With hot water originally being provided from cylinders with a feed tank located above in their properties, many residents at Smith’s Farm Estate in Ealing had been suffering with low water pressure. Now, however, thanks to the installation of BoilerMate mains pressure hot water thermal store from Gledhill, water quality and pressure for all 100 social housing apartments has never been better.
Low Pressure
The one and two-bedroom apartments at Smith’s Farm Estate are operated by Ealing Council and have been maintained and repaired by property maintenance specialist, T Brown Group, since the company was contracted by the London Borough in 2009.
Many of the properties have only one resident, so the issues with water pressure were related to the existing hot water system rather than consumption levels. Some residents had installed booster pumps in their apartments to improve the water pressure in their homes. However, while this helped the pressure in those individual properties, it did not address the ongoing problem across the Ealing Council block. To rectify the issue, as part of the upgrade program of the existing central boiler plant, the cylinders in each of the properties would be replaced by T Brown Group.
Power Shower Performance
T Brown Group upgraded the central boiler plant with twenty 30-60kW boilers, providing all 100 properties with heating and, indirectly, powering the hot water system too. Gledhill’s BoilerMate hot water thermal stores were then installed in each property to enable the feed tank to be removed and provide mains pressure hot water in every apartment without the need for booster pumps. The BoilerMate BP thermal store is designed to provide up to 30 litres of domestic hot water per minute, which can fill a standard bath within 3-4 minutes.
Terry Howells from T Brown Group, explains: “In a social housing apartment block like this project at Smith’s Farm Estate, minimising disruption for residents is a key factor and the ease of installation offered by Gledhill’s BoilerMate thermal stores enabled faster project delivery, reducing the amount of work we needed to carry out in each apartment.
“The use of the open vented thermal stores means there is no requirement for an annual safety check, resulting in less disruption for residents and lower maintenance costs for Ealing Council on an ongoing basis too.”
Safety & Comfort
Water from the central boiler plant heats the store via a primary coil and the domestic hot water is heated indirectly by the store en route to the hot water tap, meaning the hot water is the mains cold water which is heated instantaneously, there is no risk from Legionella.
Paul Debono, M&E engineer at Ealing Council’s Regeneration & Housing department, adds: “Ealing Council is committed to providing safe and comfortable homes for our tenants and this installation delivers that commitment while providing a cost-effective and low maintenance long-term solution.”