264 Mt Eden Road

The Client

Apex is insurance company that works across New Zealand. Apex Insurance Service has more then 75 years of combined experience placing Property & Casualty Insurance for Public Entities, Schools, Collages and Universities.

The Challenge

Apex’s headquarters are in a Mount Eden three-story building. The location was setup with an HVAC design that was not fit for Apex’s purposes. After some time, the building’s equipment started to fail, and they needed experts who could strategically design and replace the unit to meet their current and future needs.

Econair did everything possible during the project to take the stress away for us. We were originally advised that we would need to move all 70 people out the premises for three months for the period of the project. However Econair came up with a plan to work at nights and weekends so that we could share the space. Econair were extremely respectful of our environment and managed to finish the inside part of the project in about half the estimated time. It was always nice to see them coming on site at the end of the day and they felt like part of out team

Jo Davies

Finance and Administration Manager

Solution

We diagnosed the problem and advised owner to think, not just about implementing something for the next five years, but about the next twenty to thirty years. We designed a system with an extensive lifespan and prioritised local suppliers.

Outcome

We refurbished the entire three-story commercial complex for owner. The upgrade project was split into two stages. The first stage consisted of mechanical and controls upgrades to the ground and first level. The second stage involved levels two and three, and ensured overall maximum efficiency.

Our approach was to supply cooling for the building by an air-cooled chiller on the ground floor with a primary pump located next to the Chiller. Chilled water is re-circulated from the plant to Fan Coil Units (FCUs) located across the three levels to achieve max results in cooling . We also installed 60 Fan Coil Units to provide local temperature control to individual spaces . The site now has heating provided by pulsing an SSR fitted to the electric heating element and cooling via a modulated local chilled water control valves.