Uponor Taicang Production Factory, Taicang

Uponor (China) Plumbing System Co., Ltd locate in Taicang Suzhou, approximately an hour drive from Shanghai, is the first production and logistic center of Uponor serving the Asia Pacific region established in 2016. A 3-storey office building with addition factory spaces served as administrative office, Uponor Asia laboratory and of course manufacturing and logistic base. The target of the project is to achieve low energy consumption and high level of thermal comfort, as well as presenting a practical demonstration of Uponor Radiant Heating and Cooling system application. Uponor Spectra metallic ceiling radiant cooling system and floor heating system are selected for the project; those are installed with air source heating pump to conditioning 945m2 office area. The project was completed in December 2016 and is now in operation.

Uponor Spectra ceiling cooling, Uponor PEX-a pipe underfloor heating and invisible supply air duct are installed in the whole office, except restrooms. In parallel using a DOAS (dedicated outdoor air system) with radiant cooling system entirely designed by Uponor Asia Engineering & Design team, cooling load of the conditioned space has been split into sensible load (73.5kW) and latent load (24kW). 100% of the internal latent load and 30% of the internal sensible load are covered by the DOAS. The remaining sensible load is covered by the Uponor radiant cooling system and controlled by Uponor Smatrix Base Pro controller. Uponor Smatrix Base Pro provides individual thermal comfort in each room and at the same time highest energy savings.

With Uponor Spectra metallic panel, energy is exchanged between surfaces and the surrounding areas by radiation and there is no air movement involved. The temperature of the water in the radiant panels is between 15°C and 18°C in cooling mode and between 35°C and 40°C in heating mode. The absence of radiators, fan coils or other cumbersome devices means complete freedom in terms of layout and furnishing. It allows all available space to be utilized to its full potential.

Using a DOAS In humid climate zones, with a mixing chamber and recirculation air is essential to save energy. The custom made DOAS used in this particular case, consists of three VSD fans for exhaust, recirculation and fresh air and a mixing chamber. This allows to control the CO₂ and the dew point of the internal space according to demand. The fresh airflow streams through a sensible heat exchanger and is mixed with part of the return air. After mixing, a pre-cooling coil, served by the shared chiller plant, followed by an evaporative cooling coil, served by direct expansion chiller, dehumidifies to a dew-point of 8 g/kg water content in the air. The condensing coil of the direct expansion chiller reheats the air flow. In order to control the sensible temperature of the supply air flow, a post-cooling coil, also served by the shared chiller plant, provides sensible temperature adjustments. Maintaining a dew point below 15˚C was the target to achieve perfect operating condition for radiant cooling.