Case Study of installation for television production Air conditioning ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!’ in Costa Rica, Central America (19/05/09).

Orion Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Ltd has completed a TV production air conditioning project for Elstree Lighting, Power and Rigging in Costa Rica, Central America. The installation was for the production, AV, Satellite uplink and control areas of the television program “ I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!’ which is a Granada USA Television production.

In total 16 x Mitsubishi Electric PSA-RP125GA Floor Inverter Air Conditioning (14 kW / 48000 Btu)  were installed on the  Sueno Azul Hotel,  Sarapiqui, Costa Rica which held the television production and which is situated within 2km from the base camp from where the   production was being filmed. The rain forest conditions threw up some very challenging installation situations including high humidity which was near 90%. Great care was required when commissioning the air conditioning units due to the humidity and on average the units were vacuumed with heavy duty MASTERCOOL ROTARY VANE DEEP VACUUM PUMP 6.3 CFM for around 2 hours to avoid contamination. The humidity was particularly hard on the Condensate Pumps which were extracting 30 litres of moisture every hour in some areas and needed upgrading to the Aspen Maxi-Orange condensate pump which were more powerful and durable to cope with rain forest conditions.

Production Cabins:

In the production cabins 2 x Mitsubishi Electric PSA-RP125GA Floor Inverter Air Conditioning (14 kW / 48000 Btu) were installed to cope with a 30m squared area which had ambient temperatures of around 36 DegC and excessive humidity. When the units were finally commissioned the area was reduced in temperature to around 23 degC which was the set point. The Mitsubishi Electric PSA-RP125GA Floor Inverter Air Conditioning (14 kW / 48000 Btu) were pulling out 10 litres / hour of condensate which in the UK is unheard of!

AV Server Area:

The AV air conditioning server areas had up to 20 individual server racks which were all integral to the television production and needed to be specifically cooled to maintain correct operation. The AV air conditioning area had in total 10 individual Mitsubishi Electric PSA-RP125GA Floor Inverter Air Conditioning (14 kW / 48000 Btu) which were very effective in cooling this TV production area from a start temperature of 37 DegC. The area was required to run at 21 DegC and once the Mitsubishi Electric PSA-RP125GA Floor Inverter Air Conditioning (14 kW / 48000 Btu) had reached temperature they cycled on one or two of the units which kept the area adequately cooled.  The condensate in this area was not such a problem as the units took moisture out of a sealed area.

Satellite Up-link Area:

This area had 2 x Mitsubishi Electric PSA-RP125GA Floor Inverter Air Conditioning (14 kW / 48000 Btu) systems which covered a area of around 15m square and had various equipment to deal with the live satellite up-link of the production ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!’ . This was beamed live to the Granada USA Television American for live television viewing around the world. The Mitsubishi Electric PSA-RP125GA Floor Inverter Air Conditioning (14 kW / 48000 Btu) were able to bring this production area down to 19 DegC.

Project Overview:

This project took 7 days to complete and the Mitsubishi Electric PSA-RP125GA Floor Inverter Air Conditioning (14 kW / 48000 Btu)  units performed without a hitch. The high ambient temperatures were not a problem for the Mitsubishi Electric Air Conditioning for the production which is designed to run in 46 DegC. The systems are to be taken out of the production had finished for use on another TV production air conditioning project. The Mitsubishi Electric PSA-RP125GA Floor Inverter Air Conditioning (14 kW / 48000 Btu) were chosen for their powerful output and durability and so far have proven to be just that.