46
PROJECT
Serengeti’s great
plumbing migration
By Eamonn Ryan | All images by Eamonn Ryan
The plumbing for all 188 apartments at the Whistling Thorns
and The Lakes Phase 2, at Serengeti Lifestyle Estate to the east
of Johannesburg, which are already sold out, was awarded to
Industrial Plumbers, which had previously completed Phase 1.
A luxurious development, aesthetics trumped all else.
In Phase 1, each of the six-unit complexes was fitted
with a 1 000ℓ hot water tank with back-up elements
and a 19Kw Kwikot heat pump on the roof. For
Phase 2, the design engineers have changed the hot
water system due to its unsightliness and the expense
of having to hide the roof-based heat pump under a
cover. A new supplier, EMS, is consequently doing the
hot water system on Phase 2 and designed a system
whereby two heat pumps are on the ground floor and
nothing on top, using EMS’s own branded pumps.
Industrial Plumbers provides the mains connections
and EMS simply connects its pumps.
Each block of six units has a single 1 000ℓ tank with the
heat pump. Industrial Plumber’s Pieter du Toit says the
development’s management is gauging the system to see
if it provides sufficient hot water supply. Other blocks have
eight units for the same system. The reason for this, explains
Du Toit, is that the aesthetics of the development trumped
other decisions: everything had to be hidden from view.
“Consequently, hot water supply may be tight in winter when
people traditionally use more hot water. For instance, some of
the more upmarket units have free-standing baths which take
a lot of water. There are back-up water elements in the tanks
to supplement the heat pumps and provide more hot water as
needed. But it’s not as energy-efficient as heat pumps.
The view of the fairway from one of the more upmarket units.
“All the plumbing, except the heat pumps on the roof and the
tanks behind the stairwell, is hidden. The ducting was mostly
hidden within the columns which join up the two floors and
links to the bathrooms.”
The more popular units face the golf course fairway and
were sold first. Some had dramatic views of the fairway, with
glass walls enabling one to have a bath while enjoying an
unrestricted view of the green.
Phase 2 is at an advanced stage of construction with Industrial
Plumbers due to finish on site before the end of the month
(September). “We try to work in coordination with the roof
Phase 1 is almost complete, and work is shifting to Phase 2.
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November 2019 Volume 25 I Number 9