The
largest shopping center in Lima, Peru, featured an outstanding air conditioning project in all its areas.
by ACR Latin America
Lima is a city that has a large number of shopping centers, and recently saw the inauguration of a new one, which is listed as the largest of all, with an area of 225,000 square meters built.
This is the Mall del Sur, built by the Wong Group, a shopping center that has as anchor stores Saga Falabella, Tottus, Paris, Ripley and H & M, and which is located between the districts of Santiago de Surco and San Juan de Miraflores. The space expects to meet the demand of more than 200 million people.
For such a large space and taking into account the climatic conditions of a city like Lima, the commercial enclosure needed to have a complete air conditioning service, therefore, the project to air condition this site was a challenge, which was taken by the company Serviparamo Peru.
The construction, which took two years to complete and had an investment of more than US$4 million, includes six levels of 350 commercial premises, four department stores, expomotor, hypermarket, financial center, restaurant square, entertainment area, gym, educational institute, multiplex, among others. As well as two levels of parking lots that could reach four according to demand.
Carlos Castaño, general manager of Serviparamo Peru, commented on the project that "the entire air-conditioned system was implemented in the common and commercial areas, as well as the technical rooms of this shopping center, for which 1,840 tons of cold water cooling were used. In the basement area, Jet Fans fans were used, which eliminate the use of metal ducts that demand more height in the construction of the basements."
On the technical characteristics of the installed system and its operation, the engineer highlighted the following: "Three chillers of 460TR and two of 230TR Trane brand were installed, condensed by water, seeking the greatest efficiency, flexibility and reliability in the generation of cold water. For the common areas and corridors, 12 Daikin brand UMAS were installed, with enthalbic wheels, to lower the thermal load by reducing the humidity of the renewal air. The cold water pumping system is a variable primary system, with Grundfos vertical pumps. This reduced the space needed for technical rooms, providing more area to market. The certified Protec cooling towers, with their modular design, facilitated their installation on the roof of the Mall and also demanded a smaller technical area."
The manager of the company in charge of the project also mentioned that "in the basement area a Jetfans type extraction system, Greenheck brand, was installed, which allows not only to remove the monoxide gases from the vehicles, but to remove the fire fumes in case of a conflagration complying with local regulations. All equipment is integrated into a control system for remote operation and monitoring, Sauter brand. In addition to the drivers, Sauter field elements were installed, such as the Btumeter to be able to measure the consumption of cold water per premises and generate a report for billing of this service".
Regarding the benefits that this system brings to the Mall del Sur shopping center, Carlos Castaño stressed that "this work allows the thermal load to be reduced by 20%, and therefore the energy consumption, by applying a system that treats the renewal air, reducing its humidity with the use of absorption wheels. In addition, the basement extraction system not only removes carbon monoxide gases emitted by vehicles, but also smoke in the event of a fire."
In addition, an additional benefit of the project is that the project was able to reduce the initial investment that was had without having the need to lower the quality of the installation: "The original project was 2,800TR, the final design allowed to reach 1,800. This not only decreased the initial investment and operating cost of air conditioning, but also reduced the electrical load of the electrical project and freed up m2 to market. Additionally, the Sauter automation system is open architecture, which has allowed 100% of the air conditioning and mechanical ventilation system to be integrated with the BMS of the shopping center," said Castaño.
On the other hand, one of the aspects that should be given greater attention during a project is the coordination with the rest of the executions that are being carried out in a work. According to the general manager of Serviparamo Peru, the work was worked even on Sundays and holidays.
"Projects of this magnitude require a lot of coordination and compatibility of plans with the other specialties to avoid interference, which demands a strong work team at the engineering and installation level. Likewise, being a retail project, it was characterized by being a quick construction. The civil contractor worked 24 hours and even on Sundays and holidays. This forced us to have several work fronts with extended hours, so as not to be left behind in the advancement of our systems."
Now, the next step of this project that began operating last April is to operate and record the operating conditions throughout the year, to validate the efficiencies that were sought in the design.
BOX 1
Overview
Installation signature: Serviparamo Peru
Manufacturers involved: Trane, Daikin, Grundfos, Greenheck, Protec, Sauter
Company or place covered with the installation: Mall del Sur – Wong Group.
Installation dates: February 2015 to April 2016.
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