AURA shopping center

Background

The shopping mall “AURA” is the latest shopping center in Rome and is part of the redevelopment project of the Valle Aurelia district in Rome. For its construction, particular attention was paid to the development of plant engineering solutions focused on energy sustainability, comfort and noise reduction. These conditions involved the air conditioning system as well.

The shopping center houses a hypermarket, over 60 commercial spaces, 16 restaurants and bars and a fitness center.

During the year the interior spaces are maintained at different temperatures:

  • 20/25 °C within restaurants and commercial spaces
  • 20/24 °C within offices
  • 18/26 °C within public toilets
  • 15/27 °C within the commercial gallery

Project

The entire air conditioning system both in summer and winter is based on a centralized thermostatic ring system connected to independent air conditioning units placed in the various commercial units, with air supply and return air ducts and systems for heat recovery.

Geoclima took part in the project with the supply of 6 evaporative drycoolers to dissipate the excess thermal energy of the thermostatic ring. The drycoolers have a capacity of 750 kW each, are installed on the roof and in parallel: three drycoolers are for full load operation while the other three are designed to meet special needs and conditions. The drycoolers have been designed with the innovative intelligent evaporative system, which excludes the adiabatic panels when the external climatic conditions are suitable for dry running, in order to ensure maximum energy efficiency. Using the adiabatic evaporative system, the drycooler is able to reduce the annual electrical absorption up to 30%, compared to an equivalent air system.

Results

Initially, the project involved the installation of evaporative towers for heat recovery, but then Geoclima evaporative drycoolers have been chosen as they present a series of advantages. The dry coolers are only 2.7 m high (compared to the 8 m of the evaporative towers) and are almost completely shielded from the roof railing. Drycoolers also have advantages in terms of energy and water saving, maintenance times and costs, reliability and continuity of service (guaranteed by the redundancy of the machines) and in terms of noise emissions.