Challenge
A major clothing brand with a five-storey retail outlet in the heart of Basel’s famous “Shopping Mile” had a broken chiller. Air conditioning was needed throughout the store and, with the warm months of summer, a solution was urgently required to restore comfort cooling for staff and customers.
A critical phase of the intervention was the installation site access. The hire chiller needed to be sited on the store’s rooftop, and the location of the property – in a very busy district of the city centre – meant that carrying out the installation was extremely challenging. As well as retail outlets, there are numerous residential and office properties in the area – plus traffic considerations – making it impossible to use a crane or other conventional delivery method.
Solution
Trane Rental recommended a low-noise air-cooled scroll chiller hire unit capable of delivering the 160kW cooling capacity required.
Together with the store’s planning agency, Trane Rental determined that the only way to install a replacement unit on the rooftop would be by using a helicopter. The planning agency sorted out all the necessary local authority permissions and police were in attendance on the day. As the downdraft from the helicopter can cause turbulence, all residents and businesses in a 100 square metre area surrounding the site were also notified and advised to keep windows and doors shut at the time of the delivery.
Results
The delivery to the rooftop was very swift and took less than 20 minutes in total. Nevertheless, the highly dramatic installation attracted a lot of attention from shoppers and residents who were fascinated by the unusual activity.
The retail customer was also very satisfied with Trane Rental Services. Trane’s hire air-cooled scroll chiller offers the perfect combination of flexibility, efficiency and low noise. The Trane Rental solution will remain on site several months until a new equipment is installed.
Trane Rental Services across Europe offers a wide range of rental equipment, also with a compact footprint and the quietest air-cooled chillers available in the market.
