Case Studies - Cooling Retail Premises

R Van Boom is a regional distributor of BMW cars in Bornem, close to Antwerp in the Netherlands. Typical of many car showrooms it is a building constructed with predominantly glazed walls. Whilst the glazing is excellent for displaying cars it does lead to very high levels of solar heat gain which means the temperature in the showroom could reach in excess of 35°C. Evaporative cooling was chosen to cool the showroom because of its simplicity, low cost and environmental advantages over refrigeration based air conditioning.

The roof of the showroom is single skin corrugated metal with a layer of insulation and a felt final external covering. A down discharge EcoCooling evaporative cooler was fitted to the roof using an up-stand, which was supported by additional steelwork fitted to the metal and felt layer which was in turn weather proofed to the up-stand. The cooler then feeds into an eight way plenum achieving approximately 12 air changes per hour for the showroom.