Students and staff at the new campus of Liverpool Music Academy (LMA) will benefit from outstanding comfort conditions thanks to an R-32-based air conditioning solution from Cool Designs & Toshiba.
The project is the first of its kind in the UK, transforming retail space into
world-class education facilities. The 50,000sq ft new facility, built in a £15m
conversion of upper floors in Liverpool’s Metquarter, includes recording
studios, rehearsal rooms, classrooms, and dance and performance spaces.
The system was installed by Select Air Services Limited and supplied by
Cool Designs Ltd, and is based on Toshiba Super Digital Inverter and Digital
Inverter split systems, running on the lower Global Warming Potential
(GWP) refrigerant. R-32 has a GWP of 675, two-thirds that of R-410A, the
refrigerant it replaces, significantly reducing environmental impact. R-32 not
only has a lower GWP, but can deliver an equal capacity to R-410a with a
30% smaller refrigerant charge, further reducing total CO2 emissions.
High efficiency
Indoor units are Toshiba’s high performance ceiling-suspended cassettes,
which were considered to be ideal for the application as they leave floors
and walls completely unobstructed. To further improve efficiency, the
system uses Toshiba VN heat recovery systems which capture energy from
the exhaust air stream that would otherwise be wasted.
Peter Furlong, Technical Sales Director at Select Air Services, said: “LMA
has an international reputation for the quality of its teaching in music, film
and the performing arts. A high quality indoor environment is essential to
enable singers, dancers and musicians to perform at their best. The Toshiba
system provides this, with the inverter systems enabling fine temperature
control to ensure comfortable conditions are maintained at all times.”
He added: “Toshiba systems are known for their quietness and reliability,
and this together with the energy savings delivered by the inverter system,
makes it an ideal solution for such demanding applications.”
Richard Wallace, Co-founder and CEO of LMA, said: “When creating world-class
facilities for students to thrive, it’s vital that we can control all aspects
of the environment to make them as comfortable as possible. When you
have Premier League-standard players you need the best pitch possible to
enable their talents to flourish.”