Domestic-type boilers provide effective replacement solution for nursing home
To overcome the problems that would have been presented by renewing boiler plant in a nursing home with two commercial boilers, contractor MH Craggs ganged together six Glow-worm domestic boilers.
The replacement of boiler plant serving a nursing home has been effectively achieved by ganging six domestic boilers together rather than using two commercial boilers flued to the front of the building. Roger Peet of contractor MH Craggs explains, ‘The architect was absolutely against the concept of using domestic boilers ganged and fitted with controls as opposed to two commercial boilers, which would have taken up a huge space.‘In the end, we prevailed by sheer force of our common-sense proposition. Six Glow-worm boilers provide all the heating and hot water, via a hopper head, needed by the site.’ This nursing home was badly in need of new boilers. The old boilers were failing regularly, which was not acceptable at a nursing home for elderly people, where reliability is all-important to the wellbeing and comfort of patients. Roger Peet and Craggs plumbing manager David Thompson designed the new heating and hot-water system. Installation required five days of downtime during the summer, compared with an estimated eight to 12 weeks if conventional commercial boilers had been installed.
The installation separates the provision of heating and hot water, and the control system includes weather compensation. Roger Peet continues, ‘The flow rate of domestic boilers is obviously an important technical point — so we designed and had made a 6-inch hopper head in two sections with a 4-inch “dog bone” in the middle to handle this.’ To cover the possibility of breakdowns, a ‘hospital kit’ of spares is kept to hand so that faults can be fixed immediately. This kit cost about £800 — about the price of one major spare part in a commercial boiler.
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