Oldham Council has installed five Remeha boilers as part of a major refurbishment of the heating plant serving its Civic Centre complex. Initial indications from the Council are of energy savings in the region of 20 to 25%.

The key requirements for Oldham Council, when replacing the 43-year-old failing boilers, were to improve the reliability of the heating service and reduce operating costs.

The original low temperature hot water (LTHW) heat generating boiler plant was located in the Tower basement plant room. An in-depth survey revealed that the mild steel flues that had been built into the building during construction had deteriorated to the point of becoming dangerous. Due to structural, planning and financial constraints, the decision was taken to decentralise the boiler plant.

The location of the new plant rooms in two internal car parks – one on the ground floor, the other in the basement – presented a number of challenges for specifiers Unity Partnership.

John Schofield, senior mechanical engineer at Unity Partnership, said: “Flueing, delivery access and positioning of the new plant, as well as distribution of the services to serve the existing sub plant rooms all had to be addressed.”

A total of five Remeha boilers were specified to meet the logistical and efficiency requirements. Mr Schofield said: “Size, ease of installation and manoeuvrability were important considerations in specifying the boilers. Added to this was the need for improved efficiency and reliability. We specified Remeha Gas 310/610 Eco Pro condensing boilers as they meet all of these requirements.”

Four Gas 310-10 section Eco Pro boilers were installed in the plant room serving the Civic Centre with one Gas 610-10 section Eco Pro boiler installed in the second plant room serving the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

“The Gas 310/610 boilers are conveniently mounted on wheels, which helped overcome the site access restrictions on this project,” John continued. “The boilers were simply unloaded at the entrances to the car parks and rolled about 100m into position. The adjustable feet then levelled and effectively fixed the boilers in place.”

The efficiency of the new Remeha boilers has impressed Oldham Council, achieving the required high performance and considerable energy savings. Additionally, the small footprint of the boilers and the neat plant room design has released a large area of usable space for other projects, further benefitting the Council.

“The new boiler plant not only looks good, but early analysis indicates that it is delivering between 20 to 25% savings in energy costs for Oldham Council,” said John.

Rapid energy savings, improved reliability of heating, valuable extra space – the Remeha replacement boilers are delivering on every level for Oldham Council.

The specifier on the project was John Schofield at Unity Partnership. The contractor was Steve Barton at WH Good.