Royston Jones: Services

Royston Jones provides a full mechanical building service for new-build care homes made up of five main disciplines:

Plumbing
Heating
Ventilation
Air Conditioning
Renewables

As specialist plumbing and heating contractors, these five main services can be provided by our mechanical engineers to help optimise and coordinate the installation of your project.

For newly constructed care homes, our system includes a new heating and hot water generation plant located in a designated plantroom, along with pumped heating pipework and associated boosted hot and cold-water pipework, extending from here to serve the new wash basins, sinks, and other hot and cold-water outlets within the building. Additionally, we install air conditioning, a ventilation plant and distribution ductwork throughout the building in areas where such equipment is required. Here comes the science bit…

HOT:

Typically the hot water pipework system is fed from two calorifiers located within the plant room. The system is pressurised from the cold-water booster set and is equipped with a hot water return pump. Hot water is fed from here by flow and return thermally insulated pipework running in the designated risers and through the ceiling voids of the relevant floors. These then feed a series of outlets throughout the building, those in public areas and areas accessible to residents are equipped with thermostatic mixing valves to regulate the temperature of the hot water at the outlets.

COLD:

The cold-water pipework system is fed from a sectional GRP cold water storage tank located within the tank room, adjacent to the plantroom. This is fed via mains cold water from the local water authority. From the tank a feed is provided to the cold-water booster set also located within the tank room which serves the sprinkler system, and goes on to serve the cold-water outlets, following the routes of pipework mentioned above for the hot water services.

The heating system designed to serve the newly constructed care homes, is fed from the plantroom. The main items of the plant consist of two or three gas fired boilers and a single gas fired CHP. These feed low pressure hot water into thermally insulated low loss header pipework that is then equipped with two separate pumped circuits: one feeding the radiators (the variable temperature circuit aka, the heating system) and one feeding the hot water calorifiers (the constant temperature circuit, aka hot water system).

Pressure is maintained within the system by means of a pressurisation unit and expansion vessels which automatically maintain the pressure at the required level within the system. From the plantroom, heating pipework enters the designated riser and runs through the ceiling voids of the relevant floors. These then feed a series of low surface temperature radiators throughout the building, each of which is provided with a lockshield valve and a thermostatic radiator valve. On some occasions the pipework feeds underfloor heating manifolds to allow even distribution of heat depending on the clients requirements.

Our expert contractors can design and install several types of systems to provide mechanical ventilation dependent on your business needs.

For example, in recent care homes we ensure bedrooms are ventilated using dedicated bathroom extract fans ducted to external walls, with makeup air via the corridors and window trickle vents within the rooms, with the fans constantly running at low speed to promote air movement and boosting to higher extract volumes when the room is occupied. This is controlled via the lighting PIR sensors. Dining rooms are fitted with heat recovery units located above a false ceiling and ducted to supply and extract grilles. Fresh air and exhaust are ducted to louvres installed in the external walls. The heat recovery systems are controlled via local wall mounted controllers, and where required can be monitored by the Building Management System. Cleaners cupboards, nurses stations, sluice rooms and any other internal occupied rooms with windows are fitted with dedicated extract fans ducted to the nearest external wall, all controlled via sensors similar to the en-suites. Any occupied rooms without openable windows are installed with Heat Recovery Ventilation to provide tempered fresh air. This covers ventilation safely across all rooms in the home, but we also install ventilation in the basement plantroom to provide sufficient oxygen to the boilers to support proper combustion. Due to the fact the plantroom and boilers are typically located in the basement, mechanical supply and extract systems can be installed to ventilate the boilers in accordance with the boiler manufacturer requirements and specifications. The high- and low-level ventilation systems are to run continuously and are interlocked with the main gas solenoid and Building Management System to ensure the boilers do not operate unless the ventilation systems are running as they should.

Our experienced team will provide air conditioning to various rooms throughout the building as per the requirements and agreed fitted layout drawings. This is done via local ceiling or wall mounted cassette type units as is dictated by the room layout. These are connected by a network of insulated copper pipework to external condensers located at a certain point of the site. The cooling is controlled by local wall mounted digital controllers which can adjust temperature and airflow settings and where required can be linked to the Building Management System.

Royston Jones offer a number of systems that can be used throughout the care home, for any floor. The cooling/heating system is fed via a VRF system with the external condensers located outside. The VRF controls various units within the specific floor/area via flow selectors boxes so all rooms on all floors are controlled independently by a local controller. With single split units installed to comms rooms and drug stores where required.

A variety of renewable energy sources can be incorporated into new-build care homes. These can help reduce a building’s carbon footprint and reduce energy bills. As well as these basic drivers, renewables are often incorporated as a means of achieving higher levels of compliance with environmental assessment schemes such as BREEAM, obtaining planning consent, or meeting the CO2 emission targets imposed on new buildings under Building Regulations.

As the UK and other countries move towards a net-zero-carbon economy, there will be further incentives to design buildings to be more energy efficient, and to get more of their energy from renewable sources. In particular, heat pumps are expected to play an increasing role in heating buildings in the UK in the coming years. Listed below are the options that Royston Jones are able to assist with as certified MCS installers.

Biomass
Combined heat and power
Heat pumps
Air source
Ground source

This focus on the importance of renewable sources and sustainability is demonstrative of our proactive, can-do approach. Royston Jones provide holistic, turn-key solutions by working as part of multi-disciplinary project teams, including Low Carbon Consultants and BREEAM Assessors to ensure sustainability is integrated into the design of projects. Starting with advice on developing designs in the most sustainable manner, through to ongoing monitoring to drive the continuous improvement.

In addition to these five core services offered by Royston Jones, we also work in partnership with electrical contractors who also specialise within the new build care sector and can offer a fully co-ordinated and seamless design and install. We provide holistic turnkey solution for your business needs…