Chiller installation in Al Qusais 

Chiller installation in Al Qusais: local context

Al Qusais combines a long-established industrial area of warehouses, workshops and trading stores with residential mid-rise blocks, staff accommodation and schools, just north of Dubai International Airport and close to the Sharjah border. Much of the building stock dates from the 1980s–2000s and is being steadily refurbished or replaced plot by plot. It is a working district where trucks, buses and residents share the same streets.

• Staff accommodation blocks need generously sized domestic water storage, hot-water generation, drainage stacks and kitchen extract designed for high, simultaneous occupancy at shift changes.
• Proximity to the airport flight path can restrict crane and mobile-crane heights, so lifting of rooftop chillers and packaged units may need aviation-related permissions and planning.
• Change-of-use projects often trigger fire alarm, sprinkler and hydrant upgrades to meet the current UAE Fire & Life Safety Code before Civil Defence will sign off.

Building types we serve in Al Qusais

For schools and university buildings, the work concentrates on high fresh-air rates for dense classrooms, quiet systems, holiday-window works in occupied campuses and robust controls.

Scope of work

• Review of plant capacity, redundancy and part-load profile so the number and size of chillers matches how the building actually operates through the year.
• Header, bypass and expansion arrangements with air separators, chemical dosing pots and make-up water connections.
• Power cabling, starter panels and interlocks from the LV board, coordinated with the electrical contractor and utility load approval.
• Plant manager and BMS integration for sequencing, staging and alarm reporting, followed by manufacturer start-up and performance verification.

Systems we install

• Water-cooled centrifugal chillers with cooling towers
• Refrigerant leak detectors and plant-room emergency ventilation fans

UAE site and climate challenges

• Water-cooled plants with cooling towers face high water consumption and Legionella risk in warm basins, so dosing, drift eliminators and treated or TSE make-up water are considered at design stage.
• Roof plant on towers is often installed months before handover and left idle in the sun, so chillers are protected, crankcase heaters energised when power arrives, and controls checked for heat damage before manufacturer start-up.
• Number of chillers: two or three smaller machines give redundancy and better part-load efficiency, while one large chiller lowers first cost but leaves no cooling during breakdowns.

Relevant Manolia projects

Frequently asked questions