Vining Air’s expertise ensures buildings achieve and maintain maximum energy efficiency.

Vining Air, based in Mentone, are industry leaders in the commissioning process associated with building services. They provide independent and professional advice regarding the complex area of commissioning for disciplines including Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning (HVAC), Building Automation, Electrical, Hydraulic and Fire.

Clients include Consulting & Mechanical Engineers, Architects, Builders and Property Owners across metropolitan Melbourne.

The company ensures that new commercial buildings meet or exceed specific Green Star sustainability ratings. “Basically our role is to ‘tune’ a new building up, making sure all the services are talking to each other properly for maximum efficiency and to minimise energy wastage,” explained Vining Air Director, Neil Vining. “If there’s a problem we’ll find it.”
“We’re the extension arms of the Consultants and they use us for our knowledge and practical advice,” Neil went on to say.

When one thinks of investigative skills it’s law enforcement that immediately comes to mind but these are precisely the qualities that Vining Air’s skilled workforce apply when they are called in to find out why existing buildings do not perform as expected from an energy use perspective.
Via a thorough investigative process, involving both extensive industry knowledge and hi-tech tools, Vining Air establishes where a building is failing to meet its energy objectives. This could be the result of an air leak, the failure of an air conditioning unit or lighting that fails to shut down after hours.

One such example is an almost new office building in central Melbourne whose energy usage (predominantly heating gas) was far greater than forecast. Vining Air were called in and after substantial investigation found that at the top of the 20 storey building’s atrium there was an area that hadn’t been sealed correctly resulting in the atrium acting like a giant chimney. After sealing was carried out energy usage returned to normal levels and energy costs for the tenant were duly lowered. A win all round.
Other services that Vining Air perform relate to yearly ‘smoke management system’ checks and the company is also moving into the relatively new area of ‘building enclosure testing’ – a test that finds leakage in buildings.

To service its broad range of clients the company runs 3 D-MAX Crew Cab Utes.

“When it came to replacing the current Utes we had, D-MAX’s 5 year warranty really stood out and impressed us. We went to Patterson Cheney Isuzu Ute where Sales Consultant Travis Jamieson helped us out. He was great to deal with and looked after everything; we’re really happy with the D-MAX’s we now have,” Neil said.

Neil’s son Ben also works in the business and runs one of the newest D-MAX’s. The vehicle has a number of enhancements including powder coated alloy wheels, custom bullbar and winch. Ben has recently returned from an epic trip all the way up North to Cape York in the vehicle.
“The D-MAX performed faultlessly on the long trip; I found it really comfortable and the fuel consumption was fantastic given it was fully loaded and for the last part of the journey I was also towing a camper trailer. I’m wrapped in it, it’s a good, reliable, tough truck that’s great for both work and going away at the weekend,” Ben summed up.

“The way Patterson Cheney have their service centre set up is also great – I can drop it in at 5am in the morning and it will be ready for me at 3pm,” said Ben. “Or you can drop it off in the evening and take advantage of the 24 hour weekday servicing,” Neil added!