High pressure hot water and lower running costs for New Forest social housing residents
Dynamic Heaters upgraded the heating and hot water systems in 16 socially rented flats for New Forest District Council. Old night storage heaters were replaced with modern electric heaters, and Thermino heat batteries replaced the existing vented hot water cylinders.
The challenge
The 1 and 2-bedroom flats in the New Forest have electric showers, mostly in wet rooms. This meant the water from the existing 115l cylinders was only used for sinks and basins and, as the cylinders were installed around 17 years ago, this was no longer the most efficient or cost-effective option.
Liam White, Technical Manager at Dynamic Heaters said, “The vented cylinders were costing the tenants a lot of money to run. Over 50% of residents in the block had actually turned them off, so they were just using the kettle to boil water. This is social housing and people haven’t got an abundance of money, so they don’t want to spend money heating water every day that they’re not going to use. With a Thermino they can just heat what they need, and a lot of the heat will roll over to the next day.”
The solution
The hot water cylinders were replaced with a Thermino 70e in the 1-bedroom flats, and a 150e in the 2-beds. The old storage heaters were upgraded to modern models with greater efficiency and controllability. The work in each flat was completed within a day, with minimal disruption and no need for the tenants to move out.
The installations went very smoothly from Dynamic Heaters’ perspective too. Replacing the hot water cylinder with a Thermino was straightforward, as Liam said, “They’re very simple to install, I thoroughly enjoy fitting them as a unit. We were starting some of the installations at 8.30 in the morning and powering them up by lunchtime.”
The benefits
The previous hot water cylinders had poor pressure and were raised off the floor to try and improve this, meaning the tank took up even more space in the cupboard. Tenants now enjoy mains pressure hot water, and benefit from more storage space as the compact Thermino sits directly on the floor.
From the beginning of the project, New Forest District Council specified that Thermino heat batteries should be fitted instead of a standard hot water cylinder. Liam believes this was down to the reliability of the system, and the fact that no annual maintenance is required.
The lack of maintenance is also a benefit for Dynamic Heaters. Liam said, “We want to fit something that’s going to cost us the least amount of time in aftercare. And that’s exactly what the council is thinking from the tenant’s side – they’re looking for longevity in the product, and for it to be a cheaper product for the tenant to run.”
Liam hopes that this installation may lead to more work in similar properties for the New Forest District Council. Speaking about installing Sunamp products generally, he said, “I think they’re a really good opportunity for small to medium sized companies to make a nice amount of money each day. It’s newer technology so it’s got unique selling points, and it’s helped us compete with bigger companies.”
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