Power, Heating and Cooling

The Packing House never had enough electricity. Unlike other large businesses with multiple tenants with difference businesses around them, the Packing House did not have an almost infinite amount of power available.

In fact it was quite the opposite, the Packing House could only draw a certain amount of power, and this amount was shared across all businesses located at 14 Mornington-Tyabb Road, Tyabb. Not only the main building but the Village.

Switchboard - Sub Board 4 in Chamber 26 - Sheppards Delight (2015-06-07)

Load balancing and the allocation of power were one of many concerns for management at the Packing House.

Over the years from 1993 it made for many creative approaches to managing this finite resource.

To begin with at the start in 1993 the original circuit board still contained porcelain fuses, during the renovation of the building all these were upgraded to a modern switch board.

With each and every circuit being allocated an individual circuit for lighting and power, further separating out these for load balancing and safety, as well as troubleshooting in the event of issues.

Even so, the switchboard was frequently a vexed issue and source of concern, the amount of power being drawn often made the circuit board quite hot. A concern given the building's construction of timber. And that more frequently than not the dealers would not understand that there was a finite amount of power, until such time as the safety switches tripped and they would (loudly) complain about the lack of power. In 2022 Morgan & Griffin engaged electricians to thermally scan the switch board and associated elements to further identify concerns regarding the electrical safety at the Packing House.

The Packing House management was always looking for ways to curb its power usage. In 2013-2014 all the overhead lighting was switched from fluorescent mercury vapour tubes, to LED tube lighting. Which reduced both the environmental cost for using the fluorescent mercury vapour tubes but also the power cost as well. The change did alter the Packing House's overall colour temperature from a warmer white under the fluorescent mercury vapour tubes to a cooler white under the LED tube lighting.

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2018-01-28

Heating

As a predominantly wood-constructed building with loose wood shaving insulation the heating solution for Packing House had to be considered in 1993.

Methods such as wood-burning combustion heaters could not even be considered due to the extreme fire risk they posed to the building.

Gas meter on Peacock Road. (Photo: 2021-01-09)

Nor could electric heaters be used, as these would draw far too much power.

Fortunately the Packing House was within a commercially-zoned area and the western boundary was with Peacock Road; where an industrially-sized gas main runs. Mostly utilised by Melbourne Jam Manufacturing – locally simply known as the 'jam factory'.

When renovating the Packing House in 1993 gas-fuelled pot belly-style gas heaters were installed along with some upright gas heaters, as these were seen as the most cost-effective methods to heat the building. The budget was something always front of mind in that first few years of renovation and operation. Along side these were a couple of upright gas heaters where were placed around the building where more directed heat needed to be distributed around a wider space.

1998

2005

2006-12-02

These heaters created pockets of heat around these heaters in the building. While not the most effective method of heating the building as a whole, each chamber had a heater that provided some solace from the cold winter days.

2018-10-27

2018-11-11

In 2007 the Packing House management decided for customer and dealer comfort to install ducted heating throughout Tyabb Packing House. This involved running what amounted to several hundreds metres of piping ducts under the floor of the the Packing House which ran back to 12 different Brivis ducted heaters that were all around the building. This included one notably more expensive internally fitted (externally flooed) one which heated Chamber 14 - Display, this was because the Packing House's boundary on Peacock Road was the building itself, leaving nowhere on this side for this part of the building to mount a heater.

Even after these heaters were put in place there remained some inconsistently heated areas of the building. Some chambers such as Chamber 2 - Glenburn and Chamber 18 - Winter Nelis were mostly on concrete floors, rather than the more elevated wood floors of the rest of the Packing House, which unfortunately meant the cold was felt more directly and also the heating had to be piped in from a side wall rather than the floor.

Other areas such as Chamber 21 - Pippin was in a confluence of heater ducts which meant it was often much warmer than everywhere else.

All these heaters were set by two methods; by thermostats, which were set to their hottest temperatures (because it was unlikely they would ever reach it) and then all these were wired to a set of switches at the front counter where the heaters could be turned on and off directly from there. Unfortunately this did mean that if those at the front counter turned off heaters leading up to the end of day, or because they had been informed by one dealer or dealers that it was far too hot another dealer could (and would!) come along and turn the heaters back on, sometimes leading to arguments.

Cooling

Large oscillating fan used in Chamber 1 - Tycos. (2018-01-19)

Air conditioning was something that the dealers would complain about the lack of, and it would forever be a dream. If the Packing House didn't have power available for a sly electric heater a dealer might have under their desk, or another light to add to the dozens they already had plugged in, then the Packing House definitely did not have power for air conditioning.

It was somewhat ironic that the former coolstore could not actually cool the building down in the summer.

However, it was surprising how cool the building remained through hot days, mostly down to the very thick insulation in the building it took very hot day for the building to start to get warm.

Garden in the middle open to air in 1995.

Unfortunately that meant that once the heat was in the building there needed to be suitably cool night for it to lose that heat. If there wasn't a cool night then the following day the building would still be warm.

And due to retail security concerns there couldn't be doors open in the Packing House to allow for cross ventilation from the outside, and the only space that could be opened to the outside - the garden in the middle, was roofed in the early 2000s.

For cooling large fans were positioned around the building which helped to move air around, while the doors at the front entrance were opened to allow air in that way.

On days of extreme heat (or on rare occasions very high humidity) during the 1993-2021 era, management would make the decision to close early. Usually the temperature would need to be above 32ºC. In general at this temperature there wouldn't be very many people within the building anyway, and / or a lot of the dealers would have left early by that point. Only the most dedicated remained. This closing early choice / policy changed with the new owners and a strict 10 am - 5 pm hours policy was adhered to.

Chambers

Heating

Cooling

Fire and emergency systems