The Royal National Theatre - Southbank - London

As part of an on going replacement and energy saving drive by the Royal National Theatre, an Existing 1976 'Carlyle' Air Handling Unit serving the 'Front of House' area has recently been replaced with a new ECE modular 'Inverter' Controlled Air Handling Unit. The new AHU was specifically designed to accommodate a new type of 'Adiabatic' Type Humidifier which is being tested as a low energy alternative solution in place of previous 'Steam Type' ( Vapac ) - electrode steam generators. Initial results for the Humidifier section alone have shown that the electrical savings made between July and December 2007 are a fraction of the normal cost. An equally sized steam humidifier would have operated at approximately 30 Kw power consumption on full load wheras the adiabatic equivalent requires only 900 watts ( at full load ) of electrical consumption. The only small drawback is that the new humidifier requires much more water flow to maintain the correct humidity and frequent cleaning of the wetted filter pads and drain tray. Chillmech Limited worked closely alongside 'Walter Meier Ltd' ( Axair Climate Ltd ) engineers on this project to enable the fitting of their 'Condair' SH2 Adiabatic Humidifier unit. The Fitting and Control of the new system was made efficiently and quickly, the system is now connected to the RNT BMS 'Trend' System and allows 10% to 100% of humidity control to be maintained. The new AHU Commissioned during July 2007. Total Value of this project approx: £48k