Saving money on installation
Air conditioning contractors love nothing more than to save money, especially when installing equipment on big projects worth hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. To accommodate contractors’ needs, Temperzone has used product design innovation to both enhance quality and to create ways of offering significant fiscal benefits.
Temperzone is currently involved in the development of a 60,000m2 homemaker centre designed to cater for project home builders, reportedly one of the largest bulky goods homemaker centres in the country. The project involves around 130 rooftop packaged units with capacity ranging between 40kW and 90kW; and 30 split ducted units ranging between 15kW and 30kW. Total cost of equipment? A ballpark figure of almost $2 million.
Temperzone South Australia branch manager Ryan Wijayasekera tells Temperzone News that on such large projects installation savings to contractors are crucial. “By the end of this project, which is due for completion in mid-2009, we will have saved the contractors around sixty to seventy thousand dollars in installation costs,” he says, quite a substantial amount of money. So how is this achieved?
As part of the BCA (Building Code Australia) manufacturers are required to install economy cycle on all air conditioning equipment over 50kW. Just about all of the units in this project have economy cycle, which was designed and specified into the job and fitted into the units manufactured by Temperzone.
“We looked at the duct arrangement and realised that we could fit economy cycle in our factory,” Wijayasekera says. “Installing the filters inside the unit eliminates the need to build a filter plennum - you actually install the filters in duct work. This was one area where we could cut off a fair bit of sheet metal from the project.”
Wijayasekera added that Temperzone was able to build specific units capable of accommodating a 100mm filter (consultant’s specification), whereas the standard product normally comes with a 50mm filter. “We also took away additional dampers in the ductwork and had them fitted into the equipment,” he says. “On the unit we had an outside air damper which was a fully variable type set up with a cowel protecting it from the weather – at certain times these units would be running on 100% outside air. If it was suitable for them to use outside air for cooling thats all they were going to do; so we fitted a return air damper which closes off the return air to allow the outside air to flow in. We fitted all this into the machine to eliminate the need for the contractor to have it installed in the ductwork, thus becoming an integral part of the actual air conditioner. On top of that we also fitted all the actuators to drive dampers – that took away any additional installation the contractor had to do on-site. So we’ve taken away the actuators, the dampers, and filters and fitted them all inside the air conditioner,” saving contractors some serious cash.
Temperzone has also saved contractors involved in this project considerable money on electrical wiring costs. “All the wiring for dampers runs through the terminal strip in our electrical panel in the machine,” Wijayasekera says. “This saves contractors from having to wire the actuators. All up, I’d say we’re saving installers and contractors between $600-700 per machine in additional ductwork and labour.”
Wijayasekera adds that Temperzone has also saved contractors labour “and” money on other projects, including one at a multi-storey commercial office building in the Adelaide CBD.
“We supplied water cooled packaged air conditioners to this project and because of the tight ceiling space there wasn’t a lot of fall to run their drains,” he says. “But Temperzone has an option for water cooled units where we’re able to fit a condensate lift pump to our units. Normally the contractor would purchase the equipment and the lift pump. He’d then have to open the unit and install the lift pump into the unit; put it all together and then hang the unit. But our factory in New Zealand fitted the condensate lift pumps into the units, saving contractors considerable time in labour.”
With the project boasting almost 250 units (eight different models of various quantities between 7kW and 30kW) Wijayasekera says it would have taken the contractor at least an hour to pull each unit apart, fit the lift pump and then put it all back together again.
“Labour doesn’t come cheaply on building sites so having the units factory-fitted in New Zealand as opposed to having them fitted on-site means considerable dollar savings,” Wijayasekera says. “This is another area where Temperzone is able to save contractors costs on install.”
Wijayasekera also says that on split system units of up to 27kW, Temperzone generally supplies a drain tray that can clip to the bottom of a fan coil unit.
“The contractor normally buys the fan coil unit then he’ll get a safety drain tray built separately,” he says. “Then when the contractor hangs the fan coil unit another set of hangers or straps need to hold the drain tray in place to have it sitting below the fan coil unit.”
Temperzone is able to offer a drain tray to clip to the bottom of the fan coil unit. If the contractor uses a Temperzone spring mounting kit they can then hang the unit and they don’t have to suspend the drain tray because it clips to the fan coil unit. “Again, apart from fact that you get the drain tray with our unit (you don’t have to go out and purchase one), when you install it there’s a little less labour involved because you only have to worry about hanging one thing, the fan coil because the drain tray is now attached (to the fan coil). This is another area where contractors are using our products to save money on installation.”
Temperzone has also got to the stage whereby they’re fast becoming a one-stop shop. “The less items contractors have to purchase from other suppliers, the better,” Wijayasekera says. “In the big project mentioned previously, the contractor would have to go to someone else to purchase the dampers, the actuators for the dampers, then the ductwork and filters. But we’ve put in place something that has cut out four or five other suppliers because we cater for most items the contractors need. This is proving to be quite useful, again providing welcome savings to contractors.”
