Schneider Electric introduces Uniflair’s technical cooling solutions for industrial, technological and residential systems

Global specialist in energy management, Schneider Electric, has announced the local availability of the Aquaflair technical cooling systems by Uniflair S.p.A.

Uniflair S.p.A, a manufacturer of in-room precision cooling systems and modular access floors primarily for data centres and telecommunications applications, was acquired by the global leader in critical power and cooling services, Schneider Electric, in 2011.

Combining avant-garde technology with energy efficiency, while protecting the environment at the same time, inspired Uniflair to produce its new range of technical cooling products.

According to Erman Marini, managing director at Uniflair South Africa, air conditioning technological environments, cooling industrial processes and providing comfort cooling combined with high levels of performance are all types of applications where the ideal solutions are chillers and heat pumps belonging to the technical cooling series.

“Many years of experience combined with the company’s position as a market leader in the air conditioning sector have enabled Uniflair’s designers to make the technical and operational choices necessary to create optimum technical excellence,” he states.

Uniflair produces the software for its units internally. This allows the company to equip each machine with a tailor-made control that manages all aspects of the unit.

According to Marini, “absolute control” means:

• Precision: the units use advanced algorithms to accurately control the temperature of the chilled water.

• Reliability: each component is continuously monitored to guarantee it is always used within operating limits and will signal any faults before breakdown occurs.

• Local Area Network: Aquaflair chillers can “talk” to each other, resulting in excellent control of multi-unit systems, managing all the cooling resources and units on stand-by (either on a time basis or alarm).

• Connectivity: Uniflair microprocessor controls can “talk” to the most common supervision systems (Building Management Systems) including: Modbus, Bacnet, LonWorks, Trend, Metasys, TCP/IP and SNMP.

“Management of the whole system allows energy consumption to be optimised and strategies of integrated control to be implemented which would otherwise not be possible,” explains Marini. “Uniflair’s precision air conditioning units, Active Floor modules and chillers can be linked together by a LAN, maximising the operating parameters and the real needs of the system. Particular attention has been paid to the management logic, which is aimed at reducing the energy requirement by means of a “tracking logic” for the current thermal load.”

Furthermore, the temperature of the chilled water varies dynamically in such a way as to minimise compressor consumption and the use of free-cooling, maintaining the desired temperature within the room.

Reduction in sound pollution is also one of the most critical factors designers are called on to solve when choosing plant systems. Uniflair chillers offer low-noise solutions with extremely low acoustic impact, thanks to:

• Acousti-composite fans with high efficiency and low acoustic impact;

• Extra-large airside exchangers;

• Specially devised and implemented algorithms which control the rotation speed of the fans; and

• Tested, optimised compressor insulation and housing.

Importantly, when a system is used for technological or industrial processes, which operate all year round, it is important in terms of energy saving to use solutions that exploit these conditions.

“Uniflair’s chillers are equipped with free-cooling devices that not only reduce energy consumption but also limit CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, contributing therefore to reducing global warming. When the external temperature is low enough, the free-cooling system produces chilled water using external air only, significantly reducing energy consumption since it is limited to the fans,” says Marini.