Uponor TABS support sustainable building for CEF
Uponor’s advanced Thermally Active Building Systems (TABS) has been installed to provide heating and cooling throughout a new 3,500m2 headquarters building currently under construction for electrical wholesaler, City Electrical Factors (CEF), in Durham.
Created by Faulkner Brown Architects, the scheme is designed to take CEF from its former HQ building to a purpose-specified ‘conceptual’ building, characterised by a fair-faced concrete interior. The aesthetic vision for the office building means there are no service voids in the floor or ceiling, making the TABS solution ideal.
The building’s cooling requirement is greater than its heating requirement, thanks to the large mass of concrete used in the construction and the high occupancy rates anticipated for the building, both of which will increase heat retention.
The Uponor TABS Solutions will transform ceilings on the ground, first and second floors into thermally-active elements of the building, with integrated modular pipe loops positioned in the slab structure. Once the building is completed and occupied, the TABS Solutions will operate at temperatures close to ambient, enabling the use of renewable energy to reduce the operational costs of the building and enhance its environmental profile.
The TABS Solutions has been embedded in the concrete ceilings, which required early engagement between Uponor and the project’s design team.
Explains James Griffiths from Uponor: “Specification of the TABS Solutions on this project is the culmination of a five-year process, which has seen us demonstrate the effectiveness of TABS to the architects as a low energy, high performance heating and cooling system. It provides an ambient temperature based on external climate conditions while offering a fit-and-forget, low maintenance solution.”
With the TABS Solutions now installed, construction will continue on the CEF building, with completion expected by September 2017.
