R J Mitchell School, Hornchurch, Essex.

This school is very special and was named after the designer of the famous World War Two Spitfire fighter planes.  The school keeps the name of this great designer to the fore, and display paintings and parts of the Spitfires.  Each year an annual event is held in R J Mitchell’s name.
The school is situated on the former RAF Hornchurch Aerodrome, which was a key quick response fighter station in the Second World War.  Part of this airfield has now been landscaped as a Country Park, and some of the old parts of the fighter station can still be seen.

It was an privilege to be chosen by the L B Havering's Consultants Mouchel Parkman to install the first Biomass wood chip fuelled school heating system to be fitted in a Havering school.
The contract was valued at £100,000 and involved working in the summer shut down period removing the oil fired boiler plant and hot water cylinder, fitting in place the fully automatic Broag Biomass boiler, a new high efficiency gas fired water heater, and a stand-by Broag 115Kw condensing gas boiler, new controls and pumps.
We also carried out all the builders works including the erection of the Biomass store, decorations and all specialised trades needed for a complete finished project.
The old oil tanks were drained degassed and removed.  Then the oil store was converted into the pellet store.  This required a steel retaining frame around the inside of the walls, a timber framework was then installed with upright timbers then covered with marine ply to line out the store, the bottom panels tapered in to feed the pellet fuel into the boiler worm drive.  The storage capacity is about 21 tons, which means very few refills are required each year.  A key issue in the design and installation of the bunker is that the fuel must be kept dry, the bunker must be 100% weather proof.
Delivery of the fuel is very interesting, as the pellets are "blown" down a flexible hose under air pressure from the delivery lorry into the 80dia fuel supply pipes.  To check the fuel level in the bunker, a series of viewing windows are arranged down one side.  These are glazed on the bunker side and removable screwed caps externally, it's very easy to see the fuel level at any time.  A good maintenance free simple system.

The carbon footprint of this system is very small.  The Biomass boiler automatically delivers bum ash into a container on the front of the boiler, the amount is minimal measured against the volume of the input fuel, a fraction of 1%, and as pure potash is great for the School’s garden!

We are very proud to have installed this pilot scheme, our 40 plus years of practical experience demonstrated to our client that they had made the right choice by inviting us to install the system.  The system is performing beautifully the school are delighted with the end results. If you would like to look over the system please contact our office and we would with the School’s permission be happy to show the system to you. You can also see a brief demonstration of this boiler on YouTube by clicking here.

 

Spa Green Estate London EC1,

This was a real challenge with very careful planning needed.

We acted as the Principal Contractor for this major boiler room refurbishment. The total value was in excess of £145K.

Spa Green Estate is an estate of 3 blocks of council flats with 245 homes. The existing boiler plant needed urgent replacement to be done at the first opportunity, this happened to be the winter period.

We were to take on the duty of planning to satisfy the need to maintain the heating and hot water all times, the client could only allow the plant to be shut down twice for 8 hours.

Three new Strebel boilers were installed with a combined output of 1400Kw, the existing Nu-Way gas burners were converted and re-used in the new boilers,

Most of the boiler room 150 dia primary pipe was replaced to make way for the installation of a plate heat exchanger, this converted the system into two separate systems, primary and secondary.

All the pumps were replaced with modern inverter controlled Grundfos twin pumps, the controls were completely updated to include a new control panel along with a BMS system to allow the client to monitor and control the system from their head office by a telephone link with a personal computer, the system functions and set points are displayed on the computer screen.

This was all done keeping at least one boiler running.

 

Copenhagen School Islington London.

We acted as the Principal Contractor for the clients appointed consultants Beveridge Associates. We replaced the schools heating system of radiators and circulation pipe work. We also installed to the IT room Air Conditioning. These works were a major task as the building is listed as grade 2.  The total value was in excess of £145K.

Special attention had to be given to planning the works to replace each wing of the building separately to avoid the need for the school to suffer complete heating shutdown.

The was a challenge to our engineers and builders as in places the walls were a meter thick and we were not able to cut away the existing structure, we had to follow existing building profiles.

Our works involved all the installation needs for the complete project, building works, decorations electrical works as a complete package.

The works were completed on time and within budget. The school is delighted with the end result.

