Built to perform
Andrews Water Heaters has supplied the SUPAflo units that are generating domestic hot water services for the Operations Centre at The Liverpool Football Club Academy. This was the first purpose-built Soccer Academy in Britain dedicated to the development and coaching of junior players and one of the largest of its kind in Europe. A full-time staff of 18 develop the technical footballing skills of 180 students alongside their educational and social needs and there are specialist coaching sessions for children aged from eight to fifteen.
The first phase of the scheme was completed with ten grass pitches, a separate synthetic pitch with its own floodlighting and spectator accommodation. The operations centre contains all changing facilities, medical and physiotherapy facilities, hydrotherapy pool and weights room, plus classrooms, seminar and dining facilities for staff and students together with administration offices.
It is in the quadrant-shaped plant room situated on the ground floor of this aesthetically striking two-storey building where the Andrews SUPAflo water heaters are installed. The units are sized for expected peak use based on occupancy levels related to the number of matches taking place on the pitches. Allowing for home and visiting teams there could be up to 200 people showering in a 15 to 20 minute period. Hot water is required instantly on demand for mixed supplies to 60 timed flow-control shower heads in the dressing rooms. Wash-hand basins in the toilet facilities and the cafeteria kitchen also call off hot water at peak times.
According to David Norcross of Terry & Partners the Building Services consultants for this project, "The Andrews SUPAflo water heaters were selected for their proven reliability, controllability and efficiency as well as competitive cost. These units were also able to comply with the Architects' specification for the flues to be concealed by connection to a flue dilution system and are designed for low head room installation. Furthermore there is no cold water storage on site so it was necessary for the hot water generators to be able to operate with mains fed supplies for which Andrews supply an unvented system package. Finally, the water heaters had to facilitate link-up with the Building Energy Management System controlled by a centralised supervisor."
Each SUPAflo R2056 ET selected has an output of 190.7kW and recovers 3693 litres/hr (through a temperature rise of 44°C). Its efficiency of 83 under full load s further increased under part load due to simultaneous modulation of gas and primary air and optimisation of the ET 3-step thermostatic modulation control, which offers temperature accuracy from +3°C to -6°C.
Andrews has since supplied water heaters for the Manchester United Football Club's New Training Academy.
