PowerFlushUK has successfully completed a major contract in a large office complex in Grantham, Lincolnshire. The heating system is 30 years old and was showing severe signs of deterioration. The building’s owners were faced with capital expenditure of around £3m to replace the system, an exercise that would also have considerably disrupted work in the offices.
After power flushing, the problems have been reduced or eliminated. It is estimated that the system now has a further 15 years of useful life.
Problems experienced.
The system was generating air which meant that staff were continually having to vent radiators. Some of the radiators were failing and are not now replaceable. In addition, many of the thermostatic radiator valves were sticking.
Action Taken
The whole system was flushed out ten times to remove sludge, using Kamco FX2. A system-safe inhibitor was added to protect against future erosion.
A biocide, AF10 was added to the system to eliminate water based bacteria.
The Owners of the building thought that they were looking at replacement, not repair – an operation that would have cost around £3m and which would have caused massive disruption to the tenants.
Background
The office complex is let to around 40 tenants on a serviced basis which includes heating.
The building is spread over five floors and two blocks and has a total of 550 radiators including 40 specially fabricated angle radiators. The boiler (right) was installed in 1976 and has an output of 2½m BThUs.