Al Khaliji Bank Tower

Al Khaliji Bank is one of Qatar’s leading banks and a member of the Qatar Exchange Index, with QR 27 billion in total assets and QR 12.1 billion in customer deposits as of 31 December 2011. The Al Khaliji Bank Tower is a 70 meter high rise building built in 2008 and is home to the bank’s headquarters. In line with Al Khaliji Bank’s ongoing drive for raising awareness of environmental and social issues, it provided support to Qatar’s celebration of World Environment Day for the second consecutive year.

In most of the major cities across the GCC, residential building are high rise therefore achieving comfortable and healthy indoor environment with a low energy consumption can be a very challenging issue. Al Khaliji Bank was looking for a system for a high elevation project with the technical solution to isolate different systems. The HVAC system in the tower is a chiller system but Al Khaliji Bank required a separate HVAC system to ensure better cooling that is also energy efficient. With temperatures soaring beyond 50 degree Celsius and heat rising up the high rise, there is an increased need to provide a solution that can combat these environmental and design challenges. Heating, ventilation and HVAC air conditioning systems account for 39 percent of the energy used in commercial buildings , but through the use of VRF systems these challenges can be overcome due to design flexibility and the ability the system allows for individual users to control temperature in their own areas

Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) systems offer an energy-efficient solution that provides considerable flexibility and LG was the first company in Doha to introduce Variable VRF systems. After several presentations, the LG Multi V units were decided as the most energy efficient, convenient to maintain and more compact compared to the chilling system. The product has more extended continuous cooling operation range and operable range than the existing products, enabling more extensive operation. It has extended the operation range by using more enhanced inverter compressor called the V-Scroll and control technology. The V-Scroll inverter compressor is 11 percent more efficient than a conventional compressor. The unit can maintain stable operations even in the worst weather. The V-Scroll also allows the Multi V III Tropical to maintain 100 percent of the system’s cooling capacity in temperatures as high as 54°C. VRF systems are a good option for high rise buildings with varying loads and different zones – especially commercial office buildings - where individual offices or people want to have control over the temperature in their areas. The LG Multi V air conditioning system is ideal for high-rise buildings and is flexible in its design so it can operate up to 64 indoor units made up of a variety of different sizes and shapes depending on the requirements. This allows each office to maintain its desired temperature without distraction due to the quiet system MULTI V II systems installed at the site comprise 18 outdoor units as well as 32 indoor units. The total capacity of the system is 504kW.

One of the challenges identified at the beginning of the project was the multi level requirements, with the modular design of the LG VRF system it allows energy savings for the employees within the bank who now have the choice to air condition the areas of the tower that are in use only and at the required levels The Multi V system removes any losses that are unavoidable in other systems including the already installed chiller system. In estimation, over a space of three to five years companies can typically look forward to a 30 percent reduction in annual energy costs. LG Multi V’s system saved the Khaliji Bank project 15 to 20 percent in installation costs as it is designed to reduce the use of ductwork adding a further reduction on the cost of installation, water piping, fans and water pump operation and combining it with the currently installed chiller system. Since the product uses a more powerful high static pressure fan, the outdoor unit can be installed not only on the roof of a building but also inside the building by using an air duct. Because of the high static pressure fans and the BLDC fan motors, a sufficient air volume can be acquired for heat exchange and no recirculation of the discharged air currents occurs. Depending on the building structure, you can reduce the piping length by installing the outdoor unit in the machine room. Panayiotis Thomas, General Manager at Mechanical Electrical Plumbing believed LG has “an excellent team and my collaboration with them was ideal as they were extremely professional and contactable.”