Member Article

12th Century Manor benefits from 21st Century Pipe Technology

A historic Grade 11 listed manor house, once home to the famous Bloomsbury set of artists and philosophers, is benefiting from the most modern of heating systems, thanks to Flexenergy’s eco-friendly and highly energy efficient Flexalen pre-insulated pipe technology.

Charleston Manor, a 12th century manor house in East Sussex, is the former home of painter Sir Oswald Birley, and is most famous for its association with some of the 20th centuries most pioneering artists, writers and thinkers. The house hosts an annual celebration of the work of the Bloomsbury Group at the Charleston Festival.

Charleston Manor is now managed and conserved by the Charleston Trust for the benefit of the public, who can visit the Grade II listed property between March and November.

A recent upgrade of the heating system for two of the buildings at the property involved the installation of a new central boiler housed 100 metres from the property. Underfloor heating, radiator circuits and unvented hot water have been installed with BMS and WiFi control. Four Hoval oil boilers will also be installed over the coming months.

Russell Haggerty from heating contractors PJ Clifford Ltd, explains what the project involved: “We used approximately 110 metres of 50mm Flexalen pre-insulated pipe work for primary flow and returns as it was easy to install in a metre depth trench. Flexenergy’s V-Flex valves were also used to split the system serving the two properties and, again these were easy to install with pre-fabricated joint connections – the only fully-plastic welded system available in the UK.

“This ease of installation saved a lot of time on the project and resulted in minimal disturbance to access to the property; once the pipe work was installed, it was pressure tested and back-filled within a few hours.”

Flexenergy’s Sales Director, Sandy Fairley, commented: “This was an interesting project for us to be involved in and the Flexalen pipework and V-Flex valve system were very well suited to the new heating system to optimise its thermal efficiency. The product is lightweight, highly flexible and very thermally efficient and, being made of polybutylene, it is sustainable and although it may not last for centuries to come….it will not corrode and would certainly out-live an equivalent steel pipe network.”

www.flexenergy.co.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Colin Bridgman .