Profile Group Hautapu Facility Cambridge

The Challenge

Profile Group Limited is currently building a new industrial campus near Cambridge in an effort to consolidate a number of smaller factories into one large site. Building A is the first of three, with Architectural Glass Products (AGP), a state of the art double-glazing manufacturer and APL Manufacturing (APLM), a division of APL Window Solutions – one of New Zealand’s largest manufacturers of Aluminium Windows and Doors, occupying the building.

The masterplan of the 44,000m² complex includes environmental work and a number of onsite facilities to cater for the large number of staff employed on the site, while also targeting a 5 Star rating using the current Green Star Industrial Tool.

The Mitsubishi Electric Solution

Hybrid VRF was put forward by the Consulting Engineer to fit within the space constraints, provide simultaneous heating and cooling, minimise refrigerant use and provide a similar comfort level to a chilled water system. This was also the logical choice to comply with a number of Green Star requirements and played an important part in achieving their 5 Green Star Rating for the building.

Hybrid VRF Combines all the Benefits of Traditional VRF with Significantly Lower GWP

While traditional VRF complies with the Green Star requirement for a non-Ozone Depleting refrigerant, Hybrid VRF was chosen by the building owners as it uses less refrigerant.

Furthermore, R32 refrigerant has 33% of the GWP of R410A – the lowest GWP in the VRF market – meaning the system retains all the benefits of a VRF system but with substantially lower environmental impact.

Flexible Design and Modularity of the Hybrid VRF System Provides a Tailored Solution

With Building A comprising of a large manufacturing space surrounded by 3 separate office spaces, the modular architecture of Hybrid VRF suited the capacities required. Three independent systems were built up over these office spaces removing the need for large amounts of reticulation infrastructure around the overall building footprint.

Water is at the Heart of the Indoor Units

By using water as the heat transfer fluid for the majority of the air conditioning system, Hybrid VRF minimises the overall amount of refrigerant charge in the system and minimises the need for expensive leak detection systems as there is no risk of refrigerant escaping into room spaces.

Simultaneous Heating and Cooling

R32 Hybrid VRF is an advanced simultaneous heating and cooling system with heat recovery and delivers a proven alternative solution to traditional R410A VRF systems. The more frequently heating and cooling simultaneous operation occurs, the higher the energy saving effect becomes.

Mitsubishi Electric Technology Enhances Energy Efficiency

Not only is energy saved via Hybrid VRF’s Heat Recovery Operation when providing simultaneous heating and cooling, energy efficiency was further improved by using Mitsubishi Electric High Efficiency Aluminium Flat Tube outdoor coils. The resulting increase in part load performance would ensure that year-round efficiencies are further increased.

Building A has 112kW of nominal cooling installed over 4 HVRF Systems with further expansion on the site planned over the coming years.

Photo Credits: Foster Construction LTD