St John’s Innovation Centre was looking to update its air conditioning system in key areas of the premises, where the current system was starting to fail. St John’s Innovation Centre wanted to provide high-quality, energy-efficient air-conditioning that was also cost-effective for their budget. 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.

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.

“We worked closely with St John’s to coordinate the large-scale renovation to ensure everything progressed smoothly. It was key that we had the stock available for installation in as little time as possible. Working with Panasonic previously, we knew they had the capacity to deliver the stock for when we needed it,” explains Stephen Brown Technical Sales and Project Engineer at the Bury St Edmunds Branch of Pitkin and Ruddock.

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.

“We got a lot of great feedback from the engineers on the ground about how good the Panasonic units are to work with. Specifically, the ease of the commissioning stage, meant addressing the indoor unit to the outdoor unit could be done simply by pressing a couple of buttons, it then went and addressed itself!” adds Stephen Brown.

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.

Miranda Edwards, Facilities Manager at St John’s Innovation Centre says “We are extremely happy with the Panasonic install at St John’s Innovation Centre.  This will be serving our multi-occupancy building of high-tech start-ups businesses.  The installation was professionally carried out with very little disruption to our tenants. We are also pleased that the upgrade has improved our Energy Performance Rating. We would like to thank both Pitkin and Ruddock and Panasonic for their excellent service.”

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^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.

“This unit is an ideal solution for this office space. Being able to deliver a cost-effective solution that also has excellent energy efficiency, gives the added benefit that it can contribute to savings long term on energy bills. Additionally, our nanoe™ X offers great benefits to offices spaces like this, enhancing the indoor air quality for a clean comfortable office environment,” comments Rob Towell, External Technical Sales Account Manager at Panasonic.

indoor compact cassette units from 2.2kW to 5.6kW