The Caravan Club is continually taking measures to ensure that their sites and the facilities offered to members meet the standards of the day, which involves them in a rolling improvement programme. Andrews Storage Water Heaters have been specified for virtually every site refurbished in recent years. However, two sites completed last year at Longleat and Abbey Wood were totally demolished, rebuilt and re-landscaped and for these it was decided to use the Andrews CSC Units.
Mervyn Hayes, M & E Consultant for both these and previous projects (is now a Technical Director with Slender Winter Partnership), explains, "On all the other sites, the existing facilities utilise water stored in the toilet block roofs for low pressure supplies. As the buildings are new at Longleat and Abbey Wood, London it was decided to take advantage of the options available since the changes in the Water Regulations (1999) and to provide mains pressure hot water.
This was possible using the "unvented" water system connection kit supplied with Andrews CSC high efficiency hot water storage heaters, which have a working pressure up to 10 bar. According to Chris Smith, Development Manager of The Caravan Club, "This new system provided benefits directly for members visiting these sites in terms of improved shower performance, whilst all Club members benefit indirectly from savings to the Club in reduced energy consumption and lower running costs which can be reflected in pitch fees."
Chris Watkins of installers, Gee-Bec Services, recounts, "From the Club's point of view it was preferable to keep the plant rooms as small as possible and maximise the space available to visiting members. The CSC units have a compact footprint and allow improved external aesthetics as the flue is only 150mm dia so is quite unobtrusive and has been painted to blend with the roof colour. The fan assisted concentric balanced flue system which draws all primary and secondary air from outside the building is supplied as an integral part of the unit which makes for easier installation and saves on additional cost for flue fans.”
The third largest of the four unit sizes was selected, the CSC78, providing 276 litres of hot water storage and recovering 1517 l/h (through a temperature rise of 40°C). Abbey Wood has 148 touring caravan pitches plus 120 tents, with three toilet blocks, two of which each have two water heaters installed serving 10 or more showers and washrooms, vegetable preparation sinks, laundry, baby change and disabled shower facilities. One water heater serves the third block, which has eight showers, 12 handbasins and vegetable preparation sinks. The Longleat site, adjacent to the stately home, has 165 pitches, with two toilet blocks each with two water heaters. The third larger "amenity” block, which incorporates family games rooms and a social area, again has two CSC units installed providing sufficient capacity for additional disabled shower facilities, baby change areas and a large laundry. Whilst the units supplied to these sites were for vertical flue installation they are also available for horizontal flueing arrangements.
The Abbey Wood site has mains gas supply while Longleat depends on LPG, in common with all units in the CSC range, the balanced flue models are suitable for use with either. For the benefit of easy maintenance the optional correx powered anodes were specified. The patented Hydrojet water injection system is a cold inlet sediment reducing device that mixes and distributes incoming water most effectively. This maximises energy efficiency by increasing the first hour delivery of hot water while preventing temperature build-up at the top of the tank. This is an additional safeguard to eliminating conditions conducive to the colonisation of Legionella bacteria in units that tested "Legionella resistant” by the National Measurement and Accreditation Service, (NAMAS).
"This gives us peace of mind”, says Chris Smith, "and we can also be confident during times of peak demand that the hot water services will more than meet our members' needs. We can also be sure of maximum system economy whatever time of year, as these water heaters operate independently of the space heating boilers.”
