Holiday homes have hot water as a centralised service
Domestic hot water for seven recently completed luxury holiday cottages in the grounds of a 12th-century Cistercian priory in North Yorkshire is provided by a recirculation system using lightweight Microflex PE-Xa multi-core pipes in HD-PE outer jackets. Supplied by Watts Industries, the pipes were chosen for their energy efficiency and ease of laying into an underground ring circuit connecting the cottages to the central plant room of Syningthwaite Priory.
The stone cottages are built in cloister formation and are a mixture of barn and outbuilding conversions and new structures.
The dual-fuel oil/gas boiler and the Microflex piping were installed by J. Higgs (Lowdham) Ltd of Nottingham. Director Peter Higgs says, ‘It was our first time with Microflex, and it proved a most satisfactory experience. The pipes are very simple to lay in trenches. They go round surprisingly tight corners with ease, and they are no trouble to connect.
‘They were specified for this project because they are the fastest way to provide an underground pipe system — and more importantly because their excellent insulation will reduce heat loss as the hot water circulates.
‘What’s more, the insulated pipes are said to have a life expectancy that could see this installation lasting well into the 22nd century.’
The flexibility of these pipes is indicated by two 40 mm core pipes in a 160 mm outer pipe being bent to a radius of 250 mm. They are supplied in customised lengths up to 100 m.
