Spending six hours a day in school uniform inside closed classrooms while wearing protective COVID-19 face masks in uncomfortable temperatures can leave the best of students struggling to concentrate on their schoolwork. For Ashton International College Ballito, a world-class independent school in KwaZulu-Natal, supporting pupils to perform at the best of their abilities is the top priority. Thus, the school embarked on an upgrade to its air-conditioning systems, as well as its pool heating system with the assistance of Fourways Group – which has supplied the products needed over the last 7 years in order for the school to replace and upgrade its outdated and inefficient air conditioning systems.
Old units in the large Junior and Senior College classrooms were replaced with innovative Alliance inverter midwall models and Alliance underceiling units that boast 36 000, 48 000 and 60 000 BTUs. These inverter models have been proven to save up to 40% on electricity running costs, while maintaining high levels of cooling and heating performance, a major need and bonus for the school. Smaller classrooms and offices were fitted with a mix of Samsung and Alliance midwall split inverters. As a result, students are better enabled to focus in class and on teacher instructions and better engage in peer discussion, while breathing cleaner, healthier air thanks to superior Alliance and Samsung filters that trap viruses, bacteria, dust, and other air pollutants.
The Big Grace Hall was fitted with 16 x 60 000 BTU Alliance Cassettes, zoned for each area, which are linked to a central controller for user convenience. For the Legacy Hall, which encompasses the indoor sports field and staff offices, Ashton International College smartly chose a powerful commercial-grade Samsung DVM system and indoor units boasting over 122 000 BTUs. The Music Hall and sound rooms rounded out the air conditioning element of the project with a DVM system being installed that is just as cool as the music the students create.
As air temperature control was underway, Fourways simultaneously assisted with the perfect solution to water temperature control inside the Ashton International College Ballito swimming pool. Covid-19’s disruption of the athletic year mid-summer resulted in water sport interruption, a real downer for the students. But like the pool’s water temperature, their spirits were raised after the installation of two 91kW Alliance commercial swimming pool heat pumps providing for a pool volume of up to 800 000L. These enable four seasons of swimming enjoyment and no downtime when it comes to practice for the swimming season. The two units, boasting environmentally friendly R410a refrigerant gas, replaced four older heat pumps of an alternative brand that weren’t able to maintain a 28°C pool temperature all year round like Alliance technology can.
Efficient temperature control and ventilation are important for good indoor air quality, especially in recent times for COVID-19 prevention strategies to reduce the number of virus particles in the air. Fourways is proud to have been part of an upgrade project that brings comfort and peace of mind to the school body of Ashton International College Ballito. The students and educators couldn’t be happier. Bring on summer they say!
