Simpler and quicker boiler installation equals more profit

Remeha, Quinta Pro, wall hung boiler
Quicker and cheaper boiler replacement — Mark Northcott.

Skid-mounted prefabricated packaged boiler plant can help make it much easier and quicker to install commercial boilers, as Mark Northcott explains.

With workloads decreasing and many building-services firms laying off staff, any solution that allows you to complete the job more quickly, enabling a lower manning level to be as efficient and achieve the same results as before, has got to be good news. Quite simply, the faster you can complete an installation, the faster you can move on to the next job and the more profit you can make.

That why manufacturers are doing everything they can to simplify the installation of their products. A skid-mounted prefabricated boiler package — effectively a prefabricated boiler house without the shell — makes installation far easier and faster. The building-services contractor can install the boiler package in hours rather than days.

Going down the prefabricated route has many benefits for the installer as listed below.

The whole boiler package is assembled in a controlled factory environment, which reduces the time spent on site and removes site access issues such as poor weather, opening times etc.

Minimising welding hot works from site has massive implications in terms of health and safety for contracting teams.

Manufacturing the boiler package in the controlled conditions of a factory results in a consistently high build quality. Prefabricated construction also ensures conformity to the latest building standards and principles of quality assurance. The knock-on effect of such strict factory conditions and build quality is improved boiler performance.

Waste materials from the manufacturing process can be recycled more easily in the factory. This, together with the fact that traffic movements can be significantly reduced, is also better for the environment.

Prefabricated units make the delivery and install­ation process of boilers predictable and, therefore, easy to plan.

• The complete boiler package will have been checked and tested in the factory before arriving on site so the installer can be confident that it is fully functioning and will be complete, with no missing parts.

• Off-site prefabrication of the boiler package enables fit-out services to be co-ordinated more easily. In typical commercial projects, different trades tend to get in each other’s way in a bid to get their own particular element of the project completed. Prefabrication allows the project to be planned in such a way that these conflicts do not occur.

 

• Construction costs can be significantly lower because the construction process is faster, more predictable, of higher quality, less wasteful and safer.

The benefits of such prefabricated boiler packages are not restricted to contractors. By specifying the offsite approach, consulting engin­eers can feel much more confident that they are meeting their health-and-safety respons­ibilities under the Construction (Design & Management) Regulations.

 

Remeha, Quinta Pro, wall hung boiler
Installing cascade boiler systems using a complete kit of parts from the manufacturer dramatically reduces installation time on site. This set up comprises eight Quinta Pro boilers from Remeha.

The result­ing reduction in hot works and transference of works from site to factory ensure that prefabrication is a far safer option. In fact, statistics from a research project carried out by Loughborough University into health and safety during construction shows that manufacturing sector is six times safer than construction.

 

Furthermore, consultants will want to deliver cost certainty and reduced risk for their clients. Equally, better quality will lead to reduced maintenance and minimise overall lifecycle costs.

So how does it work in practice? The skid system comprises a welded and powder-coated box frame mounted on wheels with all the boilers, interconnecting pipework, control system and pressurisation units already connected up and ready to go.

Using a skid-mounted package, a typical boiler changeover simply involves removing one or more boilers to make room for the new units, wheeling in the replacements, and making the flow, return, gas flue and electrical connections. Skid-mounted packages come as a complete assembly with flow and return connections in the system, as well as the gas and power supply.

Skid-mounted boilers also offer a further significant advantage — the smallest possible footprint. This, combined with the fact that there are no housings or running gear associated with the skid-mounted boiler, makes it possible to place a higher-capacity system in a smaller space.

As well as skid-mounting, boiler manufacturers can also supply cascade sets for when it is advantageous to spread the total required heat output over several boilers. In a cascade configuration, boilers are connected together hydraulically and to the gas supply, with sequence or step controls to more accurately follow the building’s load demand. If the heat demand increases or decreases, boilers are switched on or off as required.

Cascade systems from Remeha, for example, comprise a kit of parts that include an hydraulic low-loss header and all pipework from boilers leading to main hydraulic and gas connections, including all necessary isolating valves and a kit of parts to make a frame to support the boilers and pipework.

 

As with the skid-mounted system, the advantage to the installer is that labour time on site is drastically reduced, allowing the job to be completed more quickly. At Remeha, supply and procurement is easy because all parts required to connect and mount the boilers together are supplied in a convenient kit. Every little helps in the current business climate.

Mark Northcott is director of commercial products at Remeha.

 

Remeha is launching its Quinta Pro in labour saving skid and cascade kits in January 2011.

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