THE PRINCESS OF WALES CONSERVATORY, RBG KEW
The Princess of Wales Conservatory has ten distinct climate zones ranging from dry desert to wet tropics.
The Princess of Wales Conservatory, with a floor space of 4490m2 under a single multispan roof, replaces 26 individual houses, which by the end of the 1960s were showing considerable structural deterioration. Within the new house, the ten different environmental zones provide the opportunity to improve the cultivation and display conditions for Kew’s collection of tropical herbaceous plants. Two major zones encompass the wet and dry tropics, with smaller areas holding species with specialised environmental requirements.
Many innovative design and engineering features are incorporated into the building, with a fundamental requirement being energy conservation. The house has been built without side walls, with most of its space below ground level, and with the hottest zones located in the centre of the structure. Its volume is low in relation to its floor area, so temperatures can be altered more rapidly.
Climate Controls Ltd were contracted to supply and install all equipment for the control and maintenance of the 10 individual environments contained within the structure. This was achieved using ten distributive environmental computer outstations. All outstations are networked to provide central control, monitoring and historical statistical information.
The computer system has since been upgraded to the latest version of the PowerStation.
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.
