Bupa care home makes savings through combination boiler technology
Altham Court refurbishes heating and domestic hot water system
When health and care specialist BUPA needed to refurbish the heating and domestic hot water system in one of its residential and nursing homes for elderly residents, the property development team turned to Baxi Commercial.
.Built in the 1980s, Altham Court is situated in a quiet residential area approximately one mile from Lincoln city centre and provides 48 single bedrooms, each with en-suite facilities.
Existing heating equipment in need of replacement due to age comprised two 80kW boilers and four direct-fired gas water heaters. After reviewing the various options available, it was decided to install a new Potterton Commercial 150kW combination boiler specially designed to reduce energy consumption in care homes, schools and other similar applications. Since the installation of the new plant, BUPA has recorded an 11% saving in both energy costs and carbon over a six-month period and these savings have been made despite the colder weather in 2013 compared with the previous year, notably in March, which was the coldest for 40 years.
The Potterton Commercial iHE 150kW boiler was installed by Trinity Heat Care of Sutton Coldfield, in a new plant room located on the ground floor adjacent to the laundry, which made the unit’s low noise feature a particular benefit in this instance. The original plant room was on the first floor so it was possible to install the new boiler while the original system was still operational in order to guarantee continuity of service, which is essential in a care home requiring heating and hot water 24/7, 365 days a year.
Installed in an unvented system, the boiler was fitted with a vertical flue. The model supplied has a capacity of 150kW with a net efficiency of 105.3% at 50oC flow and 30oC return. Its integral hot water tank has a capacity of 300 litres and a recovery rate of 2,240 litres per hour through a temperature rise of 50oC. The new heating system serves the care home’s 48 bedrooms as well as communal areas, kitchen and office accommodation, with a total of 65 radiators and 55 DHW outlets. As well as the new boiler, new primary distribution pipework was also installed.
Antony Mynard, managing director at Trinity Heat Care, said: “The new Potterton Commercial iHE boiler is a well-engineered,‘smart’ and efficient piece of equipment which is simple to install. We have found Baxi staff to be very supportive throughout the project and the after sales service is excellent.”
Available in 100kW and 150kW outputs, the new iHE commercial high-efficiency condensing combination boilers produce space heating and hot water from a cascade of heat engines and a tank, enclosed within a single casing. Incorporating the latest technology and components, they are built to the highest industry standards. Features of this product range include stainless steel heat exchanger and storage vessel construction, low NOx (Class 5), low noise of 49 dB(A), high efficiency, high DHW recovery rates and built-in redundancy. The boilers also incorporate thermoplastic low loss headers, a highly-insulated storage vessel and factory-fitted relief valves. The appliances are room sealed for use with either vertical or horizontal flue systems and carry a two-year warranty.
Compact and lightweight in design, the iHE has a small footprint, making it easy to handle and to locate. The iHE’s fully-modulating premix burner modules are each controlled by the very latest cascading intelligent controls with a turn-down ratio of 15:1. The advanced control platform is able to provide outdoor weather compensation, built-in frost protection, hot water priority and anti-legionella function for the stored DHW, as well as providing the facility for remote monitoring, as used in this installation.
The domestic hot water is supplied via a high-performance stainless steel plate heat exchanger providing a high recovery rate of 1,520 or 2,240 litres per hour through a temperature rise of 50ºC with a maximum water temperature of 65°C. For added redundancy, the DHW plate heat exchanger is served by two DHW transfer pumps.
The integrated storage vessel has factory-fitted temperature and pressure relief valves rated at 7bar/95°C. As in this case, the iHE can be supplied with full 28mm 3.5 bar unvented kit as an optional extra and the concentric flue system can be supplied as either a vertical or horizontal kit, along with any necessary optional additional flue components.
