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 | | AQUATHERM ENSURES WARM GREEN FUTURE AT BRISTOL SCHOOLS | | | Aquatherm Sales (UK) Ltd | | 16/06/2008 | | | Sustainably produced pipework is being supplied and installed by Aquatherm for building services and floor heating systems at four Bristol secondary schools, redeveloped under the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. Aquatherm supplied and installed heating systems for more than 18,000m2 of college floors, together with distribution pipework and much of the plant room pipework. Aquatherm is a leading supplier of innovative socket-fusion polypropylene piping for building services, potable water and fire systems.
Bristol City Council is among the BSF leaders with significant redevelopments already finished and others nearing completion. Aquatherm systems were specified for the Bristol Brunel Academy (formerly Speedwell Technology College) and Bristol Metropolitan College (Whitefields Fishponds Community School), which are complete, as well the Bridge Learning Campus (Hartcliffe Engineering Community School) and Brislington Enterprise College, which are on track for completion during 2008 and early 2009.
All four eco-friendly installations use grey water, heated by biomass boilers backed up by high efficiency gas fired condensing boilers. Hot water flows between the boilers and the underfloor heating coils in Aquatherm polypropylene pipes. The heating coils, also Aquatherm pipes, are mounted under the sprung timber floors of sports halls and dance studios, and elsewhere in learning areas and other facilities are built into the concrete floor. Heating coils are connected on the Tichelmann (ring) system, which maintains the same pressure to all coils – ensuring even heating, irrespective of the distance from the boiler. Aquatherm also provided piping to some radiators via central plastic manifolds which have thermoelectric valves remotely controlled through the building management systems. Plant room equipment and pipework was fabricated at Aquatherm’s Sussex base, and on site.
Bristol Brunel Academy has 1,000m2 of sprung-floor systems and 2,000 m2 of traditional underfloor heating; Bristol Metropolitan College 1,500m2; the Bridge Learning Campus 10,500m2; and Brislington Enterprise College 3,500m2.
Director Steve Smith says Aquatherm was selected both for efficiency of floor heating and also because both product material and manufacture are non-polluting and future-orientated. “Our range of pipes with outside diameters from 16mm to 250mm, is made from polypropylene PP-R (80). In 2001, the PP-R formulation, fusiolen, was the first to qualify for the label ‘Product approved by Greenpeace’, (this approval is licensed for application throughout many European countries” he says. “Underfloor heating requires lower energy input than a radiator-based system to achieve uniform comfort – meaning less CO2 per unit of heat. Heating in this way thermally conditions the concrete floor, and this thermal mass adds to the efficiency of the overall system.”
Aquatherm Sales UK was formed in 2001 to promote polypropylene piping in building services. Its range includes piping, components for chilled and hot fluid systems, radiator connector systems, underfloor heating systems and heating/cooling grid systems. Aquatherm is one of the world’s leading environmental piping systems, and ever conscious of global warming, the UK company continues to establish and promote eco-friendly principles to an industry where energy-intensive metal systems are traditional. Having started as a one-man business, Aquatherm Sales UK now employs more than 60 people and occupies more than 1,000m2 of warehouse and fabrication workshop at Burgess Hill, East Sussex. | |
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