Chiller installation in Dubai Production City (formerly IMPZ) 

Chiller installation in Dubai Production City (formerly IMPZ): local context

Dubai Production City, formerly the International Media Production Zone, is a free zone near Al Khail Road combining residential and office towers with light industrial and media-production facilities. It was largely developed from the mid-2000s. Manolia completed MEP for a 2B+G+15 tower with gym here. Plots here are mid-sized and tightly spaced, with towers sharing service roads and neighbouring construction sites.

• Towers with two basement levels need car park ventilation, sump pumps, and drainage designed for groundwater and stormwater ingress.
• Office and media spaces require flexible electrical distribution, UPS-backed circuits and dedicated cooling for equipment-heavy rooms with high sensible loads.
• The area is inland and dusty, so condenser cleaning and filter access are planned into the design.

Building types we serve in Dubai Production City (formerly IMPZ)

For office buildings, the work concentrates on VAV or FCU zoning for flexible floor plates, tenant fit-out interfaces, energy metering and BMS integration.

Scope of work

• Structural and acoustic coordination for roof or plant-room locations, including spring isolators, inertia bases and maintenance clearances around each machine.
• Rigging and lifting plans for heavy chillers onto roofs or into basements, coordinated with crane availability and site logistics.
• Primary and secondary chilled-water pump installation with suction diffusers, strainers, check valves and flexible connectors.
• Plant manager and BMS integration for sequencing, staging and alarm reporting, followed by manufacturer start-up and performance verification.

Systems we install

• Chemical dosing and side-stream filtration on the chilled-water loop
• Refrigerant leak detectors and plant-room emergency ventilation fans

UAE site and climate challenges

• Air-cooled chillers lose capacity as condenser inlet air rises, and UAE design conditions around 46 to 50°C mean machines must be selected for that ambient, not catalogue ratings at 35°C, or the plant will fall short on peak days.
• Dust and sand clog condenser coils and reduce heat rejection, so coil cleaning access, coatings for coastal sites and a planned cleaning regime are built into the handover.
• Constant versus variable primary flow pumping: variable primary flow saves pump energy and plant space, but requires tighter controls, flow measurement and a protected minimum-flow bypass so chillers never see flow below the manufacturer's limit.

Relevant Manolia projects

2B+G+15+Gym

2B+G+15 residential tower, IMPZ

Dubai Production City (formerly IMPZ) · MEP · Completed

Full MEP package for a two-basement residential tower with gym.

Armada Tower hotel, JLT

Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) · MEP · Completed

MEP for the hotel tower of the three-building Armada Towers cluster.

Frequently asked questions