Having access to the right facilities is vital to the performance of any Olympic athlete and, for Britain’s top canoeists, the opening of the Tim Brabants Elite Training Centre at Dorney Lake near Windsor marks a new era in the development of the sport.
Located off the mains gas grid, it is essential that the facility has a robust and proven fuel supply that can meet the site’s high demands for hot water and provide the right ambient temperature throughout the facility to support the athletes’ recovery after training.
Thanks to a single source, bulk LPG supply from Calor, the new centre is generating its entire hot water and heat requirements with optimal efficiency. The site uses different technology solutions to meet these two applications at the lowest possible cost, incorporating an LPG condensing boiler for space heating and a continuous flow, instant hot water system for the shower blocks.
Steve Harris, British Canoeing’s Project Manager explains the reasons for selecting Calor LPG:
“With changing rooms and shower blocks, a warm up area, athlete rest and recovery zones and treatment rooms to name a few, it’s fair to say that we have a constant requirement for heating and hot water. And, with no access to the conveniences of mains gas, we also require a totally dependable source of fuel.
In line with our ethos of using eco-friendly building practices and materials during the construction of the centre, it was important that the fuel we selected would help to meet the centre’s sustainability criteria.
Oil wasn’t really an option for us as, at certain times of the year, our fuel usage becomes more sporadic as athletes undertake their warm weather training overseas, so we didn’t want to store large quantities of oil on site.
As LPG has the lowest carbon emissions out of all the fossil fuels available to sites off the mains-gas grid, emitting 11.7 per cent less CO2 per kWh than oil, it fits well with our site’s environmental credentials, making it a logical choice.”
Rather than opting for a traditional system boiler and hot water tank, or a combi boiler to provide both space and water heating, Dorney selected a dedicated Rinnai continuous-flow water heater from Calor, capable of heating up to 1500 litres of temperature-accurate hot water per hour.
The unit is ideal for applications requiring high volumes of instant hot water at intermittent times of the day. The condensing technology incorporates dual heat exchangers achieving optimum water heating from the LPG and residual heat is captured from flue gases and transferred in to the water being heated.
Running from the same LPG supply, an LPG condensing boiler provides high efficiency space heating.
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