The site of the former Kings College, once the home to thousands of trainee nursing staff, sits between the Kings Road and the Fulham Road, and is in the process of being transformed into a prestigious residential retreat.
Under the guidance of Godfrey Bradman from developers' European Land, whose previous achievements have included the Broadgate Centre in London, together with Northacre, the development will see the construction of 287 apartments and 12 town houses.
With prices starting at £350 000 and going up to £15 000 000, the properties are geared towards a high and very demanding end of the residential market.
The Kings Chelsea development spans seven and a half acres in total. It is split into four areas: the Clarke and Fulham buildings are new build and comprise of a number of high quality apartments; the Hudson building is also an apartment block and already existed as part of the old college; and Coleridge House, which has been redesigned as three-storey town houses, dates back to the late seventeenth century and has a listing status.
First class services
All the properties boast a range of services that you would not normally associate with multi-storey apartment blocks. This includes electric underfloor heating and an extensive network of socket points and data connections.
Possibly the most significant aspect of the services available is that all apartments are fully air-conditioned. The system is networked and fully integrated on a scale rarely seen before on a UK development – either residential or commercial. It provides cooling to each dwelling, ensuring a maximum 24°C internal condition with a 30°C outdoor ambient temperature.
Advanced thinking
The system is VRF (variable refrigerant flow) and was supplied by Mitsubishi Electric, who pushed the boundaries of technological know-how to offer a system of this size. John Nock, area manager for Mitsubishi Electric, explains: "It's the biggest project we have ever worked on in the UK. The project is the largest single VRF air conditioning system in the country. You normally associate large-scale systems with commercial properties, but the amazing thing is that it's residential."
Regency Building Services designed and installed the system. The project presented numerous difficulties for the company during the design stage. "The idea of visible air conditioning systems, within the properties naturally, did not sit well with the architects and their brief," says Regency's senior design engineer, Paul Cornwell. "Architects are always keen to hide the services, and what with the cost and standard of this project, the air con had to be kept out of sight as much as possible."
Cornwell describes how the size of the project led to further complications: "The main difference between commercial and private is that all aspects of the installation have to be perfect. The architects were insistent on the highest level of internal design and this had to be mirrored in construction."
Taking into consideration the architect's wishes and the scale of the project the end result is impressive. Inside the properties slim line grilles positioned above internal doors and small wall-mounted controllers are the only indication that an air conditioning system is present. The grilles act as both supply and extract to the properties and are part of Mitsubishi Electric's VRF system.
Concealed fan coil units supply conditioned air to the vents and the system provides the occupants with half an air change/hour. The fan coil units operate at NR25, and when this is compared to the standard of NR35-40 for offices and NR20 for concert halls, it shows how quietly the units perform.
There are more than 80 external condensers positioned around the site, some at sub-ground level, passing through 800 mm slabs and feeding in through risers to service the buildings.
Large-scale distribution
The system allows for pipe runs lengths of up to 100 metres from the condensing units, with system total pipe lengths up to 220 metres. This meant the condensers to be located in non-intrusive locations around the site.
You normally associate large-scale systems with commercial properties, but the amazing thing is that its residential.
One of the key elements of the project was the level of control offered to the clients. The system can be controlled locally, by the residents, or centrally, from a PC. This was set up in response to the clients' demands and was designed and produced by the Mitsubishi Electric Controls Department.
The technology allows individual apartments to be invoiced, based upon both their air conditioning energy consumption and water usage.
The network is built on an existing structure and is made up from the individual building's sub-networks. Each area is broken down into specific cores, and six data collection panels have been installed across the site, each serving numerous cores. The panels collect and route air conditioning control, monitoring and energy usage information, and water usage data.
Air conditioning data is distributed within each core using the Mitsubishi protocol 'M-net'. The protocol provides for a multi-layer user interface capability, fault tolerant communications, and is structured in-line with the ISO seven-layer reference model. Collecting the data
The water usage data is collected within the individual cores via specifically designed Energy Collection Devices (ECDs). Each ECD is capable of accepting up to eight pulsed inputs from either the individual apartment water meters or outdoor unit watt-hour meters. All the ECDs within a core are connected over a network and data is relayed back to respective collection panels using the Modbus RTU protocol.
The user interface has been built around the Mitsubishi Electric MJ-310E graphical control package platform. Energy usage data is collected on a daily basis while water consumption is retrieved hourly.
The data is time-stamped and held within a central database for retrieval, display, analysis and bill generation. The system can also present the energy and water consumption data in numerous formats to provide immediate system performance snapshots and consumption trends.
Added benefits
This advanced level of control means that maintenance can be carried out efficiently. Mitsubishi's John Nock explains: "With the system being controlled by one PC we can easily tell when maintenance is needed. It tells us if there are any faults to the plant or units, and as most of the plant is located away from the properties, we can carry out work without disruption to the residents.
"The only time a resident would know of a fault was if there was a problem with the vents serving the properties. In working practice, we would be able to arrange for an inspection at a suitable time – minimising any inconvenience to the occupants."
The infrastructure of the network cabling offered the opportunity for Mitsubishi Electric to set up a complete metering package. Unfortunately, as Nock explains, logistically this would have proved difficult: "We considered the possibility of using the network for lighting control.
However, there are a number of electricity companies supplying the site. So agreeing and then arranging to provide a networked metering of other services, while possible, would have been very complex."
Out of sight, and out of mind
The technology and design skills needed to provide an air conditioning network on this scale are equally advanced.
On completion of the development the residents of will have access to the comfort that air conditioning can bring at the touch of a button, without ever being aware of the technological complexities that lie behind the system.
Source
Building Sustainable Design
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