BSS helps achieve state-of-the-art DHW system
Bournemouth International Centre now has a supremely efficient system for supplying its domestic hot water following collaboration between the borough council’s building-services engineer, Bill Boutell, and Trevor Harbut, projects support team manager for BSS Industrial acting as consultant to the council. The work was carried out in two stages — replacing two big calorifiers served by the main heating boilers and then adding solar thermal.
‘The key issue was determining the usage patterns for hot water. ‘The peak periods for use tend to be during major events, particularly during the interval of a performance, explains Trevor Harbut. ‘The council approach us to try to find a more efficient and cost-effective solution. We calculated the peak and annual hot-water load by surveying the building and understanding the building’s usage and also monitored water-meter readings wherever possible. In the end, we came up with a worst-case loading for the hot water upon which we based our design for the new system.’
The answer was to plan to use non-operational days to build up free solar-thermal energy for days of peak use.
The first stage, however, was to replace the calorifier/boiler system with an independent DHW system based on four Boss BXP water heaters of 180 l each. That work raised the efficiency of the DHW provision from 70% to 98%, giving a £12 000 saving in the first year.Crucially, BSS encouraged the council to include isolation valves to facilitate adding solar pre-heat at a future date.
Phase 2 of the project has now been completed with the installation of 27 solar-thermal panels that are calculated to be capable for providing 30% of the annual demand for hot water.
