Plumbing Africa June 2019 | Page 44

42 PROJECT 1 2 3 1. 2. 3. 4. Circulation pumps ensure the hot water reticulation system can produce hot water at any outlet quickly and also eliminate dead leg sections. The air heat pump installation. Each section of the hospital has a kitchenette with a hydroboil unit. Some of the drainage pipes needed to be galvanised due to the chemical composition and high temperatures of some of the discarded liquids that can reach in excess of 120°C. Cobra medical mixers were used as they are the hospital group’s preferred brand of choice. The Cobra mixer range offers spare parts that are always available, which ensures the hospitals never have to experience downtime due to lack of parts availability. Alliance air heat pumps were chosen as they met the requirement to heat the 600ℓ cylinder efficiently, to make sure the supply of hot water to the hospital is always sufficient. Grundfos circulation pumps were used to ensure the hot water is always circulating throughout the pipe system with little to no dead-leg standings. EFFICIENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY The wet services system is very efficient as it does not rely on any mechanical force to pressurise the system. Unfortunately booster pumps can fail mechanically, and result in downtime for the hospital, so with this being eliminated the hospital has one less maintenance worry. This also makes it a very sustainable system because all that is required is for June 2019 Volume 25 I Number 4 4 the rooftop tank to have a water feed and the rest of the system can work. This requires no electrical and mechanical input. Heat pumps were used to eliminate the dependence on the municipality electrical grid, Heat Pumps are one of the most efficient hot water heating systems available, using the solar heat stored in the surrounding environment. This provides approximately 75% of the heat pump’s heating energy, with only 25% of external energy required in the form of electricity to achieve a heat output of 100%. Aside from the efficiency of these systems, benefits include continued substantial savings on electricity usage – not to mention a lessened impact on the environment at large. PA www.plumbingafrica.co.za