Home of cricket benefits from Eurofred air conditioning
When more air conditioning was needed at Lord’s Cricket Ground, CER, which has carried out air-conditioning and refrigeration work at the ground for the past eight years, was called in. The £225 000 contract was for the offices of the England & Wales Cricket and a pair of restaurants in the Mound Stand. The equipment was supplied by FG Eurofred and Fujitsu distributor FM Air Conditioning. All the work had to be completed in a very tight time frame to fit into the schedule for Test Matches and Middlesex games.
The 3-storey ECB offices required one monobloc Fujitsu VRF system with two outdoor units serving 33 ceiling and wall-mounted indoor units. To avoid disrupting working hours, work was carried out every possible weekend and between 5 p.m. and 5 a.m. during the week.
John Hazleton, managing director of CER, explains, ‘All the pipework had to be hidden under the false floors, which often required us going in at five o’clock in the evening, lifting the floor panels and laying pipework. Then at five o’clock in the morning, putting all the flooring back, vacuuming up any mess and leaving the office spotless to ensure it was ready for the EBB staff to arrive at 8 a.m.’
The work in the Mound Stand required two 28 kW VRF systems. They power a total of 14 ceiling-hung units and six cassettes. The cassettes were installed in corridors and the ceiling-hung units shared between two large restaurants.
John Hazleton explains, ‘We needed so many units because each restaurant needs to serve 75 to 80 people with hot food in a short lunch break. So the heat load goes form minimal to maximum in a few short minutes.’
The outdoor units had to be sited discreetly so as not to detract from the look of the ground. The external units for the Mound Stand are behind a lift shaft, which, because of a delay in its completion by the builders, gave CER little time to complete the work before a Test Match date.
The outdoor units for the ECB offices had to be carefully positioned to meet strict noise restrictions of the local council to protect nearby residents — a requirement which the low noise levels of the outdoor units helped to meet.
