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Purewell Variheat boilers installed in a plant room refurb at a nursing home. They were able to reduce the number of boilers and use a calorifier for hot water heated by the new boilers.

You don’t always have the budget or time to carry out a full plant room replacement, but there are plenty of ways to increase the efficiency of your system in a cost and time effective manner. Here we take you through the key areas to focus when you are refurbishing or repairing your building’s hot water and heating system.

You will either have a closed system or an open vented system and this will determine the amount of work required and the products you need.

Older heating systems are often open vented, which will have downsides – including risk of pollutants and lack of pressure – and many boiler manufacturers stipulate their products to be installed in a sealed system to protect your boilers and ensure system cleanliness. If you choose to replace it with a sealed system you will have more flexibility for the future and can save time and space, and improve monitoring in the long term.

Sizing a hot water or heating system for a commercial premise should be based on projected peak demand and patterns of peak usage. The building use may have changed, meaning the current equipment is undersized or oversized. It may be that you can make better use of your current products. For example, your existing boiler may already have spare capacity for a calorifier – which is cheaper and simpler to install than a direct fired water heater. Or is new equipment required to comply with regulations and reduce energy?

The type of flue you have might determine what direction you take your refurbishment. The Energy Related Products (ErP) Directive has effectively eliminated most high efficiency non-condensing boilers up to 400kW and you may need to change from an atmospheric boiler to a condensing boiler. This also requires you to line your existing flue or install a replacement flue to cope with the condensate.

Your boiler is likely to be the main component of your refurbishment and you will need to consider the job that it needs to do – particularly the demand for heating – as well as the fuel type. You will also need to consider the amount of space that you have.

There are many boilers and water heaters that are suited to refurbishment projects:

The Purewell Variheat mk2 boiler is suitable for both sealed and open vented systems:

cast iron heat exchanger with large waterways

more tolerant to older systems

similar footprint to similar older atmospheric boilers

may not need system separation

simple to run and maintain, saving time, money and reduces risk.

The Varmax boiler needs less supporting equipment:

no need for a dedicated primary circuit with associated pumps, controls and low loss header

long life stainless steel heat exchanger

no minimum flow required, so it doesn’t depend on the secondary circuit flow for safe operation

Finally, the Dorchester DR-LL atmospheric water heater is ideal for replacing older atmospheric water heaters:

minimal flue changes needed on replacement projects*

There are two sides to any heating system. Ideally your primary, boiler circuit should be sealed, but your secondary heating system circuit can remain open provided you separate the two sides with appropriate hydraulic separation such as a plate heat exchanger or low loss header. This will ensure flow, resistance and temperature can be maintained around the primary circuit, as well as guarding against the transference of sludge, dirt and even air from the secondary, open system. Thus protecting your investment in new boilers.

Low loss headers and plate heat exchangers are often supplied as a package with pipework kits and will be correctly sized to suit that boiler’s connections.

Identifying the appropriate hydraulic separation system will allow you to replace your open vented boiler with a sealed system including a modern condensing boiler and keep it protected from corrosion, dirt and air, as well as allowing you to maintain efficient pressure and flow rate through the boiler.

Whatever the scope of your system overhaul, you can get expert support at any time from Hamworthy. We’re happy to help you with anything from sizing your system and identifying the most cost-effective approach to upgrading your system, and from product selection to long-term spare parts availability.

*Subject to survey. New draught diverter must be fitted.

With decades of commercial heating experience, it’s a statement we can confidently make. You can read more about our heritage here. We’ve been making, selling and servicing boilers and water heaters for years, for all sorts of businesses across the UK.

Hamworthy Heating is a British commercial boiler manufacturer and supplier of commercial heating and hot water products. We can help you find the most energy efficient heating and hot water system for your building.

We’re experts at ecologically efficient commercial heating, hot water and renewable energy solutions.

Our head office is based in Poole and we even name our boilers and hot water products after the Dorset countryside around us. We’re part of Groupe Atlantic UK and ROI (GA UK) and our commercial boilers are manufactured at the central GA UK manufacturing facility in Hull.

It’s not just our award winning products that set us apart. It’s our people. Your local and face to face contact is normally with one of our field based service engineers or area sales managers. Their impressive industry knowledge makes a real difference to your projects. From help with sizing hot water to replacing commercial boilers, you’ll find us friendly, knowledgeable and easy to deal with, every step of the way. But don’t just take our word for it:

“I believe there’s no-one better than Shaun – his industry knowledge is exceptional.”

Training on our products makes sure you know how to get the most out of them. Our industry knowledge is also shared via our free CIBSE-accredited CPD training. Our latest seminar is focused on hydraulic separation showing you which methods of hydraulic separation are available and how they benefit commercial heating system refurbishments.

We are proud to have been awarded the following ISO accreditations:

ISO 45001 Health and Safety Management System

When you deal with Hamworthy, have confidence that we’re working within a defined set of standards that is internationally recognised.

Hamworthy Heating Ltd Wessex House, Units 7 & 8 New Fields Business Park, Stinsford Road, Poole, Dorset, BH17 0NF

Sales Tel: 01202 662552 Email: sales@hamworthy-heating.com

Technical  Tel: 01202 662505 Email: technical@hamworthy-heating.com

Service  Tel: 01202 662555 Email: service@hamworthy-heating.com

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