Quinta Range

Simplified and faster installation – a fitting reminder

There are several ways that manufacturers can help make it easier and quicker to install commercial boilers, as Mark Northcott, Commercial Sales Manager of Broag-Remeha, explains:

The more quickly you can complete a commercial boiler installation, the faster you can move on to the next job and the more profits you can make. This simple equation has prompted Broag-Remeha to come up with a number of ways of simplifying the installation of their products.

For example, a skid-mounted boiler package – effectively a prefabricated boiler house without the shell – makes installation far easier and faster; it enables the contractor to install the boiler package in hours rather than days.

Using a skid-mounted package, a typical boiler changeover simply involves removing one or more boilers to make room for the new units, wheeling in the replacement(s), and making the flow, return, gas flue and electricity connections. Skid-mounted packages come as a complete assembly with flow and return connections in the system, gas and power supply and they are ready to go.

This prefabricated approach offers a range of benefits to the installer including:

• The complete boiler package has been checked and tested in the factory so the installer can be confident that it is complete, with no missing parts.
• The boiler assembly is put together in a controlled environment which reduces its time spent on site (with all the safety, timesaving, and cost implications that this has).
• Prefabrication has a dramatic positive impact on the performance of the boilers because the quality of the build can be tightly controlled in the factory.
• Manufacturing the boiler package in the controlled conditions of a factory results in consistently high quality. Prefabricated construction also ensures conformity to the latest building standards and quality assurance principles.
• Waste materials from the boiler manufacturing process can be recycled more easily in the factory. This, together with the fact that traffic movements can be significantly reduced, is better for the environment.
• Prefabricated units make the installation process predictable and therefore easy to plan.
• Off-site prefabrication of the boiler package enables fit-out services to be co-ordinated more easily. In typical commercial projects, different trades tend to fall over each other in a bid to get their own particular element of the project completed. Prefabrication allows the project to be planned in such a way that these conflicts do not occur.
• Construction costs can be significantly lower because the construction process is faster, more predictable, of higher quality, less wasteful and safer.

Skid-mounted boilers also offer a further significant advantage – they have the smallest possible footprint. This, combined with the fact that there are no housings or running gear associated with the skid-mounted boiler, makes it possible to place a higher-capacity system in a smaller space.

As well as skid-mountin Broag-Remeha also supply cascade sets that simplify the connecting together of the boilers by providing a Leggo’-style set of parts. This allows heating engineers to connect the boilers in a single day rather than having to take three or four days assembling their own connections with all the cutting and welding that this involves.

So, essentially, the cascade set is a premade kit that simply connects together and minimises labour time on site.

BOX

Wall hung versus floor-standing boilers
Debate has raged over which is best – wall-hung or floor-standing commercial boilers – but this is, to a large extent, a sterile argument because each has its place.

Wall-mounted boilers have become popular because they take up little floor space and architects, in particular, have realised that they are able to provide plant rooms with minimum loss of earning space.

However, floor-standing boilers will probably always be with us, first because there are situations in which it is impossible to hang a boiler on a wall and, secondly, there are still many traditional designers around who prefer to use them.

But there are no real technical advantages of one type over the other. Indeed, later this year, we plan to launch the Gas 110 Eco a floor-standing boiler based on  our wall-hung Quinta models. Technologically, and in terms of performance, it is identical. The reason we are making this move is that we know there remains a strong market for floor-standing units, at least partly because the installers are replacing them ‘like-for-like’.

Broag-Remeha offers a comprehensive range of both wall-hung and floor-standing boilers, as follows:

• Wall-hung: Remeha Quinta commercial boilers are compact wall-mounted condensing boilers. Lighter and more efficient than their competitors, their small dimensions make them ideal for modular arrangements. An optional optimising/weather compensating control system is available to ensure maximum efficiency. The boilers can be installed on both new and retrofit installations.

• Floor-standing: The Remeha Gas 210 ECO MKII is a compact floor-standing condensing boiler. The small footprint and ability of the boilers to be installed back-to-back makes them ideal for modular configurations. An optional ‘optimising weather compensating’ control package is available to ensure maximum efficiency. Like their wall-hung cousins, these boilers are suitable for both new and retrofit applications and, with conventional and room-sealed capability, they can be installed in most situations.

Article published in HVR Volume 47 Number 6. April 2008

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