Light Commercial Heating 40 Bespoke boiler rig saves on downtime

A boiler rig system from Remeha with insulated pipework and pumps has been fitted to provide heating and hot water for a Yorkshire social housing estate, with minimal disruption to services.

Wakefield and District Housing (WDH) has improved the reliability and efficiency of the heating and hot water service at its Smirthwaite housing estate with the installation of eight new Remeha Gas 220 Ace boilers using a Remeha prefabricated cascade arrangement.

For residents at one of the UK’s largest social housing providers, heating and hot water are critical services, so ensuring that the system operates reliably is a top priority for the WDH technical services team. In line with its wider sustainability commitments, WDH also works to mitigate rising energy costs wherever possible for its tenants.

The project challenge

The Smirthwaite Estate in Normanton consists of 192 twobedroom maisonettes, 70 threebedroom houses and 14 onebedroom bungalows. Previously, three 25-year-old boilers had served two district heating circuits which in turn feed heat interface units (HIUs) within the individual dwellings to provide heating and hot water services. When the old boilers came to the end of their serviceable life, the WDH technical services team installed temporary plant to maintain the service while they evaluated the feasible options. A major concern was to avoid disruption to the residents wherever possible. This included keeping downtime to a minimum and avoiding the need to enter properties.

Practical solution

Rob Wilson at Building Services Solutions was asked to carry out an appraisal and his recommendation was to install modular, energy-efficient boilers with a plate heat exchanger to deliver long-term improved heating reliability while reducing energy consumption and carbon and NOx emissions.

“This was the most practical, cost-effective and reliable approach to improve outcomes for residents on the Smirthwaite estate,” Rob continued. “It met all of WDH’s requirements, providing a more energy- efficient heating and hot water service, minimising disruption to residents, and enabling easy future maintenance by their in-house technical team.”

Rob specified the installation of eight Remeha Gas 220 Ace 300 boilers in a back-to-back arrangement using a Remeha off-site fabricated cascade system with a Plate Heat Exchanger (PHE).

Remeha is part of Baxi Commercial Solutions and the manufacturer’s team worked with Rob and WDH to prepare CAD and 3D drawings of the boiler cascade arrangement. In addition to the boilers, pumps and plate heat exchanger, the packaged solution included a pressurisation unit, a dosing pot and an expansion vessel.

“I’ve used the Remeha preassembled rig systems before,” Rob comments. “The products, design and customer service from the Baxi Commercial Solutions team are all excellent. WDH’s technical services team are also familiar with Remeha products and have a great relationship with the sales and technical support teams, so it was a logical selection.”

Complete package

In addition to the boilers, pumps and PHE, the packaged solution included a pressurisation unit, a dosing pot and an expansion vessel.

The detailed CAD and 3D drawings provided early visualisation of the layout. Through subsequent collaborative discussions with the group, revisions were considered and implemented to reach a final design that met all the site constraints and requirements. Production then took place in a factory environment, with comprehensive end-of-line testing.

The equipment was delivered to site in clearly numbered pallets with a reference drawing for guidance. The WDH technical services team then bolted the boilers together and connected them to the existing system.

“It is very unusual for an in-house team to be able to carry out a project of this scale,” says Stephen Dumbrell, WDH assistant mechanical services manager. “One of the many benefits of using the rig was that it provided a good structure for our engineers and saved a significant amount of installation time.”

The switch to the new boilers took around four hours, allowing WDH to achieve the key goal of minimal downtime and disruption to residents.

“The whole process was seamless,” Stephen adds. “It says a lot that the residents weren’t even aware that we were refurbishing the heating system!”

Commissioning was carried out by Baxi’s commissioning engineers who safety tested the installation in conjunction with the WDH site team. Baxi Commercial Solutions will also provide WDH’s technical services team with onsite training on the new boilers to ensure ongoing high performance.

Big improvement

Jason Male was one of the WDH engineers on the project. So how did he find working on the installation?

“This was a great project to be involved with and everything ran very smoothly,” says Jason. “The rig is outstanding and looks really impressive. The support we received from the Baxi team throughout was top notch. They were brilliant to work with and really helpful – we couldn’t have asked for better!”

On both an operational and aesthetic level, the outcome is ticking all the boxes.

“The plant room has been completely transformed,” Stephen adds. “We now have a very well organised plant room that makes the best use of space and provides good accessibility to all the boilers for future maintenance to optimise efficiency and reliability.”

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