Coster takes control at new fire station

Control of the heating and ventilating systems for the new state-of-the-art fire station in St Albans is provided by a Coster system based on its DTE 611 modular BMS concept. The services installation was designed by Mace, and the controls were installed by Palace Tech of Rochester, a premier partner in Coster’s national distribution network. The building is divided into five main mixed-flow zones. Two zones (corridors and recreation and the offices) are heated by radiators. An underfloor heating system serves the rest of the building, including the appliance bay. This heating system ensures unimpeded access to all areas, and the temperature is quickly restored after the doors have been opened for fire appliances to leave or return. Control of both the radiator and underfloor heating systems is by a Coster DTE611E serving the boiler and zone 1 and two 602 slave units each serving two zones. The DTE611 calculates the time needed to raise the internal zone temperatures from night setback based on data acquired during the previous operating cycle and will over-run the timer if appropriate. The system makes all necessary allowances for the different flow temperatures and warm-up times for the radiator and underfloor circuits. Seven air-handling units with heat recovery are controlled by three Coster UPT units. Using a specially designed plug-in connector, Palace Tech engineers can log in to the control panel and access 36 hours of recorded data for fine tuning the system. If required, the system can be integrated into a remote monitoring and data-acquisition centre at any time in the future.