STELRAD RADIATORS SELECTED FOR ALZHEIMER UNIT IN CARDIFF
Leading radiator manufacturer Stelrad Radiators has seen its radiators selected for a refurbishment project being undertaken by Wales & West Housing at one of its developments in Cardiff.
Oldwell Court in Roath, Cardiff, is divided into two separate parts, the one offering 38 general purpose housing residential apartments, for older, mainly single, people and the other leased to the Alzheimer’s Society and run as a day centre. The building has had a complete new heating system installed, via two separate plant rooms. The residential part of the building has a heating system driven by a cascade of four high efficiency boilers and a large stored hot water cylinder whilst the day centre has a single boiler of its own. The whole of the building is heated by Stelrad Radiators, with a mix of Stelrad’s sector leading LST i Plus Low Surface Temperature radiators and best-selling Compact range.
The LSTs have been installed in the day centre, where people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia have the opportunity to be social and to participate in activities in a safe environment. The Compacts have been installed in the office areas and corridors around the building.
The Low Surface Temperature radiators casings will never heat up above 43°C, ensuring that people in the vicinity cannot suffer from dry burns if they lean or fall against them. All LST radiators from Stelrad meet the NHS Guidance for ‘Safe Hot Water and surface temperature’ – in hospitals, care and nursing homes, as well as sheltered housing, day centres and nurseries. It’s a specification requirement of building designers and architects that the heat emitters in these buildings protect the young, the elderly and the vulnerable, who will live in or visit buildings such as these.
When asking whether LST radiators are needed, you only need to consider the risk of in particular older people falling and injuring themselves on a radiator along with potential dangers from those with a visual impairment bumping into or brushing against radiators. Some elderly people have a reduced sensitivity to high temperatures and others simply cannot react quickly enough to prevent injury from hot surfaces if they inadvertently touch and come into contact with a conventional radiator, where surface temperatures may be as high as 75°C. Older people and those suffering injuries have an increased susceptibility to losing their balance and falling, and the possibility of these people falling and becoming trapped against a conventional radiator brings the need for LST radiators sharply into focus.
Kate Solomon was Wales & West Housing’s Contracts Manager for the refurbishment at Oldwell Court working alongside contractors Gibson Specialist Technical Services: “It was a much more complex refurbishment than it might at first appear, with the obligations of the Heat Network (Metering and Billing) Regulations 2014 requiring individual metering for a communal heating and hot water system. Suffice to say the selection of the radiators was one of the simpler things for us to do and we’re very pleased with the selection we made. Low Surface Temperature radiators were essential for the Alzheimer’s Day Centre where safety of the people attending the Alzheimer’s Society day centre was paramount. The new heating system works very well and the residents living in the 38 apartments are all happy with the performance of the system and the warmth they get from their new radiators.”
David Last is Stelrad’s Specification Manager for South Wales: “We were delighted to be involved in this project and to offer a combination of our LST and Compact radiators for the refurbishment project here a Oldwell Court. It’s been a straightforward project and we’ve worked very happily with Kate Solomon and Roy Preece, Asset Management Officer from Wales & West Housing from start to finish. We’ve been involved on a number of projects where we’ve provided a mix of radiator types to match the needs of different areas of a building or complex and this is an excellent example of that with LSTs and Compacts in this case, operating alongside each other in relevant areas of the building.”
For more information on the Stelrad radiator range, head for www.stelrad.com. Alternatively, you can also see regular updates from Stelrad on Twitter @Stelrad and Facebook @StelradRadiators.
