New Head Office, Gateway House, Styal Road, Styal

Amplivox + Ultratone have been at the forefront of audiological technology for the last 60 years, undertaking the design, manufacture and distribution of hearing aids and equipment to hospitals and the general public through a national chain of hearing aid consulting centres.

With continued growth and success, it became apparent that the facilities available at the head office and training centre in Wilmslow, Cheshire, would soon reach saturation. So in 2004 the company acquired a new 2,310m2 Head Office building some 3 miles away in Styal, Cheshire.

The new open-plan building consisting of separate three and four storey blocks with an interlinking services block would provided Amplivox + Ultratone with a blank canvas on which to design a layout that would take them into the 21st Century.

Central to the refurbishment was the installation of air conditioning throughout the building to create an environment to maximise staff comfort throughout the year.

In July 2004 T. Jolly (Services) Ltd. were approached by an existing customer, Certainty Group FM Ltd., to provide feasibility proposals and prices for the installation of an air conditioning system to serve the new head office of Amplivox + Ultratone Ltd.

The design criterion would have to meet strict limitations set down by the client in terms of installation and life-cycle costs, space availability and project duration. In addition, the client wished to avoid making any aesthetic or structural changes to the building, thus ruling out the installation of exposed ductwork or pipework and preventing the construction of an external chiller compound.

Furthermore, the computer server rooms and IT areas would require separate controllers enabling room conditions to be adjusted independently of surrounding areas.

Following discussions with the client to establish their needs and a number of site surveys to determine the system limitations, T. Jolly’s came up with a design incorporating four separate variable refrigerant volume (VRV) air conditioning systems from Daikin. Each system serving a single floor of both blocks with interconnecting pipework running from roof mounted inverter driven heat pumps, down the internal risers to the required ceiling level.

The critical IT areas were separated from the relevant VRV system serving the rest of the floor and fed via independent split systems, enabling them to call for cooling whilst the surrounding offices served by the VRV can call for heating. In addition, these split systems would remain operational should the VRV systems need to be shut down for routine maintenance.
Before selecting equipment from Daikin, comparative products from both Mitsubishi and Toshiba were considered, but the value, efficiency and proven track record of the Daikin equipment allied to an excellent technical support service and spare’s availability proved compelling .

Work commenced on site in October 2004 with the installation of pipework for the system serving the ground floor. This was soon followed by the installation of the ceiling cassettes and high-wall units, condensate drains and interconnection wiring. The installation of the first, second and third floor systems then followed, with the last of the fifty indoor units being installed in late November 2004.

The first of the four inverter driven heat-pump condensing units was lifted onto the roof by crane in early December 2004, in time for commissioning and handover to the client on schedule and in time for the christening of the new building which was celebrated with a Christmas party. For further information on this case study or to enquire about air conditioning installations, please contact: John-Taylor@tjolly.co.uk

Client:
Amplivox & Ultratone Ltd.

Consulting Engineers:
Buron Consulting

Facilities Management:
Certainty Group Facilities Management Ltd.

Air Conditioning Contractor:
T. Jolly (Services) Ltd.

Air Conditioning
Contract Value:
£125,000.00