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Date: August 2021
Hamilton School’s Requirement
Hamilton School contacted OKEL in October 2020 as the school was looking to upgrade the old and obsolete commercial boilers in the main building with more modern and energy-efficient commercial boilers.
Sometime previous, a new modern wing with its own plant room had been added to the school, and the older main building reduced in size. This meant that the existing boilers in the main building were now slightly oversized.
The existing boilers were floor-standing and located below ground in the school basement. The basement was in a high-risk flooding area and prone to flooding. At the time of OKEL’s initial site survey, the basement had been flooded and the base of the existing boilers was submerged in water.
At the time of survey, the existing pumps within the plant room were working and in good order, therefore, it wasn’t necessary to replace these and have the unnecessary added expense of replacing the pumps at the time of the boilers upgrade.
The programming of the boilers was integrated into the school complex building management system and staff struggled to operate the boilers when the caretaker/building site manager was not on site. It was therefore a request of the customer that the new boiler systems could be operated by a more user-friendly thermostat controller that would sit outside of the BMS.
When deciding on the best commercial boiler solution for our customer, we wanted to ensure that the new boilers were suitably sized for the main building. Our choice had to take into consideration the main building that had been condensed in size to make way for the new wing; and, as importantly, we wanted to ensure that the new boilers were protected from water damage in the event of more flooding in the basement.
It was also essential that the customer had peace of mind that in the event of one boiler breaking down, they would not lose all heat within the school which, on the grounds of health and safety standards, could potentially result in pupils and staff being sent home.
Having considered all findings, we chose to install 2 x ATAG Commercial XL140 and 1 x ATAG Commercial XL70 boiler systems. There were chosen as a result of the outstanding efficiencies associated with the XL boiler model (99.3% gross efficiency) which theoretically recovers 99.3 pence for every £1 of gas used; and comprehensive manufacturers parts and labour warranty.
We chose to mount the 3 boilers higher up above floor level onto a specialist ATAG boiler cascade and rig to help protect the boilers from possible flood waters. In addition, the new boiler systems were bypassed from the school’s BMS system, and a new and easy to use thermostatic heater controller was installed.
In buildings with older wet central heating systems, such as pipes and radiators, installing a new modern pressurised boiler system can sometimes reveal weak spots in the old inherent pipes, leading to leaks or pressure loss. To avoid this issue, we have chosen to incorporate a plated heat exchanger into our design. This heat exchanger acts as a barrier between the new boiler systems and the existing central heating systems throughout the school, ensuring that the two remain separate and are protected from one other.
Hamilton School and Birmingham City Council required that the installation of the commercial boilers take place during the summer half-term holidays. This was to ensure that it did not impact the pupils during term time and to allow sufficient time for the installation in case any obstacles were encountered.
All works were completed to schedule during August, to include the decommissioning and removal of the obsolete boilers. As the caretaker/building site manager was working on-site during the summer holidays, we were able to give a detailed handover and demonstration of the new boiler controls, so that they could show other nominated staff members when they returned to school in September.
By removing the inefficient boiler systems on-site and replacing with OKEL’s high-efficiency ATAG Commercial XL boiler solution, we estimate energy savings of around 30%.