Real estate developer Portland Trust has recently unveiled a 120-meter-deep shaft, one of the main components of an innovative heating and cooling system to be implemented in the Floreasca Park office complex located in North Bucharest.

The new technology is based on a ground sourced heat pump system and uses the ground’s temperature and thermal mass to heat and cool Floreasca’s offices, which promises to be the greenest building in the capital city. This system will save up to 40 percent of the air-conditioning costs.

The geothermal heat pump consists of a series of underground pipes set in over 60 vertical boreholes with depths of 120 meters, which are then collected in one main pipe and connected via the heat pump to the air-handling units on the roof.  The non-freezing fluid in the underground pipes will be circulated by means of a pump through the earth with constant natural temperature of 10-14 degrees and will be extracting or releasing the required heat.

In addition to this system, Floreasca Park also has special double-glazing combined with anti-heat reflection system on the south and west facades to reduce solar gain and vertical fins on the western facades to minimize the sun’s penetration, according to the company.

Floreasca Park is Portland Trust’s seventh development in Romania, representing 38,000 sqm of office space out of a total of 260,000 sqm built. Portland Trust’s portfolio also includes the Opera Center I and II office buildings, Bucharest Business Park and Floreasca 169A in Bucharest.

Portland Trust was established in 1997 by Robert Neale (in picture above), who is currently the owner and managing director of the real estate firm. The company is based in Prague, Czech Republic and has been operating in Central Europe since the 1990s.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photos: Portand Trust)