Main Image: The Other House
Ability by Dimplex fan coil units (FCUs) are delivering heating and cooling for year-round comfort at The Other House, a new hotel in Covent Garden.
The Other House blends apartment-style living with the luxury of a hotel and private members’ club and was developed through the transformation of several historic buildings. The project specified air source heat pumps (ASHPs) to supply heated and chilled water to 220 horizontal and vertical FCUs installed throughout the property.
These are integrated with the hotel’s Building Management System (BMS) for a high level of control. The reporting and monitoring features enable management to engage guests to be mindful of their energy use whilst ensuring efficiency and effective maintenance with minimum disruption.
The refurbishment project maintained a strong focus on minimising environmental impact. Repurposing rather than rebuilding secured a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ design-stage rating of 78.9% and sustainability consultants at SCS supported the project to help achieve this status.
Meeting FCU specification challenges at The Other House
Refurbishment creates challenges not found in new-build projects. A key task for Martin Bull, Senior Mechanical Engineer at Introba, was to calculate the peak heating and cooling loads for each conditioned space to ensure optimum FCU sizing. In addition, acoustic output was critical to maintain a calm ambience.
Martin was impressed with Ability’s technical support: “Troy Chambers, Head of National Sales at Ability, supplied all the technical information I needed on all of their FCUs. On a project such as this, there can be many iterations of the design to adapt to evolving site requirements. Troy’s in-depth knowledge of Ability’s FCUs and his speed of response is just what designers look for when dealing with time-sensitive design changes.”
Another challenge was the temperature of the warm and chilled water supplied by the ASHPs. Ability supplied FCUs that could meet the specified air temperature range of 14°C to 27°C. Highlighting the performance and adaptability of Ability FCUs, Martin said, “Ability had solutions for all the spaces in these historic buildings. In some areas with low ceilings, vertical FCUs were specified, while in tighter spaces, multi-linked panel filters were used to ease maintenance. They met the brief every time and have been a pleasure to work with — I would recommend them to other engineers in my team.”
How did Ability assist with the implementation of fan coil units?
Ryan Vickers, Project Manager at MEP provider Derry Ltd, found having Richard Lambert, a dedicated point of contact at Ability, reassuring:
“Not all companies offer this level of dedicated service. It makes a real difference to the whole experience. Richard was very helpful and accommodating whenever plans had to be changed. This level of customer service, along with the quality of the fan coil units, makes Ability my preferred FCU supplier.”
In response, Troy Chambers, Head of National Sales at Ability, commented:
“It is very satisfying to get positive feedback from our customers as we pride ourselves on offering the best service we can from early design through to final commissioning. We were excited to be able to use our technical experience and extensive range of fan coil units to help keep the guests of such a prestigious hotel in a comfortable indoor environment throughout their stay.”
Indoor comfort is clearly key to Naomi Heaton’s vision of the experience of staying at The Other House:
“As somebody deeply passionate about how interiors can uplift your spirits and influence your sense of wellbeing, we’ve curated every detail to create an immersive and sophisticated environment, which transitions from one space to another to reflect your mood, whether to relax, work, nurture your inner self, or be in great company.”
If you would like to find out how the Ability range of fan coil units could help meet the cooling and heating demands of your project, contact one of our experienced team members for advice and technical and design guidance.