Adveco AD Wall-Mounted Water Heaters For Commercial Properties

  • A range of three compact commercial semi-instantaneous gas condensing water heaters
  • Perfect for applications requiring direct contact with soft and softened water
  • Compact and smart for no-nonsense installation and maintenance

Commercial hot water specialist Adveco, announces the Adveco AD range of high-efficiency condensing gas-fired wall-mounted water heaters. Designed to provide a compact, high capacity and reliable method for delivering instantaneous hot water to a building, the new range consists of three models, the AD16 (27kW rated heat output), AD22 (33 kW) and AD37 (61 kW).

The AD is a range of ‘A’ class energy-efficient wall-mounted water heaters, with a net efficiency of up to 107% for the production of domestic hot water (DHW). With an efficient pre-mix burner and minimal NOₓ and CO emissions, the AD range is an eco-friendly way to serve a DHW system. Featuring a high 1:8 modulation ratio, wall-mounted ADs ensure maximum efficiency even during periods of low demand.

The wall-mounted water heater features a single high-quality patented heat exchanger constructed from a continuous, non-welded run of  AISI 316Ti titanium-stabi­lised stainless steel, providing exceptional construction strength and corrosion resistance. The brand-exclusive three-pass design features large bore, circular tube cross-sections that reduce the collection of debris.

Bill Sinclair, technical director, Adveco said, “For property renovation where space is at a premium or when existing gas appliances need modernising, the AD wall-mounted water heaters range delivers highly efficient operation in a compact form factor. The titanium-stabilised stainless-steel construction of the AD’s heat exchangers is also the perfect response to counter the concerns of corrosion in soft or softened water applications.”

Also included is an inbuilt controller with an LCD display that ensures full temperature control and a maintenance self-check of primary components and functions.

Additional Information

  • Compact wall-hung arrangement
  • High-efficiency pre-mix burner provides a large modulation range
  • Ultra-low NOₓ emissions at 16-29 mg/kWh
  • Available using natural gas or LPG
  • Supports standard concentric or parallel flue systems using an adaptor for low-cost 80/125 mm diameter PP available on request
  • Integrated run/fault signal for connection to BMS

Why The Move To Big Sustainability Starts With Water Heating

This September Adveco is supporting the Southern Sustainability Partnership at The Big Sustainability Expo taking place in Southampton on the 22nd. The Expo is dedicated to environmental management, corporate sustainability and the drive to net zero.

The Expo has a broad remit across corporate sustainability from energy procurement to green office supplies. Here at Adveco, our specialisation in domestic hot water applications (DHW) for commercial projects places us right in the centre of the sustainability mix, helping address carbon reduction and air quality through improved energy management and reduction, and leading the charge in innovating application designs that leverage renewable solar and air-source heat pumps as part of wider electrical and mechanical projects. Whether embracing new low-carbon building projects or supporting organisations with legacy buildings and infrastructure that want to introduce greater sustainability, we are positioned to support these goals. A very large proportion of our work, as a result, is bespoke and, as an independent company, we are able to recommend the best possible choice of appliances for optimal provision of often business-critical hot water services.

For more than 50 years Adveco has been the trusted, award-winning specialist when it comes to creating hot water systems for the building services industry. We are committed to partnering with our commercial and public sector customers, providing invaluable support from a single entity for the design, supply and then service of our applications, providing consistency from inception and on through the operational life. This is especially valuable as it places focus on reducing carbon and controlling costs not only in terms of capital investment but also for operational expenditure. It also means we can advise and adjust to adapt to new technologies as they become available and can be shown to have a practical advantage in striving for net zero by 2050.

Today, our applications are primarily built around air source heat pumps, solar thermal, direct electric and gas-fired water heaters and boilers. A wide range of thermal storage vessels and ancillaries support bespoke and hybrid system designs for new build and refurbishment projects. We can also bring all this technology together into either bespoke or pre-sized prefabricated hot water plant rooms. These are constructed off-site at our facilities and delivered ready for immediate installation, minimising the onsite requirements for plumbing and electrical connections. A plant room can now be delivered, installed and operational in a matter of days and often makes use of unused and wasted space, from rooftops to waste ground.

Looking forward, especially for those businesses already on gas, there is a strong potential for hydrogen blend and truly green hydrogen-based systems that hold the potential to take us to net zero faster and with less physical alteration to existing buildings, which translates to lower cost implementation and a ready familiarity for operating and maintaining services. Most modern gas appliances will already be capable of accepting the intended 20% hydrogen/natural gas blend currently being tested for the grid, whilst 100% hydrogen blend will form the second generation approach as services roll out nationally through the late 2030s and 2040s.

True sustainability for much of the UK’s commercial real estate will therefore be a longer-term project, but that doesn’t mean we can sit on our laurels. Every business can begin to make changes now that will have a more profound impact as we move closer to the 2050 deadline, small changes quickly aggregate into major shifts in the way you and your staff think and operate. Much focus has been placed on space heating, but, if this past summer heat wave is not an aberration but a symptom of global warming as most claim, then focus will inevitably shift from heating to cooling and indoor air quality (IAQ). Water heating however remains the exception that makes year-round demands on business no matter the weather conditions. For many, it is a necessity for day-to-day operations. Hot water provision is a major source of energy demand for some businesses, as much as 30% of the total energy usage, so if you are trying to decide where to begin investing efforts toward greater sustainability, water heating is going to be a good starting point. Addressing how hot water is generated to meet demands is a really sensible place to begin tackling sustainability issues, reducing energy usage and emissions in a practical, real-world manner right now and setting the agenda for positive investment in sustainability.

