Woodhead Investments

The Brief

Bensons Gas Engineering has worked with Woodhead Investments for several years, helping to maintain the commercial gas and heating appliances in many of their city-based commercial properties. When Bensons found an issue with a flue system during a routine maintenance visit, the decision was made to completely replace the commercial boiler and flue with a modern, up to date system.

The Solution

Since the old commercial boiler was non-condensing with partial cast iron heat exchangers, much of the heat generated by the boiler was being lost through the flue system. Installing new condensing boilers would ensure that as much heat as possible was being transferred into the building’s heating system, with the result being lower energy consumption. Because less energy is needed to achieve the same level of heat output, this directly translates into lower carbon emissions and lower energy bills. The existing commercial boiler was also on an open-vent system which meant a decision had to be made whether to keep the same set up or switch to a fully sealed, pressurised system. On assessment, it was found that the pipework throughout the building was of a good standard and moving to a sealed system made perfect sense as it allowed the header tank in the building’s loft space to be decommissioned. A new expansion vessel and pressurisation unit was fitted alongside the rig-mounted cascade boiler system, and additional ventilation was installed to ensure the plant room complied with current gas industry regulations.

The Results

The installation went smoothly and was completed just before the winter season. Because the building was occupied by many different commercial businesses, it was very important to keep disruption to a minimum. Through careful planning and organisation, Bensons managed to achieve this, and as a result, the transition from the old system to the new one was seamless. With the new cascade setup, the redundancy in the heating system was maintained by utilising two new commercial boilers instead of just one. This means that should one of the boilers suffer a fault in the future, the other one will continue to operate and the building won’t be left without heat. The new boilers were also supplied with a 7 year manufacturer’s warranty, giving Woodhead Investments the peace of mind that their new commercial boiler system will provide the building’s occupants with reliable, efficient heating for years to come.