Inland Revenue - A Taxing Problem!
The Inland Revenue at Somerset House in Central London contacted Air Conditioning Company to address a cooling challenge in their Kingsway offices.
The manager in charge of Enforcement had identified that the staff in the Kingsway offices were getting “very hot under the collar” because they were unable to locate the main controls for the building's central heating system. The difficulty was that no one could find the correct controls to switch the heaters completely off!
To try to alleviate the problem, the Inland Revenue brought in some small office portable air conditioning units (7,500 Btu), which proved to be inadequate and unreliable.
What they really wanted was for somebody to take the trouble to visit the premises and accurately measure and assess their requirements. They were looking for rental solutions.
We were very glad to help!
Following the site visit, we identified that 23 discreet but powerful office air conditioning units were needed to cool two open-plan office floors.
Furthermore, we advised precisely how these should be vented for maximum cooling efficiency.
We recommended the trusty Gree KYD unit. This is the “workhorse” of the office-type portable air conditioner, offering reliability, high power cooling, ease of user operation, and low noise.
As with all portable air conditioners, it is necessary to vent the exhaust (hot air) ducting to the outside of the building. To do this usually requires opening a window and placing the hose outside, however, due to the noise and dust levels from the busy street below this proved undesirable.
However, the Gree air conditioner can be vented into a ceiling void as well as out of a window. This is due to its dry, hot air extract. It's the perfect tool for the job!
In areas where the ceiling could not be reached, we recommended cutting holes in the windows and bonding the exhaust hose ends to the glass. This kept outside noise ingress to a minimum.
They (Inland Revenue) were particularly impressed with our ability to offer repair or replacement same day (within 4 hours!) in the unlikely event of unit failure.
The Inland Revenue also requested that we implement a service program to maintain the machines throughout the rental period. This was unusual since, in most cases, hired machines are not usually kept as the rental period is generally short. However, in this case, such was the relationship that had built up following site visits and communications between The Air Conditioning Company and the Inland Revenue that trust had been established. It emerged that they wanted us to maintain these units regularly and were more than happy to rent them for two years with our unique “Supercool” rental deal!
The machines were duly delivered, fitted, checked and tested and did the job superbly.
Indeed, the Inland Revenue's feedback was that they were absolutely delighted with the machines and that all the staff greatly appreciated the service.