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Sink or Basin-led Projects Go Low Carbon

July 10, 2023/in Blog, care homes, Education, healthcare, Hot Water, Hotels, Leisure, Net Zero, New Product Pages, office buildings, restaurants

Sink or Basin Led Projects Go Low Carbon

For commercial organisations, there is a new pre-sized response to sink or basin-led hot water projects from Adveco. The next-generation FUSION range from Adveco is a complete range of packaged electric and packaged renewable electric water heaters.

FUSION is a modern, future-proof system that embraces electric water heating and the option to incorporate air source heat pumps (ASHP) to lower carbon emissions in line with government calls for net zero. As an all-electric system, it uses familiar technology that is relatively simple and quick to install, cost-effective, reduces carbon emissions and removes dangerous NOₓ emissions for improved indoor air quality (IAQ) for enhanced occupant comfort. With an increased heating capacity over first-generation Adveco FUSION systems of up to 34 kW, the next generation of FUSION systems offers greater versatility for meeting domestic hot water (DHW) demands across a range of properties used for commercial operations. Projects with small to medium sink or and basin-led hot water demands, taller buildings with basement plant rooms and businesses that depend on 24/7 hot water provision for continuity of service all gain advantages from using FUSION.

The packaged format enables flexibility to specify from a range of cylinders, primary electrical heating, air source heat pumps for pre-heat, and immersions for back-up all supported by Adveco’s bespoke controls to ensure optimal, efficient operation. FUSION cylinders (ATSI & ATST) come with dedicated mounting points for the ARDENT electric boiler, simplifying and reducing the chance of installation errors.

By mounting the electric boiler directly to the cylinder FUSION is a more compact, space-saving option when specifying or having to refurbish an existing plant room. The cylinder connections and clean-out plate are all arranged on the front of the tank for easy access when connecting pre-built pipework with a choice of left- or right-hand side connection, and for regular maintenance. This arrangement also enables FUSION to be situated tightly into a corner, again maximising available space. Corrosion-resistant stainless steel construction makes FUSION’s cylinders perfect for either soft or hard water areas. With 10 Bar operating pressure, the ATSI and ATST are more than capable of serving the needs of taller buildings, especially those with existing basement plant rooms.

The use of the 9, 12 or 24 kW ARDENT electric boiler replaces the use of a single immersion for primary heating. Capital costs are not only equivalent, but ARDENT, with multiple immersions inside its sealed storage tank provides automatically balanced usage to prolong system life and immediate resilience for the boiler should there be a failure of one of its immersions. The typical cause of immersion failure in sink or basin-led systems is the creation of limescale in hard water areas, production of which is accelerated by the higher heat intensity of electrical water heating. This is avoided in FUSION, as the ARDENT is used in a sealed ‘primary’ loop to an indirect coil in the system’s cylinder. The ARDENT electric boiler heats the same water continuously so there is only a small, finite amount of scale in the system which will not damage the elements, effectively eliminating damage to the immersions by limescale.

FUSION cylinders offer single (ATSI) and twin-coil (ATST) variants with capacities ranging from 200 to 500 litres. Single coil cylinders (ASTI) are used for standard electric indirect water heating with an ARDENT electric boiler (FUSION-E), and the option of an immersion for resistive heating ‘directly’ to water in the cylinder (FUSION-Eplus).

Dual-coil cylinders (ATST) enable the addition of a 6 or 10 kW FPi32 monobloc air to water heat pump. The ASHP is connected to the lower coil and supplies indirect pre-heat to the vessel, while ARDENT is connected to the upper coil to provide primary indirect heating (FUSION-T & -Tplus). FUSION E systems come with a thermostat and overheat thermostat as standard, but for renewable variants featuring dual-coil ATST cylinders and ASHP, optimisation within the FUSION system comes from Adveco’s purpose-built FUSION Control Box. This smartly balances the two heat sources enabling the water in the cylinder to be heated in the most efficient way. The heat pump’s contribution is maximised, achieving a working pre-heat flow temperature of 50°C under UK weather conditions, even if the ambient air temperature drops as low as -25°C.

With the cylinder water pre-heated by the ASHP, the ARDENT boiler is not required to work as hard to raise flow temperatures to the 65°C demanded by commercial applications. Electrical demand on the boiler is reduced by as much as 30%, delivering operational savings and reducing carbon emissions by up to 71%. This variant is perfect for organisations seeking to invest in a water heating application as part of a decarbonisation strategy without losing sight of higher operational costs associated with all-electric systems compared to equivalent gas-fired water heating.

Where hot water demands become a business-critical service, FUSION will also support the addition of an Adveco backup immersion providing additional resilience. Fitted into the front-facing clean-out access, the immersion ensures there is no single point of failure for assured service provision. When only used as an emergency heating source, or during periods of unplanned excess demand, the inclusion of an electric immersion can be extremely advantageous. For FUSION systems incorporating the additional backup immersion (FUSION FPH-Eplus & FPH-Tplus) controls are further extended to incorporate SMS output to advise building managers of a fault scenario and automated engagement of the immersion back-up to guarantee business-critical hot water supply.

For commercial organisations specifying a sink or basin-led hot water system for new buildings faced with regulatory changes on new gas connections, or planning to move from existing gas-fired systems to electrical alternatives FUSION provides an impressive range of choices whether cost, sustainability or business security are the driving factors for specification.

Low-Carbon Hot Water: A Blended Approach

July 6, 2023/in Blog, care homes, Education, education, Health, Hot Water, Hotels, Leisure, Net Zero, office buildings, restaurants

Care Home Sustainability

February 15, 2023/in Blog, care homes, healthcare

Care home sustainability is growing on the radar of operations & building managers. It is becoming a facet of the decision-making for families and an indicator of the personal comfort the residential client can expect from a facility. Refurbishing existing facilities has a number of implications, not least cost, but also disturbance of residents, so where can quick, easier wins be made as part of a decarbonisation strategy?

Every care home needs hot water. From basins to baths and showers, catering and wash down. Most facilities will run successfully on a system based around gas-fired water heaters unless a new build in which case the preference is to move to electric water heating to take advantage of the increasingly less ‘dirty’ grid. This does have implications for running costs, with electricity on average costing as much as 3.8 times that of gas. So why change things? The simple answer is net zero, and the need to be more sustainable. Because of the ubiquitous need for hot water, which can account for as much as 30% of a building’s daily energy demands, addressing how it is secured is one of the best ways of making active carbon savings today to begin delivering care home sustainability.

Deploying either heat pumps or solar thermal as a renewable to provision the initial preheat, is the most logical approach. Where problems and unnecessary costs can quickly arise is when existing gas-fired ‘top up’ water heating is replaced with like-for-like electric which can lead to gross system oversizing. Domestic hot water (DHW) systems that deliver care home sustainability should still be designed to accurately meet a business’ needs. At Adveco, our application design team has a thorough knowledge of residential care, understanding the peak hour and length of the peak, which are the starting point for determining demand and ensuring the hot water system is correctly sized.

This demands a bespoke approach as every facility is different. The number of rooms, facilities such as basins, showers, deeper baths and guest mobility, all impact on the sizing. The physical constraints of the property, from plant room and roof space to noise levels all impact technology choices. Adveco can advise on this sizing and provide accurate monitoring to ensure applications are fit for purpose and future proof. As a result, decisions to move to more sustainable operations are optimised and do not leave properties facing unwarranted capital or unexpected new operational costs.

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