Bathroom exhibition receives efficient and responsive heating/cooling system from aquatherm – Planning and implementing a new bathroom is an exciting project. The 260 Elements showrooms throughout Germany are here to help.
Customers have the opportunity not only to see the latest bathroom trends, but also to touch and test them. Now, another exhibition has been added in Lennestadt in South Westphalia, where special challenges had to be solved in the area of heating and cooling.
Schedler KG, a medium-sized specialist wholesaler for building services, has moved into a new single-storey building with a floor area of 500 square metres and dimensions of 20 x 25 m with its fifth Elements exhibition. On around 450 square metres of exhibition space, customers can discover different design ideas for their dream bathroom in bathroom bunks. These bunks, which have their own ceiling and are 2.90 m high, have a great influence on the architecture of the building. “This should offer the greatest possible flexibility in any floor plan variant, also with regard to future redesign needs,” explains David Heinemann, personally liable partner of Schedler KG. This also affected the room air conditioning.
“The particular challenge in planning the heating and cooling was to ensure that the room layout could be changed at any time independently of the heating/cooling system,” says David Heinemann. “In addition, the heating/cooling system used had to create uniform temperature conditions and comfort all year round without draughts, with the simplest possible controllability and operation. Of course, low operating costs were also a focus of the planning.”
MOUNTING ON SUSPENDED STEEL FRAME
To meet these requirements, the aquatherm black surface heating and cooling system was chosen. The black registers made of corrosion-resistant polypropylene emit the heat of the water flowing through them by means of radiation. Draughts or dust turbulence are eliminated by this process and the thermal comfort in the room increases. The system also works with lower flow temperatures than conventional heating systems and higher flow temperatures than other cooling systems. In conjunction with its rapid response capability, this enables particularly efficient and energy-saving operation under changing conditions. In the case of Schedler KG, the system was optimally designed for a highly efficient brine-to-water heat pump for heating and geothermal probes for passive cooling.
The building services wholesaler decided to mountaquatherm blackvisibly on steel frames suspended from the hall ceiling clad with black trapezoidal sheet metal. This type of installation achieves a higher efficiency and responsiveness than, for example, installation as a ceiling sail or in a closed ceiling, because in addition to a high radiant component with regard to heat transfer, the convective component also increases. The aquatherm black registers were produced according to customer requirements in a size of 1 x 3.75 m in the main factory of the aquatherm group of companies and installed in a total of 35 steel frames. For the executing company Börger from Lennestadt, which has been processing aquatherm products for over 20 years, it was the first project with this type of installation.
“It was particularly helpful for us that an aquatherm service technician explained the special features to us on site.” says Managing Director Jan Börger. “With this knowledge, the processing was very easy-as usual with other aquatherm products.”
“SYSTEM MAKES TECHNOLOGY WORTH SEEING”
The supply line between the individual registers was made with the help of a connecting corrugated tube and a plug-in connector. The corrugated pipe allows for a flexible but unobtrusive connection, while the quick connector with safety clip creates a completely tight but still detachable connection. The connection of the surface heating and cooling system was realised via Tichelmann manifolds made of aquatherm blue pipes in the dimension 50 millimetres. aquatherm blue, also made of the plastic polypropylene, is a specialist for the transport of cooling and heating media in closed systems and is therefore particularly suitable for a wide range of industrial applications. The Tichelmann distributors were installed in cable ducts on the ceiling and prefabricated in the aquatherm factory. The outlets were installed vertically upwards in alignment so that the connection could be made quickly and easily.
“This saved us a lot of time during assembly.” said Jan Börger. “The light weight – especially compared to metal piping systems – further simplified the assembly of the Tichelmann manifolds.”
The first impression of the system is thoroughly positive.
“The visual effect in the building is impressive and fits perfectly into the building -geometry,” says David Heinemann.
The entrance and info area as well as the corridors still allow a view of the ceiling.
“We deliberately opted for the visible installation because the system makes technology worth seeing,” adds David Heinemann. “Beautiful bathrooms also include technology, which in our opinion can be visible in the right places. The excellent and clean execution of the system by the installing specialist trade company is also worthy of special mention”. He continues: “We see the advantages of aquatherm black in the simple installation as well as the price/performance ratio in combination with the delivered efficiency. The qualified assistance in planning from aquatherm also promoted the decision for the product.”
