Play might have been suspended for a large part of the summer, but cricket saw a surge in popularity across the UK since the dramatic events of last year’s World Cup and England’s triumph in a thrilling final against New Zealand.
Players at Camberley Cricket Club have been passionate about the game for much longer and the club celebrated its 75th anniversary last year. It was formed in 1944 to provide cricket for servicemen returning from the Second World War.
These days the club runs three Saturday teams including a Sunday XI with a thriving junior section of more than 150 girls and boys. It also hosts county matches for the over 50s. The clubhouse facilities include changing rooms, bar, kitchen and function room, which the club lets out to local community groups throughout the week for dinners and meetings.
Following a series of breakdowns, the club decided to update its heating and hot water system, which comprised a floor standing gas-fired boiler and a Lochinvar Charger storage-type gas water heater. The Charger water heater had provided a reliable supply of hot water for showers, kitchen and various other hot water outlets for 20 years, and the gas-fired boiler was of a similar age.
The club's committee made the decision to replace both boiler and water heater and sought a number of alternative proposals. They were keen that the new system would be both reliable and have limited environmental impact thanks to reduced carbon emissions and improved operating efficiencies.
High efficiency product
Lochinvar proposed an EcoCharger gas-fired condensing water heater together with a Heatpak space heating module, which would mean the club had the benefit of hot water and heating from a single high efficiency product. This solution proved attractive to the committee who gave it the go-ahead.
Club chairman, Keith Halsey, said the fact that the previous Lochinvar water heater had provided a reliable hot water supply for many years, played a part in their decision to use Lochinvar products once again.
“Our previous experience with Lochinvar had been very positive so they were a strong candidate to be our supplier of choice,” he said. “An action plan was agreed and we were impressed with the details and timescales provided.
“Commissioning was completed after installation contractor KV Cooling Services and Lochinvar worked together to overcome some teething problems,” he added.
EcoCharger water heaters are available in eight sizes with hot water outputs ranging from 540 to 2100 litres per hour, based on a temperature rise of 50ºC. They make use of condensing technology, which helps to achieve high operating efficiencies and are designed along the principles of low storage, but fast recovery of hot water. This means they are capable of meeting high peak hot water demands, such as from showers at the end of a match. The low storage helps to conserve fuel during periods of lower hot water demand.
The Heatpak space heating module is an ancillary option available with the EcoCharger range and can provide up to 40kW of low temperature hot water for underfloor or radiator heating circuits.
Heatpak is a particularly suitable option for applications like local sports club facilities, where there is peak demand for hot water, but lower constant space heating demand. The use of such a combined hot water and heating system can also save valuable plant room space.
All of which means the players at Camberley CC were well prepared and supported for getting back into action.
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