When spring arrives in South Africa, the streets are brilliantly colored in purple. The beautiful jacaranda tree blossoms are to thank for this stunning display of color.
These elegant blossoms bloom in October and November each year to fill the country with their distinct purple hue. Locals and tourists alike can’t help but be mesmerized by the scene of these blooming purple flowers hanging from the high branches like bunches of grapes on a vine.
But, it may become more difficult to see jacaranda tree blossoms in the near future due to a law put in place by the South African government banning the planting of new jacaranda trees.
The Worst Drought in 100 Years
What could be the reason for the ban on these beautiful trees? The reason for the ban is the onset of the worst drought South Africa has seen in 100 years. Since the jacaranda is tree species that absorbs large amounts of water from the ground, South Africa is adopting a policy of maintaining the current number of trees without increasing the number in order to combat the shortage of water.
Policies being implemented by the South African government not only affect the jacaranda tree. The drought, which started about 3 years ago, has been changing many aspects of life in South Africa. The government has declared a national state of disaster due to the shortage in water supply and South Africans are only allowed to use 50 liters of water a day per person.
Even practices such as watering your lawn or washing your car have been limited. Citizens are limiting the use of water by installing water management equipment in their own homes to collect rainwater and repurpose sewage water. These water conserving policies not only apply to individual citizens. Companies are also experiencing the effects of these policies economically.
LG Air Solution Finds an Answer to the Shortage of Water
Panorama of Cresta Shopping Centre
Located in Johannesburg, the leading center of commerce in Africa, Cresta Shopping Center is a shopping mall that was opened in 1977. In the over 40 years since it was founded, the shopping mall has continued to be remodeled and expanded, and a particularly large amount of attention to the HVAC system has been paid throughout the mall.
When considering the operation of a shopping mall with many people coming and going on a daily basis, providing a comfortable environment for customers is directly related to sales and profits of the center.
Cresta Shopping Mall previously had a water-cooled package HVAC system installed. Water-cooled HVAC systems use water to cool the condensation heat that comes from the compressor. Therefore, water-cooled HVAC systems require additional cooling towers and a continuous supply of coolant water.
Because this type of system requires large volumes of water, they are less efficient in locations where water supply is expensive or water is in short supply. Also, the existing system was fitted with a constant-speed compressor with poor efficiency, and high operating fees was a constant concern.
Water-cooled HVAC system and air-cooled HVAC system
After considering how to use water resources more efficiently during the drought and how to curtail the expensive operation fees of the HVAC system, Cresta Shopping Mall proceeded with an extensive overhaul of their HVAC system to provide the optimum environment for their customers.
In a large-scale shopping mall, an HVAC system needs to be specialized for many diverse spaces such as open atriums, many small shops, offices, movie theaters and food courts. There are also many other internal requirements for an HVAC system. Accordingly, a flexible system design capable of simultaneously supplying heating and cooling to individual spaces and central HVAC functionality is required.
Shopping malls have very specific requirements for an HVAC system
Shopping malls also require HVAC systems that fluctuate in supplying heating and cooling depending on expansion of the facility or renovations to spaces. LG Air Solution has the right solution for precisely these types of concerns.
LG Multi V IV installed on the rooftop of Cresta Shopping Mall
LG ACP supports integration of LG HVAC solutions into a facility’s BMS
Cresta Shopping Mall selected the high-efficiency air-cooled VRF system, LG Multi V, along with powerful LG AHUs (Air Handling Unit) from the wide range of LG HVAC solutions. This all-in-one Eco Package combination is providing drastically improved energy efficiency over the existing water-cooled system and is reducing operation and maintenance fees.
High-efficiency Inverter Compressor in the LG Multi V
LG Multi V with a high-efficiency inverter compressor is providing optimum energy efficiency in all spaces whether running at both maximum and partial load. Even more, the diverse indoor units with ducted or cassette configurations have been implemented according to the requirements of each environment to flexibly meet the needs of our customer.
Cresta Shopping Mall was able to greatly reduce operation fees by 32% and resolve the excess use of water and costs issues caused by the existing water-cooled HVAC system.
BMS integrated control with LG Air Solution
Cresta Shopping Mall is the first mall in South Africa to implement a high efficiency VRF HVAC system. With this new system, they are not only able to deliver the most comfortable environment for customers, but they are also relieving the burden of excess energy costs while leading in the efforts to solve social issue of insufficient water.
With this technology as a starting point, we will continue to see the purple jacaranda blossoms for years to come with LG Air Solution!
