Modern Building Services

20 MODERN BUILDING SERVICES MARCH 2021 FEATURE HEATING HEATING W orking in a COVID-19 world has required adaptability and resourcefulness from the heating and building services industries in terms of working practices and techniques. Take safety. Clearly this should be a priority at all times, but with tighter safety measures in place, the focus has naturally intensified. Added to this is the need to return to delayed projects while keeping current projects on schedule. How to resolve the challenges? One option that is increasing in popularity is to use offsite prefabricated heating solutions. Offsite fabrication is well established in the building services industry and increasingly used on heating projects. A key benefit of manufacturing units or components under quality- controlled factory conditions with end-of-line testing is that it makes the process more efficient and sustainable. Onsite safety is also improved as fewer workers and skills are required on site – and for less time – reducing the number of hot works and possibility of accidents. Crucially, in current times, this makes it easier to adhere to social distancing and COVID-19 safe working guidance. It also simplifies logistics – not to mention improving the overall carbon footprint of the project – as it cuts down on the number of workers needing to travel to site. The number of deliveries is similarly reduced, avoiding complicated scheduling issues. Onsite productivity is boosted as the bespoke design process ensures faster, easier installation and commissioning. And with less potential for delay, it’s easier to keep projects on schedule and make up for any lost time. Rapid installation For larger scale projects, there are numerous tailor-made heating and hot water solutions available to meet the needs of every project. These include prefabricated modular solutions, such as packaged plant rooms and energy centres, that are transported to site in modular units for plug- and-play installation, ready for commissioning. A popular option in multi- occupancy buildings is to fabricate tailor-made modular boiler skids that can be installed in a pre- existing plant room, bolted on to the installed systems or designed to fulfil new build requirements. Similar to plant rooms, but without the walls, they are designed to address the individual requirements for each project. A Heat Interface Unit (HIU) will typically distribute the heat generated by the centralised plant to the heating and hot water system of the individual apartments. HIU utility cupboards can also be pre-manufactured or pre-assembled, configured to suit the layout, service connections and spatial requirements of each project so that they can be installed in a matter of hours. Onsite time savings One example is the recent heating refurbishment project at Valiant House, a 17-storey, 93-apartment, residential tower blockmanaged by housing association CharltonTriangle Homes, part of Peabody Group. Balancing project delays and backlogs with tighter onsite safety requirements? Prefabricated heating solutions could be the answer, says Baxi Heating’s Specification Director TomMurray The benefits of prefabrication in a COVID-19 world