Frankham was appointed by the London Fire Brigade to upgrade the existing life expired space heating, hot & cold-water services central plant and distribution systems at Acton fire station.

The works required careful coordination and consideration of all distribution routes due to the different areas being served and affected. The fire station was in constant occupation, so the Contractor had to ensure that the occupants were not unduly disrupted during the works.

A phased installation of the systems had to be implemented whilst providing minimal disruption to the heating, hot and cold water services serving the building.

To minimise the loss of heating within the building, it was proposed that the works be undertaken outside of the heating season. Temporary hot water will be required via the use of temporary boilers or electrical back up.

Transporting the micro-CHP to basement level was a challenge we faced, however this was resolved my removing a section of flat roof large enough to lower the unit into the basement.

In terms of lessons learnt, we discovered that the London plan policy is shifting away from the use of CHPs and steering us towards electrically fed systems like Air source heat pumps (ASHPs). It was also discovered that CHP flues can be noisy even with attenuation fitted.

Client:
London Fire Brigade

Services:
Mechanical & Electrical