More than 24,640 metres of Q&E PE-X polyethylene pipe from Uponor has been used as part of the heating and plumbing system at a new student living community for Royal Holloway, University of London.
Constructed by Willmott Partnership Homes, the development provides a new model for student living, comprising 56 town houses and a central amenity block to create a homely feel. Meanwhile, a sense of community is provided through shared internal and exterior spaces and student living is made safer with CCTV and monitoring of all building services through the university-wide building management system (BMS).
Uponor’s Q&E PE-X pipe system was specified by the project’s mechanical and electrical contractor, LJJ, following successful installation on numerous previous LJJ projects. Used for all internal pipework networks and connections inside all the town houses and the amenity block, the WRAS-approved Q&E PE-X system has been installed in varying sizes from 16mm to 40mm for all the drinking water, hot water and heating pipe infrastructure. Uponor’s colour-coding system has been used to identify each network to aid future maintenance and co-ordination of services installation on site.
As part of the project, Uponor has also provided a full training programme for LJJ’s mechanical installation team to ensure the integrity of the finished networks. The company requires that every installer has been fully trained within the past two years with an individually-numbered and trackable certificate of competence to underpin quality management at every stage of project delivery.
Use of the Uponor Q&E PE-X system helped to reduce installation times and labour costs on site thanks to the simple connection technique used to create robust, reliable joins using Uponor’s specially-developed expander tool. The full bore connections mean that heat loss is significantly reduced as the pipe surface remains smooth at the join, providing an installation that is both faster to install and offers enhanced functionality.
John Daly from LJJ comments: “Because the Q&E PE-X system is so flexible and available in so many sizes, we were able to reduce the number of connections needed by utilising longer pipe runs, which makes the installation much quicker and simpler and safer due to fewer connections.
“Where connections were necessary, the speed and ease of the Q&E PE-X full bore connection method reduced the time required and provided a more robust joint with Uponor’s onsite training supporting our team to make efficient use of materials and ensure the very highest standards across the installation.”
Uponor Manifolds were also used on the scheme, further speeding up the installation, which delivers heating and hot water to each town house via a district heating system powered by a CHP (combined Heat and Power) unit and three gas fired boilers.
John adds: “This is a very complex and time critical project; effectively we are installing the services in a small village and all 56 properties and the amenity block have to be ready for the start of the academic year in September. Uponor’s advanced Q&E PE-X pipe system has helped us engineer some of the challenges out of the scheme and keep the programme on track.”
