Halving traditional energy consumption

Dunedin International Airport

When Dunedin International Airport decided to upgrade and extend its terminal facilities, they commissioned our team to deliver designs for the mechanical, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning services. Highly-variable weather conditions and temperatures as well as fluid occupancy levels posed interesting challenges to our efforts toward sustainability.

Dunedin had ambitious energy-efficiency goals for their sizeable terminal, aiming for an energy saving of 50 percent. This meant that we had to find an innovative solution. We decided to use an open-loop, groundwater heat pump system that utilizes bore water as the heat source in winter and the heat sink in summer. Other features include displacement ventilation systems on the ground floor areas and using the bore water system for the summer cooling load—without the need for the heat pump.

Opened in 2005, the airport has witnessed 19 percent more savings than expected. Since then, passenger numbers have increased significantly, and Dunedin expanded the terminal in 2018. They reached out to us to update the heat pump system, extending and supplementing it with heat recovery to continue the low energy usage.