The Wood Wharf Building D1-D2 project is a 13 storey Commercial office building, consisting of Basement Levels B3 & B2, Ground to Level 13 Inclusive, Roof & Roof Mezz. The Main Air Handling Units & Fans are located on Basement Levels B3 & B2, Level 1 & the Roof. (7 No AHU’s & 18 No Fans). The Ground floor of the building contains the Entrance Lobby and Retail space. Below Ground the buildings are linked to a shared Site wide basement, inclusive of parking and loading bay facilities for deliveries and waste management.
Early involvement with the CWC Team allowed Imperial to secure the project and Set up a CAD team in preparation of drawings before commencement on site.
The Imperial team organised and attended many meetings with the client & consultant during the pre-construction phase of the project to ensure all Plant & Equipment was spec compliant.
This was essential for IDSL to comply with the Wood Wharf D1-D2 Project Requirements. CWC tasked all Sub-Contractors with helping them to achieve the Considerate Constructor Scheme ‘Ultra Site’ standards. (An ‘Ultra Site’ is one which demonstrates and promotes the very highest standards within the Scheme and actively seeks to improve not only its own performance but that of the wider construction industry through its supply chain). IDSL committed to co-operate fully with CWC on working towards achieving the Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS) ‘Ultra Site’ standard. This was the first project on the entire Canary Wharf Estate that CWC/IDSL have aimed at achieving the Considerate Constructor Scheme ‘Ultra Site’ standards.
To achieve the ‘Ultra Site’ standard, IDSL were tasked with taken a standard design and looking at developing the whole project through to completion ensuring that the AHU Fan selection and spatial allowance were of a high grade through to completion.
Due to the extent of the requirements associated with the new design it was very important to select equipment with an energy consumption that did not create a risk to the overall power output. The IDSL remit was to ensure that through selection we could ensure compliance to maintain the efficiency of the equipment. The process involved weeks of research into the selected plant we originally intended to provide, going through a very stringent selection process where we discussed options and issues involving risk with the project team from the initial concept from design and also selection. The whole process went through a series of selections demonstrating how we at IDSL intended to provide compliance and insurances on energy efficiency being maintained by selecting the complete system throughout and materials to match.
The power output for the supply and extract AHU fans was an issue knowing that the whole design process had been based on a specific type of Motor specified. IDSL had to review how they could reduce the number of AHU Fans but still improve the energy efficiency on the initial selection of the fans. It was clearly evident that the fans would be at risk if they were reduced in size, and IDSL decided to work with the suppliers on a different selection of fan type (but reduce the number of Fans required) with a view to have the actual power reduced by achieving a greater level of performance in the overall ductwork systems and make the fan run more efficiently with a greater scope and range of compliance.
Normally the fans would be selected to ensure compliance on the Static Fan Pressures from the design team. This design would take into account resistance in the ductwork systems along with a certain amount of leakage allowance on the whole of the ductwork systems installed. IDSL worked through all the Fan selections with the suppliers confirming that they would achieve a greater energy efficiency. The suppliers were able to gain confidence from the information supplied to deliver fully compliant AHU fans but with a reduced system operational power output and greater Fan efficiency than those originally specified.
In conjunction with suppliers and consultants, various meetings were held over a period of several months. IDSL tabled a solution whereby a change in Fan Type would generate a saving representing 213kW per 15 Hour day, and this demonstrated that the alternative Fan Efficiencies were far greater, the Fan Speeds were significantly less, and therefore the AHU Noise Levels were also significantly less. This proposal was accepted by CWC and the consultant, and demonstrated that we had successfully contributed towards CWC achieving the Considerate Constructor Scheme ‘Ultra Site’ standard.
