Sirius floor standing and wall mounted boilers from Potterton Commercial have substantially reduced the fuel bills and are helping to meet energy saving targets for halls of residence at the University of Bristol.
Originally built in 1746, Clifton Hill House is a Grade 2 listed building providing accommodation for 225 students at the University of Bristol. The existing boilers had come to the end of their working lives and were becoming unreliable, and with a need to provide 24 hour heating and hot water for the students, it was time to replace them.
Jeni Cummins, Senior Engineer (estates) at University of Bristol, explains: “We had a couple of challenges to overcome when approaching this project. Firstly, with students paying for their courses and accommodation, we need to operate the buildings far more effectively, more like a hotel. Our students can often be active during the night, so it is important that we provide heating and hot water whenever they need it.
“In addition, this is a listed building, so we can do little to improve the windows or the fabric of the building, and we planned to keep the existing pipework, radiators and heat emitters at this stage of the works.
“Finally, the University has signed up to meet the ambitious European 20-20-20 targets, so saving energy is critical – any alterations we make to the building services must be better than what is currently installed. This meant that we needed to make considerable improvements just by changing the equipment in our plant rooms.
“We selected Potterton Commercial to supply the new boilers, because we were able to afford to replace all the boilers we needed to. They provided the perfect solution and were more cost effective than the other manufacturers we spoke to.
“Our specification was for boilers with stainless steel heat exchangers, and Potterton Commercial could supply the right boilers to meet our needs.”
The installation was carried out by Integral UK Ltd. The team at Potterton Commercial was on hand to offer technical help and advice for the contractor if they needed it. However, Thomas Sleigh, Projects Manager at Integral, said: “From our side, boiler installation was easy because the boiler plant instructions are self-explanatory for our experienced engineers.”
The first plant room serves 155 students housed in the oldest buildings on site: Fry, Old Clifton, Callander and the dining hall. Two floor standing Potterton Sirius FS 525 easily fitted through the plant room doors and were installed to supplement the two existing Andrews Water Heaters ECOFlo 380/1900. A plate heat exchanger was installed to protect the boilers as the existing pipework has been reused.
The second plant room in 1970s-built South Block serves 75 students. A cascade frame with three wall hung Potterton Sirius WH 110 was installed, along with a hydraulic manager with low loss header and air separator built in. It comprises two circuits, one to the cylinder and one to the radiators, with weather compensation to adjust the heating according to the conditions outside.
The Potterton boilers installed easily provide the heating and hot water required for the students. They were easy to install in the plant rooms, using the existing pipework. Most importantly, the new boilers have delivered significant cost savings of over £17,000 (pro rata) for the first year.
Jeni concludes: “Potterton Commercial provided boilers with stainless steel heat exchangers to suit our specification, that were easy replacements for our old boilers, fitted neatly into our existing plant rooms and have helped us make substantial savings on our fuel bills, while ensuring a reliable source of heating for our students.”