 

Acton College, Acton, West London

On this contract we are sub contractors for Leadbitter Construction Limited builders. The building is a College, with a new build leisure centre, fitness suite and construction wing along with refurbishment of the existing areas on the ground & first floors. The upper 3 floors of the building were in constant use, the systems had to be installed keeping the upper floors operational.

The systems were designed by the clients consultants Haywards Property Services, our contract value is £1.3 million.

Particular care is needed on this contract as the main purpose is to provide training facilities for teaching, gas fitting, plumbing, heating and general construction trades, in effect tomorrows construction operatives!!.

The new works involved many different disciplines in our trade, gas fitting on pipes up to 150dia, heating on pipes up to 200dia, complete new hot & cold water systems using GF plastics, extensive ventilation systems, fire suppression systems, air conditioning, dust extraction etc.

We reused two existing 800Kw gas boilers and installed a new Viessmann condensing boiler for the main boiler room. The boiler room pipe work extensively modified to install new hot water buffer tanks and plate heat exchangers etc, new pumps and controls. A completely new plant room with 4 No wall mounted Viessmann condensing boilers, plate heat exchangers, plumbing water and drainage services for the fitness suite. 

The end result was a first class facility to train tomorrows fitters.

 

Civic Centre, Harrow,

We are the principal contractors for this contract which is the replacement of a large Air Cooled chillier supplying chilled water to the Civic Offices air conditioning system.

The system was designed by the clients consultants Inglton Wood and our contract value is £185k. 

The works involve the dismantling of the old plant into small parts, and safe removal. The new chillier was 300Kw duty and weighted about 5 tons. The weight and physical size needed to be carefully considered. We dismantled part of the plant room front wall to allow the unit to be passed into the plant room, we employed a specialist heavy plant handling sub-contractor to move the chillier and hoist up to its final location.

The plant room pipework was modified with new pumps fitted to suit the new system.

Alterations were carried out to the air intake system, special acoustic louvers were designed and fitted to replace the front of the plant room housing the chiller, this suppressed noise breakout to a whisper

A new controls system was also installed with BMS links to allow remote control of the complete chillier plant.

The clients were very pleased with the end result.

 

Brecknock School, London N1

We are the principal contractors for this contract. The overall contract is a boiler room refurbishment, and installation of a range of LST Radiators. with new circulation pipework over 3 floors. The constraints of this contract was the need to be done within the summer school holiday’s period to insure the new plant installed was operational for hot water on the schools return and have the heating going by the winter period.

The system was designed by the clients consultants Emanuel Smith Partnership and our contract value is £130k. 

We removed the old plant and completely replaced all the existing installation in the plant room. 2 new Clyde Combustion boilers were installed with total load of 460Kw, new flues, pumps, controls, a new hot water calorifier was also fitted.

During the school holidays we also replaced part of the radiator heating system in three halls.

The client is delighted with the new system, it was installed on time and within budget.

 

Basildon Hospital, Essex, Post Graduate Extension Block

On this contract we are sub contractors for Cadman Construction Limited builders. The new building is an extension from the existing teaching facility for Post Graduate Medical Students.

The system was designed by the clients consultants, Haywards Property Services and our contract value is £125K.

The installation was a new LPHW heating system, hot and cold water services and ventilation, including works to an existing Air Conditioning system. The heat source was from the main hospital LPHW heating connected the new build system with a header system, new pumps and controls.

Again the client and our main contractor customer are very pleased with the system, which was installed to the programme and within budget.

 

Saltwell Street, London E1

We acted as the Principal Contractor for this boiler room refurbishment. The total contract value was £55K.

This was a challenge due to the very limited space in the 1st floor plant room and the need to keep the existing system operational until the new boilers were installed. We even had to overcome asbestos removal which was found once we started on site, very careful planning needed to avoid a long shut down.

The boilers supply heating and hot water to an estate block of 19 council flats.

The existing boiler plant needed urgent replacement to be done at the first opportunity, this happened to be the winter period.

We were to take on the duty of planning to satisfy the need to maintain the heating and hot water all times, the client could only allow the plant to be shut down twice for 8 hours.

The existing pipework was adapted and replaced to allow for two new Potterton boilers to be installed with a combined output of 140Kw, they were fitted complete with new pumps and controls This all done keeping at least one boiler running.

The client and tenants are very happy with the new system, which was done on time and within budget.