Hatcham Road is a new development located in London’s Bermondsey, SE15, incorporating 86 apartments for affordable rent, with commercial space on the ground floor together with cycle and disabled car parking.
SJD Mechanical Services Contractors Limited, which has over 30 years’ experience in the commercial and residential mechanical services sector across the South East, has installed two Ideal Heating Imax Xtra 2 floor standing commercial condensing boilers running in cascade in the centralised plant room of this new development, along with a POD Indirect Heat Interface Unit (HIU) in each of the 86 apartments, creating a highly efficient heat network.
What is a heat network?
A heat network (also referred to as a district heating system) delivers thermal energy in the form of hot water from a central source – in this installation, Imax Xtra 2 condensing boilers – to each apartment using a network of insulated pipes.
Every apartment has been fitted with a POD HIU which transfers heat from the distribution network to the apartments’ heating system. The HIU looks just like a domestic boiler from the outside and has similar controls, but instead of burning gas it uses heat exchangers to transfer thermal energy from the hot water in the distribution network to the water in the property’s heating and hot water systems, providing instantaneous hot water and heating.
The POD units are compact and designed to easily fit within a standard kitchen cupboard.
Why have a heat network?
The benefits of a centralised boiler plant are that each property will have independent heating and hot water with no need for gas in the property, which means that only one annual inspection will be required and individual properties are not affected. Energy usage within the property is fully controlled through the heat meter, and can be measured so the customer knows exactly what they have used.
For the residents in the apartments, the controls are very much like a domestic boiler making it familiar and easy to use.
The Power of the POD
The Ideal Heating POD HIU is designed to meet all the requirements of the heat network installer, operator and end user. It comes in two models, POD Indirect and POD Direct, with the former being installed at Hatcham Road. POD Indirect is a twin plate appliance to provide complete separation from the heat network for both heating and hot water. It is available in outputs of 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70kW, all of which are BESA registered, having met the requirements of the BESA UK HIU Test Regime for both high and low temperature operating conditions. At Hatcham Road, 40, 50 and 70kW POD HIUs have been installed, dependent on the size of the apartment.
Designed for easy installation, the POD first fix kit, which incorporates the service valves, appliance support and hanging bracket, enabled SJD Ltd to do all the pre-piping and testing of the system before the actual HIU units were brought to site.
Smooth installation and excellent support
Ideal Heating Commercial Products and Ideal’s Social Housing Team worked closely on the system design and installation of the POD HIUs and Imax Xtra 2 condensing boilers at the Hatcham Road development. A long-standing customer of over ten years, Steve Jeffery from SJD Ltd comments: “We chose POD because of our working relationship with Ideal. Working with Ideal, this scheme has run really smoothly, and the backup and service has been second to none. SJD Ltd would definitely recommend these HIUs and Imax Xtra 2 boilers to anyone else, and we would be happy to use again on any of our sites.”
