Chiller Coil Replacement for LJMU

The Kimpton team have recently completed an interesting job on the roof of Liverpool John Moores University, in the centre of the city and close to the river. The job was to replace the coils inside Carrier Aquaforce Chillers. These chillers feed the Air handling Units (AHU’s) which cool the whole of the eight-storey building with chilled air.

One of the (beautiful) things about the City of Liverpool is its proximity to the sea. Even though it faces the river, it’s essentially a maritime city. From its roots that can be traced back to 1190, it was established by Royal Charter in 1207 and grew its shipping trade with Ireland, coastal parts of England and then further afield. Cloth, coal and salt from Lancashire and Cheshire were exchanged for sugar and tobacco from the America and the West Indie. The city grew to become known as “the second city of the Empire”, and was also called “the New York of Europe.

So, whilst the sea has built the city, it’s also helped to bring it down. Being close to the sea has some disadvantages. One of which is the corrosion that the salty air causes. This is a particular problem for aluminium finned coils that are literally designed to transfer large quantities of air through them to create the cooling effect.

For this project, when the chillers were initially installed (not by Kimpton we hasten to add) the coils had not been given the extra level of protection needed to cope with the saline environment.

The solution is a relatively simple job for us, but still one that needs handling correctly and that’s to fit new coils that have been treated with an additional protective coating.

There are four key options to use for this specialist coating.

  • Blue-coat
  • Alucoat
  • E-coating
  • Blygold treatment

For us, the preferred option is the Blygold treatment (Blygold PoluAl XT), a polyurethane coating using with a metallic pigment. This provides a long-lasting corrosion and UV protection to units in highly corrosive areas. It usually goes in combination with copper-aluminium coils.

This picture below, shows one of our engineers completing the installation of the new highly corrosion-proof chiller coils.

Chiller coil replacement Liverpool on top of LJMU by Kimpton

At Kimpton, after more than 50 years in business in and around the North West, we’ve always believed that it’s a much better option to do the job right. We do see this sort of repair quite often. Leaking corroded coils are very, very common.

If it is a problem for you with your building, then please do call the Maintenance team at Kimpton and we’d be happy to put it right.

Call Phil Morgan. 0151 343 1963

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