Renrod Motor Group

Renrod Motor Group

Ian Hobbs Technical Services Ltd

Vauxhall, Nissan, Renault & Toyota Air Conditioning Installation

Platinum Motor Group drives forward with efficiency

Leading South West car dealership, Platinum Motor Group, has invested in the future with a brand new air conditioning system at two of their sites in Trowbridge. Founded in 1975, Platinum Motor Group has steadily expanded, establishing itself as one of the leading dealerships in the South West.

Ian Hobbs Technical Services were approached by the Platinum Motor Group last year for a proposal to replace the heating and cooling air conditioning equipment throughout the Nissan, Renault, Vauxhall and Toyota dealerships in Trowbridge Meridian Motor Park. The dealerships had existing units which were causing day to day issues so they were investing in new equipment to overcome these issues and to be more energy efficient. Director Lee Hobbs explains:

“Platinum Motor Group has had a number of issues with their previous system. The existing equipment was inefficient and problematic and we regularly had to replace compressors which was proving to be very costly. The communication between the separate pieces of equipment was also proving to be a problem as all of the units were functioning on either heating or cooling only mode.”

We decommissioned, removed and disposed of all existing Toshiba equipment including all pipe-work, interconnecting and all ancillaries associated with the current installation.

The new Installation consisted of a City Multi Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) system. Mitsubishi Electric’s VRF offers simultaneous heating and cooling that Platinum’s previous system did not, by distributing surplus heat from cooling operations (and vice versa) to rooms where it is needed. This efficiency can result in energy savings of up to 30 per cent over conventional systems.

Each site was also fitted with an AE-200E central controller which utilises a large, back-lit display, to enable the control of temperature, fan speed and airflow options. It also provides comprehensive energy consumption monitoring and comparisons with the previous year’s power consumption.
One of our biggest challenges was that the installation had to be carried out whilst the sites continued to operate as normal. Lee says:

“Our main objective with this installation was to cause the minimum amount of disruption so that Platinum Motor Group could carry on with business as normal. Sometimes the staff were required to move offices for a day but this was kept to a minimum as the majority of the pipe work was in the corridor so we were able to work around them.

Platinum Motor Group now has a heating and cooling system which they can rely on and which will allow them to concentrate on their main job of providing a first class service to each of their customers. The new air conditioning installation is maintained and serviced by Ian Hobbs Technical Services under a maintenance contract agreement.