Leadenhall Building

A look at the boiler technology selected to provide the space heating within a new London landmark that has taken shape in rapid time, making full use of modern prefabrication and 3-D modelling.

Warming The Leadenhall Building in addition to having a very distinctive architectural form, the 52 storey Leadenhall Building is one of London’s tallest structures and is setting new standards in terms of design and construction management. The scale of the property with its 41 floors of offices, shops, restaurants and various circulation spaces also requires a very variable heating capacity that is being met by the trio of 1.5 mW high performance boilers supplied by Stokvis Energy Systems.

The three Economatic steel shell boilers are part of a package of mechanical service provisions which has been brought together by Crown House Technologies from its south-eastern branch. Crown House Technologies identified the Stokvis boilers as meeting all of the project criteria, working to a performance specification drawn up by the internationally renowned consulting engineers, Arup.

Overall the rate of progress on the project, which is being led by Laing O’Rourke, has been linked to the use of BIM, or Building Information Modelling, which reaches through from the initial designs of the architects, Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners, to the eventual facilities management functioning of the property.

In fact the adoption of modern construction technologies, including the use of off-site building techniques and sophisticated Building Management Systems (BMS), has been fully embraced within the building services provisions. The three Stokvis Economatic 160F boilers were actually delivered to Crown House Technologies’ premises in Kent where they were mounted on a purpose designed steel chassis, along with other equipment, and partly pre-commissioned ready for installation on site.

As with all the heating products manufactured by Stokvis Energy Systems – including its Econoplate plate heat exchangers, Econopress pressurisation units and packaged plant rooms – the Economatic series of fully modulating gas boilers offers very high build quality, as well as excellent reliability and heating efficiency. Each of the units is also fully factory insulated to minimise standing heat losses.

Furthermore, in addition to matching or exceeding such performance parameters for the Leadenhall project, each boiler delivers a temperature of 82 ° centigrade, a maximum heat output of 1600 kW, a water flow rate of 32.6 kg per second, and a minimum efficiency of 95 per cent (NCV), the boilers and their Riello burners had to be able to respond fully to the demands of the Leadenhall Building’s advanced BMS set up.

In relation to the control of comfort levels within this vast building, rising 224 metres above the surrounding streetscape of the world’s most important financial district, the trio had to be able to operate in unison, accommodating multiple input and output signals. Amongst these were low and high fire status, as well as common alarm outputs and the burner firing rate.

In practice the three Stokvis Economatic REX160F models will achieve an overall operating efficiency of 95 per cent (NCV) whilst also producing particularly low carbon dioxide and NOx levels.

Crown House Technologies’ Peter Davey explained:

“The building is well insulated, resulting in relatively low space heating loads that will vary considerably through the day. It was therefore important that the heating plant would be able to respond to varying loads efficiently.

We investigated a number of options to ensure we were able to meet the specification while ensuring best value and selected the Stokvis boilers on that basis.  The burners are especially critical in ensuring reliable performance and we knew from past experience that Riello would provide the reliability and repeatability we required.”

Paul Sands of Stokvis Energy Systems commented:

“More than 80 per cent of the construction process for The Leadenhall Building was executed off site, including prefabrication work relating to the mechanical and electrical services. As part of this strategy 3 Economatic REX160F boilers were delivered to Crown House Technologies’ fabrication facility in Kent, where they were mounted on skids, featuring pre-assembled gas and water pipework for ease of installation on site.

Following delivery to site they were then lifted into position on the 47 th level of the building. They represent a very well-engineered boiler solution offering unmatched reliability from their steel construction and top specification components such as the Riello burners, which we routinely utilise; coupled with very energy efficient, fully modulating performance.”

Peter Davey concluded:

“The space heating plant has now been commissioned and we’ve been very pleased with the quality of support provided by Riello and Stokvis.”

For further information on Stokvis Energy Systems, please call 020 8733 3050 or email [email protected]