When it came to the point of decision-making for the purchase of air-cooled chillers for its new luxury complex, Union Properties ensured that its investment complied with environment-sensitive issues, says UTS Carrier of Dubai, which supplied chillers to the net.community project.

''The function of an air-cooled chiller is to produce chilled water, and this function can be provided by several brands available in the market. Union Properties, through a strict process of evaluation and scrutiny, chose the best product in the industry, which not only can provide chilled water day in and day out, but also contributes positively to the environment concerns,'' claims a spokesman for the company.

Elaborating on the products supplied to the project and their features, he says: ''Four units of Carrier's new environmentally-friendly air-cooled screw Global Chiller, French model 30GX328 - which provide a total of 1,100 tonnes of refrigeration - were selected above the other makes. The product is designed to increase efficiency and effectively reduce the consumption of scarce resource.

''The chiller works on refrigerant R134a, which can be described as tomorrow's solution available today. It offers a definite advantage over other refrigerants since it has no chlorine and therefore does not harm the ozone layer, the depletion of which is a major health concern worldwide. R134a is guaranteed for unrestricted use and its continued production is assured. Besides it can also claim a minimal contribution to the greenhouse effect (24 per cent less than R22). Thus, it provides a long-term solution for preserving the atmosphere.

''The Global Chiller offers energy efficiency that is superior to other liquid chillers using R22 - confirming the benefits of Carrier's innovative technologies which include the revolutionary Power 3 screw compressor, specially designed for HFC- 134a.

''Carrier's patented electronic expansion device for digitised optimised refrigerant metering to the evaporator ensures maximum utilisation of the heat exchange surface and low pressure loss across evaporator, while reduces the cost of chilled water pumping.

''The Global Chiller is extremely quiet and does not create a low frequency noise, which will ensure satisfied tenants year round. This is because it is equipped with rotary vibration-free compressors and the Generation 2 Flying Bird fan from Carrier which employs aircraft technology.

''Above all, with the pro-dialogue control, the chiller uses the latest Carrier microprocessor control technology, offering efficient and ultra-reliable chiller operation.''

''These are some of the major and key features and benefits which stand out distinctly above other makes. However, the chiller offers several other benefits to operation and maintenance staff, making this product the Number One on the user-friendliness list,'' the spokesman adds.

It is a great achievement when two large corporations, such as Union Properties and Carrier, combine their best resources and synergies on serving the community and protecting the environment in a bid to improve the quality of life, he concludes.