The Watford showroom has separate areas for Chrysler and Jeep. Half of the showroom has glazing across about half of its circular wall and a ceiling height of 5 m. The expansive adjacent section has a much lower ceiling — about 2.3 m. Closely positioned floor joists above have the potential to present installation difficulties.
Force One specified a system comprising three heat-pump ceiling cassettes for the highly glazed section and four compact heat-pump cassettes for the adjacent showroom. All the Fujitsu systems were supplied by distributor FM Air Conditioning.
The three VRF ceiling cassettes provide both heating and cooling and are linked to create a single zone. The master controller manages time, temperature and airflow settings. It also provides extensive system diagnostics to aid maintenance and system operation.
An exceptionally long pipe run proved no obstacle for the system. A workshop directly behind the showroom required a 40 m pipe run from the condensing unit to the first pipe joint. Pipes were concealed in the void above the showroom ceiling and then pass through the workshop at high level using a proprietary support system using the existing structural steelwork.
An over-riding consideration in the adjacent showroom was the available height and the space between the ceiling joists. Four heat-pump cassettes measuring 235 mm high and 580 mm square fitted within the space. Due to the area of the showroom and its front area having large sliding doors, four zones were created.
The Jeep/Suzuki showroom in Hemel Hempstead is served by a powerful ceiling cassette on the first-floor mezzanine, four cassettes providing heating and cooling to the space directly below and two wall units at ceiling height at either end of the showroom.
