Alan Skanes’ Hot Box invention means All Four Seasons has another string to his bow when it comes to tendering for projects. Paul Braithwaite reports.
Alan Skanes, managing director of All Four Seasons, likes nothing better than messing about with pipes.

It is what he has been doing all his life, he says. However, the owner of the air conditioning and heat pump installation company in Ewell, Surrey, says his passion for pipes has helped him develop a Hot Box.

This unit can be attached to most air conditioning units or refrigeration systems and will give free hot water.

Skanes says he developed the product about two years ago and has been testing it since then. He has tied with Nigel Campbell, a building surveyor who specialises as an energy efficiency consultant and who will help companies to obtain grants for cavity wall and loft insulations. Campbell runs his own company called Everything Property.

But the pair have, they believe, a hot property in Hot Box. Skanes says that already - without the data being available - the Hot Box has helped him when tendering for jobs.

'I know of several projects where the Hot Box system swung the tender All Four Season's way.' Basically the Hot Box takes the waste heat from the air conditioning system through a heat exchanger, which is attached to a hot-water cylinder.




Skanes says that even a single 10kW split will generate enough hot water for several showers and the usual washing up in a domestic setting.

But it is in leisure complexes, hotels, care homes and schools where lashings of hot water are needed that the unit comes into its own in the summer. So passionate is Skanes his system will work that he has installed it free in Cuddington Community School, which is down the road from his office.

The school has a prefabricated standalone classroom which is too cold in winter and too hot in summer. It was heated by three phase electric heaters. All Four Seasons installed an air conditioner in the classroom and a Hot Box.

So, not only is the classroom cool in the summer, the waste heat is reclaimed and used to help heat the school's outdoor swimming pool. So the school's heating bills are cut (Skanes is currently monitoring the savings) while the air conditioning unit is used to heat the classroom in the winter instead of the electric heaters and this is also saving money.

'During the summer, the air conditioning is taking around 10kW of heat per hour and putting that straight into the swimming pool through a heat exchanger. If more heat is needed, then a secondary form of heating kicks in.'

Campbell cited a gym which he has visited recently. It has several air conditioning units with the condensing units pumping waste heat to atmosphere. It has a swimming pool, which has to be heated separately.

'This would be an ideal use of a Hot Box. The waste heat from the condensers could be pumped straight into the swimming pool to heat the water - and this heating would be free. It would save thousands of pounds.'

Skanes says that, as soon as the unit in the school has been operating for the year or two, he will have the data he needs to prove his Hot Box is cool when it comes to costs.

And it does not matter whether the air conditioning is in heating or cooling mode, free hot water is produced (although he acknowledges it takes longer to heat the cylinder in the winter).
Skanes has worked out that a 12kW air conditioner used in conjunction with a Hot Box will heat 140 litres of hot water to 65?C in less than an hour in summer. In winter it will take longer.

And this is where Campbell's expertise comes in.

He is an expert in grants and the unit will, he says, qualify for Carbon Trust loans for small businesses. Campbell adds: 'For small businesses an interest-free loan is geared to the energy savings made and is repayable over five years. So the cost of the Hot Box would be paid for by the savings made initially.'

For clients of the air conditioning installer, there are two offers currently available.
Campbell and Skanes offer clients a basic energy efficiency inspection.

This is charged out at £200 per system but if, for instance, this leads to work for All Four Seasons such as installing a Hot Box, then the energy inspection will be free. All Four Seasons is also offering a free replacement scheme for R22 refrigerant when the client places an order for the Hot Box.

'We have to go into commercial buildings to replace R22 refrigerant so, while the system is drained, it is simple to add a Hot Box, hence the special offer.'

Skanes says the Hot Box unit can be used with other renewable technologies and the six engineers who work for the company are all fully trained in the installation of all the technologies.




Skanes says that, for instance, if a care home had solar thermal panels, then, by using more sophisticated controls, the hot water could use the solar heating first, topped up by the Hot Box and finally - if necessary - by a third system such as a gas boiler or electric element.

And size doesn't matter.

He demonstrated one Hot Box unit, which was destined for a five-bedroomed villa in Spain.
It has provision for four air conditioning units which would produce enough hot water to heat a swimming pool to 40?C, then fill a couple of cylinders.

The hot water could then be stored for use in the evening when it got cooler.
It will be used for underfloor heating, radiators or as hot water for showers and domestic use. And again, he insists, the hot water is free.

Skanes estimates that the Hot Box system will save the owners of the villa about half the cost of the heating bill. But again he will be monitoring the Hot Box system so that he can quote figures.
Further, because there is all this hot water, it would not be necessary to run the air conditioning in heating mode during the evening so there is another saving.

An even bigger unit could be used in a care home.
'Often, the communal areas are in a conservatory with elderly patients unable to move with the heat. Here, air conditioning is needed during the summer for cooling.'

The waste heat could be used for bathing the elderly clients or to heat other areas of the home. Join it with a solar thermal unit and several cylinders and much of the hot water would be free.
And with this type of system there would be no need to bring gas to a new office block, commercial site or social housing block.

'Simply use air conditioning and a Hot Box with a back-up emersion heater and developers can save a bundle on the cost of bringing gas to the new build.'




Skanes says his Hot Box costs around £3,000 or less installed in new build and would be less to retrofit the device. Further he insists that a standard air to air heat pump produces only hot water whereas his air conditioning and Hot Box unit will heat, cool and produce free hot water.
He has a number of new products in r&d at the moment. But one, which is already to install, is a Hot Box working to produce hot water from commercial cold rooms.

Skanes is, as he says, passionate about pipes and passionate about his Hot Box. I think he is on to a winner.

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Franchise Offer

One-upmanship

Skanes believes there is enough work out there for installers, and he intends to franchise the units to other companies. He will charge a fee for the units, which will include monies to be put aside for advertising and marketing the product.

The chief engineer of the franchisee will be shown how to build the units from scratch before Skanes will allow the units to go to them. And, he insists, work is becoming harder to find. “In these credit crunch times, having another string to their bow will give franchisees a bit of one-upmanship over the competitors.”

Starting out

Alan Skanes was an apprentice for a company called Denver Refrigeration. He then started his own company called LH Refrigeration with a colleague. He was there for about six years until he started his own company called All Freon Services.

However, he was working as a sub contractor for builders. Then in 1996 he changed the company’s name to All Four Seasons with his wife and sons, which brings us up to date.

He now has six engineers working for him and son Duane, also an engineer, is part of the business.

He realised he had a Hot Box some ten years ago when he was installing air conditioning in an hotel.

All Four Seasons was installing an 80kW chiller, and Skanes suggested to the owner that the company puts a reclaim core (plate heat exchanger) into the system as the waste heat could be used to heat the swimming pool. The owner agreed and he saved loads of money on heating the pool.

Want to know more about being a Hot Box franchisee? Contact All Four Seasons 020 8224 6597/sales@allfourseasons.co.uk