That all pays dividends, it is better for the environment, for staff and customers, and it’s good for business to be seen to be making a real investment in the future. Plus, you gain more modern, efficient and potentially more cost-effective building services which all help with the bottom line.

Come and speak to us on stand 99 in the Kingsland Suite at The Big Sustainability Expo about your hot water requirements. If you haven’t registered to attend you can do so for free here.

building sustainability into commercial hot water DHW

Building Sustainability Into Commercial DHW

For more than fifty years, Adveco has been a leading innovator providing domestic hot water (DHW) applications for commercial-scale projects across the UK. Today its focus is shifting to encompass a blend of traditional and new, more renewable technologies in the form of solar thermal and especially heat pumps building sustainability into commercial DHW systems.

With a predicted one-third rise in non-domestic floor space by 2050, much of the current focus resides on new builds, but this still leaves more than 1.6 million pre-existing non-domestic buildings in England and Wales, generating almost one-fifth of the UK’s carbon emissions, needing expert, practical support.

Air source heat pumps (ASHP) have become the poster child technology for the government’s net zero strategy and therefore a core tool for building sustainability into commercial DHW systems.  The advantage of ASHPs is that, with performance greater than 100%, they can extract additional energy from outside of the building’s metered systems delivering significant carbon savings. For a commercial DHW system, it is recommended that a working water temperature from the ASHP, such as Adveco’s FPi32 or L70, must be at least 55°C. This is certainly attainable from current generation ASHPs when deployed in a hybrid approach. This uses the ASHP as preheat and combines it with either gas-fired or more preferably an electric top-up to achieve the required hot water temperature. This is where the additional system complexity and cost can creep in. But by correctly balancing a system through a mix of physical spacing in the vessel and system monitoring with dedicated controls, as developed for the Adveco FUSION, the system no longer fights itself, working seamlessly to deliver the highest operational efficiencies

In line with the European Commission’s proposal for a tightening of F-Gas regulations, development work continues at pace to support the introduction of R290, or propane as it is more commonly known. This refrigerant offers a coefficient of performance (COP) that enables working flow temperatures from an ASHP of up to 75°C and potentially much higher. This means future commercial systems can be less complex, without the need for additional electric immersion for high-temperature top-up and flushing for legionella protection. That said, immersions remain perfectly suitable for low-demand backup applications in boiler-fed indirect cylinders, ensuring business-critical DHW demands are met.

What we have seen more recently though is a shift in use, where immersions are used ‘directly’ in high-demand commercial applications as the primary heat source. An electric immersion heater has a high heat intensity compared to gas or indirect and, when coupled with high operating temperatures and hard water will increase the rate of scale formation which, over time, will cause the element to rupture.

In response, protecting a system from limescale is often only addressed by a vigorous cleaning regime. This method has a cost and downtime associated with it that is not acceptable for many commercial buildings.  For this reason, minimisation of scale formation with a water softener or a scale inhibitor may be adopted, but for many sites neither provides a satisfactory response because of space, maintenance, downtime, or cost.  A better option for these sites would be to replace the immersion heaters with a low-scale forming hot water system.

The new Adveco ARDENT electric boiler range provides a proven and cost-effective answer. Electric boilers still utilise immersion heaters located in a small tank heat exchanger within the boiler housing. This electric boiler supplies a sealed ‘primary’ loop to an indirect coil in the cylinder. The electric boiler heats the same water continuously so there is only a finite amount of scale in the system which will not damage the elements. The heat exchanger in the cylinder is a large coil operating at relatively low temperatures. Adveco’s extensive experience with indirect coil use in the UK has shown that scale is not a significant problem in these systems. The electric boiler operates at the same efficiency as an electric immersion heater (100%) so the only overall difference in system efficiency is the minimal pump electrical consumption and a small amount of heat loss in the pipework.

An electric boiler hot water system will take up a little more space than an all-in-one electric cylinder, but it has more versatility and requires less clearance for the cylinder. Similarly priced to an immersion heater, an electric boiler-based system will cost slightly more due to the small amount of additional installation work. But with virtually no maintenance and the cylinder forming significantly less scale, vastly improving reliability, the operational and maintenance savings will offset these additional capital costs. The electric boiler additionally offers a level of redundancy that is not achieved with a single immersion heater.

As the limitation on new gas grid connections for heating systems becomes effective this year, it will become critical for system longevity to recognise the new challenges electric-only presents over more familiar gas-based applications. If a business already uses gas, then it can still upgrade to new gas appliances until 2035, with 100% hydrogen-ready options extending that window well into the 2040s based on current appliance lifespan.

Adveco continues to support the refurbishment of existing buildings, recently extending its ranges of direct-fired condensing water heaters – the AD and the ADplus. Both ranges provide a compact, floor-standing design that is easy to introduce into an existing plant room to provide high-demand semi-instantaneous and instantaneous hot water applications.  Improved combustion efficiency means the burner requires less gas, delivering up to 30% savings in fuel consumption, making it more cost-effective, while reducing emissions.  For smaller on-demand needs, ADplus heats only what is necessary, with no ignition for smaller withdrawals providing considerable additional energy savings. Both AD and ADplus as a result exhibit ultra-low NOX (Class 6 appliance at 27 mg/kWh) and CO emissions (19ppm). With the government already committed to enabling the blending of hydrogen in the gas grid, it is also worth noting that these latest generation direct-fired condensing water heaters will already support the initial 20% hydrogen/natural gas blend.

Together, these technologies offer actual development arcs right now for existing commercial properties that are currently on gas, or new builds seeking to embrace low or no emission choices building sustainability into commercial DHW systems for more environmentally friendly operations that will help organisations achieve net zero by 2050.