Construction World March 2021

Construction World spoke to Andrew Kietzmann, Sales Director of Sky Shot Climate Solutions about the HVAC products it offers the South African construction industry, particularly its thermal energy storage systems that optimise the operation and performance of chillers and heat-pumps. This system is ideal for the current load shedding and skyrocketing electricity tariff climate. THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS FOR THE SA CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

is a thermal energy storage system by Phase Change Material (PCM) encapsulation. The STL system is composed of one or several tanks filled with spherical elements (called nodules) containing the PCM. The use of PCM in nodules provides very high energy density and power exchange. CRISTOPIA has unique expertise in PCM, resulting from over 30 years of R&D in partnership with universities and technical centres in France and Europe. “In layman’s terms,” says Kietzmann, “these nodules are frozen at night when electricity is cheapest and when there is excess load. The chillers are then turned off, and the stored energy from the frozen nodules is used for cooling. We use pumps to circulate water around the balls during the peak hours of the day when electricity is at its most expensive and when the probability of load shedding is high. A large generator is therefore not needed to power an

CIAT air-cooled chiller as would typically be used to generate the cold water required to freeze the nodules in the tanks. For a normal chilled water installation, this same chiller would be approximately 30% larger.

S ky Shot is a customer focused and quality driven company with dedicated staff, and is focused on developing, producing, trading and delivering high quality HVAC service levels. “The privately- owned company has been operational since 2006 and imports air conditioning equipment from various countries including France, China, Turkey and Italy. The company specialises in the installation, maintenance, servicing and repair of all air conditioning equipment for large commercial buildings such as hospitals, shopping centres, hotels and big office parks as well as process plants,” says Kietzmann. It is the preferred service provider and importer of four chilled water brands: CIAT, CRISTOPIA, UNTES and Aerolique. “We have about 80 staff and back up all the equipment that we supply from offices in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town and Mauritius. Sky Shot has a well established a service department to ensure preventative and corrective actions. We have a large spares department which holds spares for all of our equipment – about R2,5-million rand of spares,” says Kietzmann. Thermal energy storage “Sky Shot specialises in chilled water systems and offers the CRISTOPIA thermal energy storage system. This chilled water solution is our biggest differentiator for the construction industry and it also got us through the difficulties of load shedding and lockdown. We recently completed various projects in Sandton, Menlyn and Irene where our system was successfully used,” says Kietzmann. This technology enables companies to significantly reduce energy consumption while companies can install chillers that are up to 30% smaller than would normally be used, further saving companies on capital expenditure. CRISTOPIA is a world leader in thermal energy storage and is a subsidiary of the CIAT Group. The CRISTOPIA STL (latent storage)

entire plant, such as a data centre. One just needs it to power the pump that flows the water through the tank that houses these nodules. This system uses power when it is at its cheapest – it is what is called load locking and prevents customers from reaching costly energy peaks,” explains Kietzmann. The size and characteristics of the tanks used are defined in terms of the site and the cooling requirements. Such tanks can be cylindrical or rectangular. Cylindrical tanks can be installed inside, outside or underground. In addition, this systems saves money as chiller plants are smaller which means less chiller power is needed to cool it while the system becomes a thermal battery that contributes to the cooling load. Smaller chiller footprints save valuable plantroom space, freeing up space for other services. It also reduces the size of transformers that are needed onsite. The imported products are adapted to the South African context. “We will adapt options on the units, at our factory located at our head office in Johannesburg,” concludes Kietzmann. ▄ ADVANTAGES OF THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE • Reduction of the chiller capacity by 30 to 70%. • Peak shaving of the cooling demand over 24 hours. • To shift electricity consumption from peak hours to off- peak hours. • Reduction of the electricity power by 30 to 70% on the cooling production. • Reduction of the electricity costs and the operating costs. • Making the electricity consumption profile more attractive for operators.

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD MARCH 2021