CIAT Group, France’s leading manufacturer of equipment for central air-conditioning, heating by heat pumps, air handling and heat exchange, will present its district cooling solutions at The Big 5.

These innovative solutions offer the key advantages of comfort, improved air quality and energy optimisation, the company says.
“Synonymous with energy efficiency, district cooling solutions enable huge savings and enable construction projects to be completed more quickly. They also minimise the impact on the environment, making them particularly suited for use in urban areas,” says Jean-François Boutet, Ciat’s director of marketing and communication.
“With three key products – Itex, DistrictCiat and Alto, and Cristopia – Ciat is the only manufacturer to offer a complete range of district cooling solutions.”
The Itex plate heat exchanger and its range of Alto and DistrictCiat fan coil units ensure optimised selection of cooling distribution components, while the Cristopia thermal energy storage optimises the operation of a district air-conditioning system.
Boutet elaborates: “Thanks to their excellent heat transfer coefficients and compact design, Ciat’s range of Itex plate heat exchangers transfers cooling capacity and ensures the performance of the entire system. Ciat has undergone many qualification tests and received the approval of Middle Eastern authorities to equip gigantic district cooling facilities in the UAE with plate heat exchangers.”
DistrictCiat and Alto fan coils are the indoor components of central air-conditioning systems and are specially designed for district cooling applications.
“They deliver the required cooling capacity to ensure optimum comfort even at wide thermal differences and do so with minimum pressure drops. Their large drain pans are perfectly suited to any climate and feature reinforced insulation,” he says.
Ciat’s Cristopia latent thermal storage is an exclusive and flexible system for managing significant refrigeration energy needs. It stores heat in spheres inside an insulated tank during off-peak periods or when costs are low and then transfers the heat for use when demand is high.
“Thanks to this latent thermal storage, the size of installed equipment can be reduced by as much as 70 per cent without affecting the available capacity, peaks in consumption are levelled out and energy costs are cut. As a result, facilities are more dependable, safer and last longer. Thermal energy storage is particularly suited to district air-conditioning.”
A major player in Europe’s climatic engineering market, Ciat is renowned as an innovative firm, operating nine production sites throughout the world and employing 2,300 people in some 70 countries.
It designs, manufactures and markets solutions for residential, commercial, healthcare and industrial applications, which can be tailored to meet many specific criteria – desert climates, corrosion control treatment and seawater-cooled refrigeration heat exchangers for marine facilities.