LG brings a new innovation to Egyptian Market, first Mixed use project in Egypt to use VRF system Multi V

Arabella Plaza is a mixed-use project in New Cairo, Egypt, including administrative buildings, commercial mall, and a hotel, with a 40,000 meters parking lot below them. The project belongs to Arabella touristic and urban Developments group projects, a real estate developer that has been operating since 1994.

The size and multi-use nature of the project are some of the biggest concerns for HVAC design : The Commercial mall includes 11 cinemas, one of the biggest supermarkets in the area, besides an entertainment area, with a wide variety of restaurants and Coffee shops, in addition to two administration buildings and one hotel under construction. The administrative buildings, the mall and the hotel, are all integrated and complement each other, with a built up area of around 120,000 meters, the project needs huge capacity of air solutions to handle such a spacious area. Arabella Plaza project is a milestone that represents the beginning of using VRF products in mixed used applications, and it was the first of its size in Egypt, which is truly a great success story.

The most important factor for the real estate developer was the cost, and the initial cost for the VRF System was lower than the chilled-Water System, and this is an essential element in the decision making process.

One of the project’s initial requirements was to reduce the initial and operational cost, and hence Multi V VRF System will decrease the project’s initial and operational cost, especially when it comes to partial loads.

Another advantage of LG Multi V System is limited needed space for outdoor units, compared to the cooling towers used in the Chilled Water System.

Starting from the design stage, LG team were insisting on switching the system from Chilled-water to LG Multi V VRF system.

186 outdoor units with total cooling capacity of 2800 TR and around 700 indoor units, all used control system LG BECON BMS system, which includes the progressive LG BECON Manager software that controls and monitors all buildings air solution and ventilation via a graphical user-friendly animation software, along with the use of PDI units for the distribution of the electrical load amongst the existing tenants in the project.

“When we started working on Arabella Plaza project, we found that initial designs were using Chilled-water system, but we believed it was more convenient to switch to the LG MultiV VRF system. We presented a detailed comparison between the two systems to the client and life cycle cost analysis, and it was approved by the owner. “ Mr. Basem Anwer, Technical Manager LG Egypt.

The 2nd request from the client was to be able to distribute and measure the electricity consumption of the outdoor units on each of the tenants, that’s why LG experts suggested to use power distribution indicator, which distributes the outdoor units’ electricity consumption on the indoor units belonging of the tenants.

VRF MultiV System provided by LG solves one of the client’s main requirements, as the owner can charge each of the tenants aside based on their consumption rate, through the PDI system that LG presents, which facilitates the process of cost distribution.

One of the challenges faced in the project was that some of the tenants could disconnect the electricity from the source suddenly during the operation of indoor units before turning it off from the remote controller, rather than using the remote control.

That is why the independent power module was used for the indoor units in order to shutdown the electronic expansion valves for the indoor units without malfunctioning.

“We now have a strategic partnership with LG,” Said Mr. Hesham El Shamarka Vice Charman of Arabella Group ,” They truly provided us with all their tools and solutions, during the installation process, as well as the testing and commissioning process up to the opening. Their after-sale support services are really efficient as well , very responsive and all the needed spare parts are always available, so I honestly haven’t faced any issues during our collaboration, on the contrary, I have since then approached LG for multiple other projects, aiming to continue and develop our strategic partnership.”