Green Building Features

Click on the images above to learn about the features of the building.

Under-floor Air-conditioning System (UAS)

What is UAS?
Most heating and cooling systems distribute air into occupied spaces through (big and leaky) ductwork that is located overhead in the ceiling. The system pushes cold or hot air (depending on the season) at high speed into the room from the ceiling and mixes with the existing air in the room until the air reaches the desired temperature.
With UAS, however, you eliminate most of the inefficient ceiling ductwork by placing the air distribution system between the structural slab and a raised floor. This system delivers conditioned air through outlets at the floor level with adjustable floor diffusers that provide personal control and comfort.

Why use raised floors?
Cooling a space through a floor system has three major benefits: increased air quality, energy savings, and ease in reconfiguring office space.

The quality of air is healthier throughout the workspace with UAS because air flow from the floor pushes the hotter, contaminated air up to the ceiling vents, where either it exhausts to the outside, or a system filters and recirculates the clean air. Additionally, there is much less noise with under-floor air distribution than overhead air distribution, making for a quieter work environment.

Additionally, the downsizing of ductwork, plus equipment and design efficiencies help reduce costs, and these savings usually more than offset costs associated with raising the floor. The big savings, though, comes from the ability to reconfigure the space over time; raised floors offer easy access to electrical and telecommunication equipment and help reduce the burden of rebalancing the air system when new office partitions are added. If you think about how many times office space changes occur over the life of a building, a system that offers tremendous design flexibility will dramatically reduce renovations and refurbishing costs. 

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