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Retail ventilation

Energy Efficient Solutions

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Enhanced Air Quality provides an improved shopping experience

The Retail market is a fiercely competitive arena, with major international retailers and mall owners constantly seeking opportunities to attract more people to their stores and to provide an enhanced shopping experience.

One key element of the shoppers' perception of a store will be the quality of the air. Whilst a good air climate may not often be cited as the main reason why shoppers are attracted to a store, there is plenty of evidence to demonstrate that a perception of stale air or unpleasant smells can often be sufficient to deter customers from returning to an otherwise attractive venue. A more recent trend has been the steps taken by many leading retailers to scent their stores, with carefully selected fragrances, designed to enhance the shopping experience.

In supermarkets, where chilled food cabinets often sit alongside clothing and other more general products, temperature regulation is particularly challenging. However, this arrangement also provides an opportunity to recover waste energy from the chillers and utilise this to condition to the air being supplied to the store.

Fläkt Woods has the benefit of many years of experience, delivering optimised HVAC solutions to retail stores in all parts of the world. With a list of references extending across Europe, the USA, the Middle East, Far East and Australia, the Group has a wide portfolio of solutions specifically designed for discerning retailers and mall operators. Recent projects include the Westfield Shopping Centre in White City, West London, described as Europe's biggest inner-city shopping complex.

For all types of retail store, Fläkt Woods has the optimum solution, balancing the sometimes conflicting issues of costs, energy, legislation and maintenance.


Maintenance

Store closures due to breakdowns are simply not an option that retailers want to consider. HVAC solutions for this market therefore need to work first time, every time, with minimal maintenance.

All of our products are manufactured with maintenance in mind. This includes having access doors in all of our air terminal devices, diagnostic controls on our chillers and the smooth internal walls and floors in our air handling units. Innovations such as flat drive belts, that are designed to run longer before requiring adjustment, minimise the disruption by extending service intervals.


 

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Optimised solutions designed to meet the specific challenges of the modern retail market include:

Air Handling Units

A wide range of highly efficient AHU’s with fully integrated controls are available, able to efficiently respond to the long operating hours and varying demands of a busy shopping mall. A choice of energy recovery systems, with the option of humidity control, provide a range of high quality, cost-effective solutions.

The Econet® energy recovery system is particularly well suited to supermarket applications. Econet is a low-temperature system, which means that it is possible to use waste heat from the food chillers, at a temperature of 25-35ºC, to heat the incoming air. Heat recovery, heating and cooling are integrated into a common circuit, with heating/cooling coils, pumps, valves, pipe systems, insulation, etc. The result is a shorter and more compact ventilation unit.

Scenting Systems

The power of Scent has long been recognised by major retailers, with astute supermarket operators often distributing the smell of freshly baked bread from their bakeries into the entrance lobby of the store, stimulating shoppers’ sense of smell and prompting them to make additional purchases. More recently this trend has gathered considerable pace, with many international retailers and mall operators now choosing to scent their stores, either with an attractive fragrance developed to reflect their corporate brand, or with a specific aroma designed to highlight particular merchandise.

The quality of these fragrances and the equipment used to distribute them is absolutely essential if the retailer is to achieve his goal of improving the shoppers’ perceived sense of quality and attraction to the store. To this end, in a unique alliance with one of the world’s leading designers of fragrance oils, Fläkt Woods is able to provide large scale scenting systems, fully integrated into the HVAC. Enchanting scents, selected from an extensive library or developed to the specific requirements of the client, can be delivered in a safe, controlled and unobtrusive way, providing an enhanced ambience and sense of sophistication.

Jet Nozzle Diffusers

Large, open-plan, multi-level stores bring their own challenges, with considerable care being required to avoid the risk of temperature stratification at the higher levels. Fläkt Woods DD and DK Jet Nozzle Diffusers can be used to achieve an effective throw distances in excess of 20 metres, whilst still maintaining air velocities in excess of 0.25m/s. With careful deployment, these can be used to provide a comfortable and efficient air distribution across wide, open-plan atriums, adding considerably to the shoppers’ overall experience and perception of quality.

Chilled Beams

In modern stores with suspended ceilings, Chilled Beams provide substantial opportunities for energy savings. Fläkt Woods’ Astra Integrated Beam from the IQ Star® range, provides a unique combination of a “Boost Function”, allowing air volumes to be adjusted to reflect changing CO2 levels in the various zones, and “Flow Pattern Control”, providing the ability to direct air in various directions from one or both sides of the beam. This combination of features provides a perfect solution for retail stores; minimising energy consumption and maintaining good air quality, whilst accommodating any required changes to the store layout.

Car Park Ventilation Systems

Many large stores and malls now rely upon underground parking options. As one of the leading manufacturers of Axial Jet Fans in the world, Fläkt Woods is able to provide complete turn-key systems for ventilation, pollution control and fire safety, providing a safe and healthy environment for shoppers whilst generating minimal running costs. Low-profile fan technology minimises the space occupied by the ventilation system, reducing excavation and construction costs and providing opportunities for additional parking capacity.

 

In a typical large retail store, the initial capital investment will represent only 15% of the lifetime cost of the building, with HVAC only representing a small proportion of this. Of far greater importance is energy consumption, which typically accounts for a massive 80% of the total running cost for the building. Effective heat recovery, highly efficient fans and innovations such as Free-Cooling Chillers provide substantial opportunities for cost savings.

Unlike most suppliers of HVAC systems, Fläkt Woods manufactures the majority of key sub systems in-house, including thermal wheels, fans and structural assemblies. By selecting an integrated Fläkt Woods System, you can be sure that the combination of components will have been optimised for maximum overall efficiency. By taking a holistic view, substantial savings in capital and running costs can be achieved.