|
|
 CHILDREN GET COMFORT
FROM GIACOMINI
UNDERFLOOR HEATING
Catering for children from just a few weeks old to five years, the new Children’s Centre at Wingate, built for Durham County Council, puts a priority on creating a healthy, comfortable and safe environment for childcare and early learning. Contributing to this is a Giacomini underfloor heating installation that economically provides a consistent, virtually draught free temperature across all areas, without the dangers of blistered fingers and other physical risk associated with small children and hot, wall hung radiators.
Following a detailed briefing by Mrs Paddy Beels OBE, Head Teacher at the unit, architects developed a design for the new complex that incorporated important elements of an existing building and expanded this in a light and airy development housing a Nursery, Child Unit and an Early Years Training and Research Base. For the heating installation, by Hartlepool based M&E contractor, Gus Robinson Developments, Durham County Council specified an underfloor heating system extending across a heated floor area of 520 sq. m. This required 2240m of 18mm x 2mm PEX tubing laid in a concrete screed floors, with low temperature distribution by modular, pre-assembled manifolds, all components being manufactured and installed by Giacomini, who won the contract by tender.
“Underfloor heating was something I knew worked well. An original installation in the existing building, in 1992, had proved its worth in many ways,” comments Mrs. Beels. “There are no intrusions on space or the risk of children hurting themselves on hot radiators and the temperature is consistently comfortable in every area of the building. Importantly, the warmth is concentrated at the level children spend much of their time, especially the very young ones, playing on the floor. There seems less lost to ceiling height, there’s a much fresher atmosphere and the system is economical to run. With the development and extension of the Centre, the new underfloor system is providing a comfortable environment for both the children and the staff.”
The project called on the wide experience that Giacomini has in this heating sector, both in the public and private sector. The company’s expertise enables everything from design to commissioning to be undertaken, with services dovetailed to the needs of individual clients, specifiers and contractors as required.
The enlargement of this progressive Children’s Centre was undertaken to a tightly scheduled building programme and Giacomini carried out the underfloor installation with minimum impact on other construction activities.
 “I was impressed with the speed that Giacomini installed the underfloor heating,” says Mr Lewis Richardson of Gus Robinson.
“All the sub-floor tubing and components were completed in just one day and the surrounding works carried on with barely an interruption. That’s something very important in a contract like this. The labour saving nature of the system outweighs any difference in component costs and provides a measurable cost saving against more traditional heating systems.”
Also in relation to costs, an immediate advantage of Giacomini underfloor heating is the lower running temperature needed to heat the building to the required comfort level. Normally running at between 40 and 50 degrees C, at the Centre, this is significantly less than would be expected with conventional radiator systems. Uniformity across the room areas also minimised unwanted, convection induced draughts, reduces the spread of airborne dust and bacteria and avoids the space wasting protrusions of conventional radiators. In a building design that incorporates significant areas of natural lighting, it helps provide a spacious, welcoming environment for children and parents making use of the Centre’s facilities. Of equal importance is the saving on fuel costs against more traditional installations, while allowing easy control of air temperature without the hot and cold spots often found with above floor radiant devices.
Mr Richardson also noted that “there’s been a noticeable and continuing growth in underfloor systems and we’ve frequently recommended and installed them, for a variety of projects. In all cases we find the result less stuffy and cleaner than with the higher heat output and forced convection of most above floor systems. It makes a building generally more pleasant to live or work in and, with lower whole life costs, very pleasing on the pocket, too.”
While underfloor heating may react more slowly to sudden changes in ambient temperature, the smoother transition prevents sudden heat surges and it avoids uncomfortable hot spots, next to radiators or forced air outlets, while keeping a balanced and consistent comfort level at all times.
The Wingate Children’s Centre is only one example the successful implementation of underfloor heating in communal areas by Giacomini. As this Centre incorporates, a little unusually, a Research Centre for Early Education, environmental stability is a particular asset and the caring, teaching and research staff have found the new facility provides a comfortable and friendly place in which to encourage he early life skills development of future generations. Mrs Beels sums it up quite simply, “The underfloor heating allows us to concentrate on the children. They get the warmth they need in the space they spend many hours of their formative years, cleanly and safely, without us having to worry. It’s so unobtrusive, I almost forget it’s there.”
Underfloor heating has shown a marked increase in popularity in recent years, partly due to greater efficiencies in both energy usage and heat transmission, allowing lower floor temperature that do not induce the foot and limb discomforts of the emergent technology in the 1950’s and 1960’s era. With pan-European experience, the Italian based development and manufacture of Giacomini Giacoklima underfloor systems has brought increased benefits in terms of both cost and comfort for anywhere a heated or cooled environment is required.
|
|
