Andrews Water Heaters has supplied two SOLARflo water heating systems, along with Queen’s Award-winning MAXXflo condensing water heaters, for Wolverhampton’s new Beacon Centre for the Blind.
The facilities comprise a three-storey office block and separate support area to the residential block, both designed to be highly energy-efficient. The two SOLARflo systems were specified by CIBSE-registered low carbon consultants Rediger. The office block system provides domestic hot water to washroom facilities and kitchenettes on three floors – 24 washbasins and five sinks. In the residential support building, the system serves a kitchen with four outlets, a hairdresser’s with four basins, a bar with two sinks, and two toilet areas with eight washbasins. Both were designed and installed by William Davis. The office block system comprises six roof-mounted, glazed flat plate solar collectors with a 15.6 m2 total area, a 900 litre twin-coil cylinder, and a MAXXflo CWH120/300 condensing storage water heater. The MAXXflo water heater, cylinder, and other components, are located in the ground floor plant room, where the water heater is installed with a horizontal, balanced flue. The residential support block has seven roof-mounted solar collectors. A 700 litre twin-coil cylinder, a MAXXflo CWH 60/300 water heater, and the remainder of the solar package, are again installed in a ground floor plant. These high efficiency, gas-fired, condensing storage water heaters each have a 300 litre capacity and recovery rates through 50°C of 1,020 litres per hour for the CWH 60/300 and 2,040 litres per hour for the CWH 120/300. Water is preheated by the glazed flat plate solar collectors, which have a transmission efficiency of 90.8%, an absorption efficiency of 95%, and a low emission loss of only 5%. Heat is transferred to the two twin-coil cylinders, which in turn pre-heat the supply to the MAXXflo water heaters, thereby considerably reducing consumption of natural gas.
