project
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Charlotte Maxeke Nurses’
Quarters get a steam upgrade
Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital( formerly Johannesburg General Hospital) is refurbishing ageing infrastructure and is opting for a more modern vertical hot water system to run on the steam it generates on site.
By
Ilana Koegelenberg
The existing hospital buildings, including its hot water system, were about 30 years old and in desperate need of an upgrade. This included the nurses’ quarters, which received a complete makeover and looks almost brand new now.
As such, the Department of Infrastructure and Development hired Masinge Vlaming joint venture as the main contractor to take on this project. They in turn appointed Allsteam Engineering to take care of the hot water generation portion of the upgrade. Brencon Plumbing got involved in the remainder of the wet services contract.
System description The nurses’ quarters consist of 16 floors with about 20 units on each floor. All of these units are fed from the vertical hot water system in the basement.
The existing hot water system was completely stripped out and replaced with a 2 500l hot water calorifier with a 300kW heating capacity. Because of its great heating capacity, this single tank is sufficiently sized to serve the entire building. This steam-operated vessel is capable of heating 3 000l / hour.( The previous system included a central heating element, but this has since been disconnected.)
The Allsteam team has been involved in quite a few aspects of this ongoing refurbishment, and recently completed work in the nurses’ quarters where they stripped out the existing steam system completely and started from scratch. They have done three blocks such as these already, focussing on finding the most efficient solution with the resources available.
This particular installation took about six weeks to complete.
They have done three blocks such as these already, focussing on finding the most efficient solution with the resources available.
Continued on page 42 >> www. plumbingafrica. co. za March 2017 Volume 23 I Number 1