Fulton wins Berkshire plant room order

The plant room, which is owned by the Trust and operated by Synergy Healthcare, is located on a retained section of the former Battle Hospital site in Reading. Its three 50J gas-fired steam boilers provide steam to sterilise surgical and other instruments. It was designed, fully finished and pre-packaged at Fulton’s factory and shipped to the Trust as part of a site redevelopment and boiler decentralisation project.

Fulton was able to use the latest CAD technology to integrate the plant room equipment and ensure that it was easily accessible within the space available.

The three 50J boilers are automatically sequenced to ensure that two are always online, with the third setback boiler available on standby. The duty/standby roles were also cycled every hour to ensure equal distribution of the steam load between the boilers. The plant room also features a blowdown vessel, feedwater tank, ion exchange softener, reverse osmosis water treatment plant and chemical dosage set.

Commenting for the Trust, site engineer Peter Turner said: “We are delighted with the efforts of the Fulton team and their contribution to the project, which forms part of the biggest treasury-funded NHS building scheme in the country.