Reading College uses Tanktronic to Ensure Safe Healthy Water at all times for Students
UTC Reading is a University Technical College that offers computer science and engineering courses to up to 600 students, aged 14-19 years. The college is located in a new building (opened in 2013) which is situated a short distance from the University campus.
In common with most large commercial buildings, the college is provided with cold water from the rising main via a ground-floor tank which guarantees an uninterrupted supply of drinking quality water whatever the demands placed on it by its many occupants.
During term time, demand is at its highest so the challenge is to ensure a constant supply throughout the building at all times. That demand obviously drops during the holidays which means the focus shifts to ensuring the water in the tank remains healthy. Even during terms, occupancy levels fluctuate particularly at weekends, meaning demand is rarely constant.
The water tank at UTC Reading is divided into two chambers to allow easy maintenance and cleaning while still ensuring an uninterrupted supply of water to the building. However, a divided tank has to be carefully managed; both sides of the tank need to fill with water at the same rate from the rising main to ensure neither side becomes ‘static’ as this could lead to bacterial growth and stagnant water.
At UTC Reading, the water within a divided tank was controlled by two independent equilibrium valves which were not working simultaneously, thus one side of the tank filled and emptied faster than the other side – the latter was in danger of becoming static.
M&E contractors LJJ Ltd turned to Keraflo for a solution that would not only guarantee the safety of the water, but would also deliver a highly flexible supply within the building. The decision was made to install Tanktronic (TT43 and TT15) as the preferred option for both managing water quality and to act as valves, controlling the water influx into both sides of the tank.
Tanktronic is an electronic tank management system which provides a complete solution to managing and controlling tank filling, as well as monitoring/reporting water levels and temperature.
Where required, it can be integrated into a building management system to alert the management team to any changes in the stored water. It also has a very useful calendar (holiday) setting so that the building management team can vary tank capacity to match demand.
Its smart functionality includes a Repeater Panel, which enables control from up to 100 metres away (meaning tanks housed in basements or roofs can be controlled from the comfort of the management office) and the Battery Module, which provides up to two days of normal operation in the event of a power failure. Having been launched three years ago, Tanktronic is already installed in many prominent buildings including The O2 Arena in London.
Philip Eykel, Operations Director of LLJ Ltd says: “We were very pleased with the service provided by the Keraflo team. Their technical support was fantastic, installation was easy and the team was onsite to ensure everything went smoothly. As far as I’m aware, the system is working perfectly providing both a high level of control and ensuring that water in the tank is regularly turned over to keep supplies healthy.”
For more information call 0118 921 9920, email info@keraflo.co.uk or visit www.keraflo.co.uk.
