THE PALM HOUSE, RBG KEW
The Kew Palm House is home to the oldest pot plant in the world, which has been growing within its protective glass canopy for more than 250 years.
The Palm House was originally designed by Decimus Burton in 1848 and was most recently re-furbished in the late 1980’s. Climate Controls Ltd was appointed to supply and install the ventilation equipment and environment controls during that restoration.
The entire superstructure and glazing was replaced according to Burton’s 1848 original design. As this conservatory is a listed building, there could be no alterations made to the outward appearance of Decimus Burton’s original structure. As such, all replacement items made had to be identical to those already in place.
New low level ventilators were installed and each area of ventilation was automated. Although this house was not computerised as part of the restoration, it was subsequently decided to install the Climate Controls MS100 PowerStation control system to ensure the optimum environment was maintained throughout the year.
Due to the Palm Houses considerable volume, rather than treat it as one environment zone, it was decided to split the volume into three. Three MS100 PowerStations control the heating, ventilation and fogging systems in the three zones. A CAE PowerNet is also installed linking the three MS100 PowerStations together providing remote control and historical data management.
ABOUT THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW
Kew Gardens is a botanical garden in south-west London and houses the “largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world”. Founded in 1840, its living collections include more than 30,000 different kinds of plants, while the herbarium, which is one of the largest in the world, has over seven million preserved plant specimens. The library contains more than 750,000 volumes, and the illustrations collection contains more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants. It is one of London’s top tourist attractions and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Climate Controls Limited have been active at Kew Gardens since 1983 and now the vast majority of the display houses and all the support nurseries are controlled by our MS100 PowerStation Environment Controller. As well as controls, other environmental systems including ventilation, fogging, heating etc have been installed across the Gardens.
Our on-site team undertake continuous planned preventative maintenance and are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
