The Arts Centre: WS Workshop Building

The Arts Centre is the arts and cultural heart of Christchurch. A Heritage site, the hub is designed to meet the arts, culture, education and creativity needs of Cantabrians.

The Challenge

The WS Workshop Building is the only new structure on this entire site. To fit in with the existing historical buildings, all the AC plant had to be hidden from public view to protect the historical and architectural integrity of the site.

Noise from any plant selected also needed to be kept to a minimum to ensure tenants and visitors were not disturbed.

The Solution

A newly released Mitsubishi Electric PQRY-P200YLM-A Water Sourced Condenser was chosen for its high COP’s for the spot heating requirements of the WS Workshop.

Water for the condenser is sourced from the underground Christchurch aquifer via boreholes, and fed into the PQRY via plate heat exchangers and a closed water loop. This water loop also serves the larger water sourced chillers on site for the larger buildings.

The Mitsubishi Electric PQRY unit was installed inside the building itself, conveniently located in the basement. This could be achieved due to the unit having a very compact footprint, and with it being installed away from public view this meant there was no visual impact to the overall heritage look of the outside of the building.

Having the condensing unit located inside and underground in a basement also solved the outside noise concerns too.

Efficiencies in this building were further enhanced through the Consultant's selection of four PAR-U02MEDA-J local, touch screen wall controllers. These local controllers are equipped with a PIR (Occupancy) sensor as standard, which can be a very effective energy saving function in variable use spaces, such as meeting rooms or cafeterias.

Equipment Breakdown

Total Capacity

Heating Capacity: 25.0 kW
Cooling Capacity: 22.4 kW

Outdoor Units

1 x PQRY-P200YLM-A Water Sourced Condensing Unit

Indoor Units

2 x PKFY-VBM-E High Wall Units
2 x PKFY-VHM-E High Wall Units

Wall Controllers

4 x PAR-U02MEDA-J

Contractor

Consultant

Publications

Published: Tuesday, 16 January 2018

The Arts Centre: WS Workshop Building