Design Buy Build Issue 39 2019 | Page 58

Stafford Launderette Awash In Cost Savings Rinnai has just completed the installation of two HDC1500i continuous flow hot water heating units at a busy laundrette serving businesses and the public in Stafford. Rinnai were chosen on the recommendation of another laundrette owner, in Lancashire, who praised the efficiency and major cost savings because of switching to cascaded continuous flow hot water units as they guarantee almost unlimited supplies of hot water at peak demand whilst savings on fuel costs. Word of mouth is the best possible marketing and a site survey was duly arranged and completed to confirm the best solution in controlling operational costs and efficiencies. The existing system was a heated stored water system – this meant that the site was paying to heat water it was not instantly using. It was clear from the site survey that Rinnai units configured to maximise both space and energy efficiency – and critically – the system’s reliability – would yield seriously large cost savings to the owner. Given that the Rinnai units were being wall mounted and externally flued, this gave extra storage space to the premises as there was no need for a dedicated plant room. Comments Ray Gallimore, proprietor of the Weston Road Launderette, “The old storage system had become completely impractical, inefficient and needlessly expensive to run. “For example, the washers tend to be used sporadically. During a busy weekend there could be a demand for eight to ten people battling to use the machines at once, during the week there might be one or two. 58 That meant we had to store a decent volume of hot water ‘just in case’ in the form of a storage water heater. Needless to say, keeping the stored volume at optimum temperature 24/7 was often wasted energy, a really bad, expensive idea all round.” Clearly the site needed to change the system to one that could cater for these fluctuations without running up huge energy bills and the solution wasn’t hard to find. “I was made aware of Infinity water heaters installed in similar applications to mine and in general their experiences with their products and their personnel, such as the local Rinnai sales consultant, were consistently positive and professional.”