OFFICE BLOCK HEATING “IN TUNE” WITH WEATHER

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28825, 20 February 1959, Page 15

OFFICE BLOCK HEATING “IN TUNE” WITH WEATHER

Space heating In the huge departmental office block now building in Wellington will vary automatically in tune with the weather outside. Mr R. N. Kerr told the annual conference of the New Zealand Institution of Engineers in Christchurch yesterday. As in the case of the new Cashmere Hospital, the fuel used will be mainly town gas. Mr Kerr, who is assistant chief mechanical engineer (building services) for the Ministry of Works, Wellington, was presenting a detailed technical paper on the services designed for the Bowen street building, 14 floors from the sub-basement to the penthouse. ' the first to be built of several new structures planned for the Government Centre in the heart of the capital. The complete design, he said, was the work of a sizeable team including achitects, civil engineers, various specialist engineers and draughtsmen. It could not have been carried out without the close

co-operation ot all. The heating control thermostat operated a motorised three-way mixing valve that the mixture of boiler water and return water gave theright temperature at convector type heaters to balance heat losses from the building, Mr Kerr said. The thermostat was under the influence of Im outside weqthersensing device which would adjust its setting to suit prevailing conditions. while the control equipment as a whole was designed to . reduce the amount of heating automatically, when the building : was unoccupied, and to boost it i with high temperature water first i thing in the morning to create ' comfortable conditions again be- i for the staff arrived for work. Three Boileni Among other . points' Mr Kerr . made were:— Three boilers will be used, two capable of 2.600,000 British thermal units an hour and one of 2,000,000 B.T.U. The burners will use either gas or\oll fuel but the latter will be reserved for times when gas pressures are low. Automatic burner adjustment will keep the water in

the boilers at a constant 180 degrees F., and it will be possible to operate' one or more boilers according to load. , An underground tank nine feet in diameter and 2d feet long will hold 10.000 gallons of oil fuel or about four weeks' supply. Four lifts will each carry 30 persons at 500 feet a minute. They will have ‘ such modern features as automatic load limiting devices and automatic equipment to adjust operating programmes to suit the volume and (Urectton of traffic at various times. Fsr Emergencies A special high-pressure water circuit will be provided for Are protection, supplying four firehose reels on each floor. Each reel will have 80 feet of half-inph hose. Fire detectors, will be installed throughout the building, each able to set off warning bells as wen as automatically informing the fire

limited emergeoey ■***»•■ stairways and aoesanrays ea that SSS? “owe mMtttSoSsn ttisground floor wiß control 60-stove” docks placed wherever needed, by sending out impulses at half-minute interval!. The structural aspects of the buUding ware discussed in a taper tag frame sw a clear cut engineering structure wbicb . could be designed With confidence. In spite of its Siae, tfte buildtag was simpler than nwst and it was ssttmatod that jhe n>en* at £159.509 are lU per cent of the total cost . .... .