The station, the 11th busiest nationally, currently handles 908 passenger services, facilitating roughly 81,000 passengers per day for more than 38.4 million journeys annually. Additionally, 28 freight services run through the station daily, carrying an estimated 30 million tonnes of goods annually. This makes the Piccadilly Corridor one of the busiest rail stretches in Europe.
The station is a massive employment site, supporting a resident rail crew of hundreds of staff; for instance, the Northern depot alone houses over 300 drivers and guards, while the total on-site workforce—including station management, customer service, and maintenance teams—exceeds 800 people. The station provides crew facilities, including washrooms and shower facilities, which are especially valued by those coming off shift. The hot water for the station’s north block is provisioned from a central plantroom located above four floors of crew facilities. The system had depended on a pair of A.O. Smith ADM 90 atmospheric commercial water heaters. Available since the late 1990s, the ADM range had been subsequently retired in 2018, so both units were naturally approaching end of life. However, corrosion resulted in a catastrophic failure of one of the units, and the second was in need of considerable maintenance, prompting Network Rail to secure suitable replacements.
Having received an initial quote of £90,000 to replace the two water heaters, Network Rail contacted Paul Dodd, Director at Flintshire-based C&D Heating and Cooling Services Ltd., as he had worked with Network Rail on previous successful projects. Upon carrying out an initial site survey, Paul recognised the ADMs would have been supplied by Adveco and contacted the company to discuss the best options to proceed.
Adveco recognised that consistent availability of hot water was required throughout the day to service the eight showers and 16 sinks throughout the facility. The replacement appliances would need to meet or exceed the capabilities of the old ADMs, whilst fitting the existing plant room space and critically be more cost-effective, both to purchase and operate. This would be a perfect scenario for the Adveco Astute® GHE gas water heater, with Adveco recommending a pair of GHE 380 litre, 70 kW as replacements. Designed specifically for cost-effective, universal replacement of commercial gas water heaters, Paul was able to present a replacement plan to Network Rail that immediately cut £50,000 off the initial quotation.
With Network Rail on board, C&D Heating & Cooling commenced the installation of the new water heaters, with Network Rail expediting the delivery of the appliances to the plant room. Astute GHE compact is designed to facilitate this process, enabling passage through standard-width UK doorways.
Because continuity of service was an explicit requirement of the project, C&D Heating & Cooling first capped the gas and secondary return to the first ADM before draining down the still-leaking unit. It then brought the first of the two Astute into service, before closing down and replacing the second operational ADM. The process required a little work to align pipework, but as Paul observes, “That was a fairly quick and straightforward process as there are enough options front and back on the new ones to connect to existing pipework.”
The Astute also comes with a concentric flue adaptor kit, and additional flue elements are available to complete flue runs. As with any ageing gas-fired system, replacement of the flue run is a necessity, which was met by C&D Heating & Cooling, completing the installation within seven days. Without the additional time required to assure operational continuity, Paul observes that, “The project could have been completed within four days.”
With installation complete, Adveco’s Service Engineer provided the site commissioning service, instigating the formal service warranties on the tank (five years) and parts (two years), providing Network Rail with peace of mind with assured ongoing operation.
By selecting Adveco Astute, Network Rail not only gained a rapid, low-impact installation of replacement hot water heating, but also received a considerable system upgrade over the old ADM units, which are outperformed on all points by the Astute 380-70. Despite the compact form factor, storage increased by 101 litres per appliance, along with notable performance gains. With efficiency improving to 95% versus the ADM’s 76% when new, Astute demonstrates notable energy savings, with a 74kW input for 70kW output, compared to the previous demands of 98 kW input for 74kW output. For the train crews using the showers and basins, this translates to consistent hot water provision, with each Astute able to continuously supply as much as 1200 litres at 50°C every hour, more than satisfying demand.
Referencing the improved operational efficiency of the new system, Paul notes, “The station’s hot water services could have easily been supported by just one of the GHE units. However, having a pair installed ensures Network Rail retains contingency on the service. And without major alteration to the plant room or pipework, it was delivered at a much lower cost.”
Astute’s smart onboard metering and connectivity, including remote app-based control, also means the facilities team at Manchester Piccadilly have far greater oversight and control of their new hot water system. Fault monitoring and end-of-life warning from Astute’s Leak Sense® also ensures the team won’t be faced with another emergency replacement or associated inflated quotes for work but can plan for future upgrades at their own speed.
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