Lifestyle Working - Brookvale

Mechanical Ventilation

What is type of air conditioning is provided in my strata?

All strata units (with the exception of show rooms) are air-conditioned using a VRV system. VRV stands for V ariable R efrigerant V olume, which means the air-conditioning only pumps and cools as much Refrigerant as necessary, therefore using less energy to provide heating/cooling when needed.

The showrooms shall all be provided with their own individual standalone concealed split DX units. These consist of internal hidden units that supply cooling and heating form an external unit via refrigeration pipework. The external units will be located within elevated platforms in the basement car park open to outside for heat rejection.

Are there any other advantages of this VRV system?

During mid-seasons and as the sun moves around the building, there are times when part of the building requires heating at the same time as parts need cooling. VRV system have groups of indoor units connect to one out door unit and the system at Lifestyle Working has included heat recovery boxes between indoor units connected to each outdoor unit allowing the heat to be removed from one strata and used to heat another. This results in an operation cost saving (ie free heating and cooling) as the external units are not needed to operate. These cost saving are split between the strata transferring the energy via the central monitoring and billing system.

What if I want to use natural ventilation, do I still have to pay for air-conditioning?

When the main louvres are opened to provide natural ventilation the air-conditioning will be shut down, and conditions in the strata will be solely reliant on the natural ventilation provided (including showrooms). If your air-conditioning is shut down a central monitoring/billing system will register your heating cooling use at 0% and will proportion the running costs of the external units approximately (not applicable to showroom).

If your strata only needs 40% of its cooling capacity and another group strata needs 100%, the external units will be split 40:100.

Is VRV more expensive than traditional air-conditioning solutions?

The capital costs associated with installing and purchasing the equipment is higher. However the running costs are significantly reduced by heat recovery (free heating /cooling at times) and by reducing energy by transporting less refrigeration.

Therefore depending on the amount of time the equipment is operational the real life cycle cost is lower.

How flexible is the air-conditioning to control from my strata?

Each strata (including showrooms) is supplied with an individual controller, which can change temperature set points, on/off, and time clock control (which can also be set from the controller). In addition to providing heating and cooling the controller will allow the indoor unit to run the fan only to provide air circulation.

If less control is requested for the controller to avoid employee tampering the time clock and temperature scheduling can be set at the central controller (not applicable to showrooms) and the local controller limited, for example an air-conditioning run-on timer only allowed at the controller. This flexibility is available through out all strata units.