We are in Oxted, Surrey, UK at the picturesque Tandridge Golf Club.
Tandridge Golf Club…….before the diggers turned up
Having put in a new Worcester Bosch boiler system and Evohome at the home of one of the management team, they were sufficiently impressed to ask were we could have a look at a much larger commercial installation in the male and female showering block.
We found that other contractors had previously been approached but some felt it was too big for them, others did not really grasp what the management team were looking for.
The problem was that on match days, large numbers of golfers would descend on the showers and they could run continually non stop for over an hour, the golfers all aiming to be ready in time for their renowned ‘Tandridge dinner’! This was causing consternation as the hot water typically started to run out before the golfers had all showered.
Additionally, the present system provided some areas with space heating in the shower rooms and related areas.
Our brief was to design a system that could keep up with match days but be economic to run throughout the year at times when demands were less concentrated, and could also handle a small central heating load. In addition the control system should ideally allow remote monitoring and control.
10 minutes after work started
The existing system was a 30Kw Ideal Mexico domestic boiler feeding a large water calorifier (cylinder) together with a motley assortment of controls – and a substantial leak. The gas supply to the boiler was seriously undersized resulting in a working pressure of around 13mb; – this should have been picked up sometime in the previous 30 years of servicing, one might have hoped.
The white heat of technology
We looked at putting in instantaneous Rinnai heaters with a loading cylinder, but this would not address the central heating demand.
Instead we settled on an ACV Heatmaster 80TC, which is a tank in tank water heater of an unusual design. Offering high levels of condensing efficiency, this was partnered with an ACV Jumbo tank in tank buffer heatstore.
The ACV Heatmaster was attached to a header, giving three zones of heating control and the Jumbo hot water unit
The water supply to the golf club is on a 63mm main and gave an impressive working pressure but very low flow rate; we suggested this was investigated by the water supplier, and a pressure reducing valve in the network was changed to liberate a huge improvement.
In order to run the boiler system safely, a long trench had to be cut into the tarmac across the car park to carry a 63mm diameter gas supply from the main meter room on the opposite side of the building complex. This trench was made oversize to also incorporate a new 63mm water from the kitchen area.
Here we are laying a new 63mm gas main (thanks to Mitchell Design and Construction Ltd). Temporary shower block shown in background.
Whilst the showers were out of action a temporary trailer mounted heated shower block was installed adjacent to the building.
New 2″ gas distribution manifold being fabricated
Gas manifold in position
We had to work 24hrs through the night changing over the gas supplies to a new distribution manifold we had constructed in 2″ galvanised steel tube in the gas meter room, allowing separate isolation of kitchen and shower supplies, and also with provision for another isolation valve for a possible new central heating boiler plant in the near future*.
*we were fortunate to be awarded this work later in 2016, it features in another blog post.
Ricky setting up the ACV Heatmaster TC
Our model now demonstrates the ACV 750 litre Jumbo tank in tank. I can attest to how heavy this is.
The existing showers were considered suitable for the new mains pressure system, so the actual showering facilities were left unchanged. Consideration was given to the prevention of legionella bacteria in the new system, so the water is distributed to the showers and washbasins at 60C, where a TMV blender valve restricts the actual temperatures at the outlets.
Water is stored at 65C throughout the day in the ACV cylinders.
The system is controlled and monitored via a Honeywell Evohome system, with remote management on phones and iPads.
Honeywell Evohome now controls 3 heating zones, and Hot Water
