in the Easyzone unit to increase or decrease the flow of air to the zone.