Chiller Refurbishment Saves Major UK Military Charity 50% Against Replacement

Core Maintenance Services, part of Core Integrated Group and a specialist provider of mechanical and electrical maintenance, has refurbished two 15-year-old chillers at a major UK military charity’s London premises, at half the cost of the replacement previously recommended. Cooling remained available to the building throughout the works.

The two chillers, each with two refrigerant circuits, are housed in the building’s basement plant room. They had suffered a series of failures, along with damage linked to poor coordination between the chillers and the associated chilled and condenser water systems. The previous maintenance provider had recommended replacing both units.

Replacement would have been far from straightforward. The plant room can only be reached through single-width doorways and stairs, meaning both the existing and new chillers would have required complete disassembly and reassembly for removal and installation. External areas of the building would have been obstructed on two separate occasions, and the chilled and condenser water systems would have needed modifying to maintain cooling as each unit was changed.

Core instead developed a refurbishment programme to extend the operational life of both chillers and address the causes of the earlier failures. The chassis and heat exchangers were retained, while key active components, including compressors, sensors, expansion valves and control equipment, were renewed.

Upgraded controls and enhanced monitoring have improved integration with the building management system (BMS), allowing the condenser water system to respond more closely to cooling demand and reducing the risk of further consequential damage.

The work was phased, with one chiller refurbished before work began on the second, so activities in the building carried on without disruption.

Steve Braddick, Managing Director of Core Integrated Group, said, “Replacing equipment isn’t always the best answer, particularly when much of the existing plant still has years of useful life remaining. In this case, replacement would have meant disassembling and reassembling two large machines in a restricted basement, disruption outside the building and a considerably higher cost.

“Refurbishment allowed us to fix what was causing the failures, not just the symptoms. There’s a tendency to write off older equipment once it starts to fail, but it’s worth assessing what can be retained and refurbished before committing to the expense of new plant. Here, that approach halved the cost.”