Andrews Water Heaters, part of Baxi Commercial Division, has supplied two Queen’s Award winning MAXXflo direct fired storage water heaters, together with a SOLARflo pre-heat system which have been installed at the new Nancy Astor Building, an £11 million development at the University of Plymouth.

This building, named after the Plymouth Sutton MP who was the first woman to serve in the House of Commons, is at the centre of a major scheme connecting the campus with the Drake Reservoir and its adjoining parkland. The Nancy Astor Building is the new home of the Faculty of Health and Social Work.

Designers Hoare Lea selected the Andrews equipment for its use of renewable energy which complements an already highly efficient water heating system in order to comply with a number of important criteria: the University’s policy on carbon emissions, Part L of the Building Regulations, the requirement for a ‘very good’ BREAAM rating and, last but not least, the company’s own policy of minimising the carbon footprint of its design projects.                                                                                                                 

The Andrews Water Heaters package is designed to provide abundant, virtually instantaneous, domestic hot water to the entire building. Outlets in the Nancy Astor Building comprise 17 showers, 28 wash hand basins and 10 sinks located within the sports facility, the academic teaching area, the café area and including all WC, cleaners and tea point facilities to the 4 storey office accommodation.

The two MAXXflo CWH120/300 storage water heaters are located in the Energy Centre on the lower ground floor, along with a 1500 litre stainless steel pre-heat unvented cylinder and the other components of the solar heating package. The 21m2 of SOLARflo evacuated tubes for solar collection are mounted horizontally on the flat roof of the North Core plant room, some 28 metres above the Energy Centre.

The University of Plymouth’s framework building services contractor and installer of the equipment, MITIE Engineering commented: “Installation of all the Andrews equipment went well and the evacuated tubes were very simple to install. With outlets located throughout the building, programming required careful planning and co-ordination and the support and back up received from Andrews was excellent.”