Case study – leading UK commercial developer

The 4-year-old Building Performance Engineering Consultancy had been following IWTM's progress on LinkedIn and requested a survey when faced with water quality issues on the adjoining Finsbury Avenue office towers. The towers required replacement boilers but the consultancy felt there was a risk on newer more efficient units with aluminium components and the smaller pipework which could be easily blocked by the particulate in the water. 

The first tower’s water had raised but passable levels whilst the next tower required daily strainer servicing due to its poor water quality. The original plan was for PHEs in each of the plant rooms to protect the boiler circuits, but this required considerable work to add additional infrastructure pipework and pump sets. Following the survey the decision was made to install IWTM’s chemical free units in both plant rooms on the LTHW circuits. The Director of Engineering, said “Rather than masking the problem we decided to install chemical free and actually cure the issue with water quality”. 

Following the survey reaction tanks capable of controlling a system volume of 35,000l, and a demineralisation unit were selected for the install. The system was installed across two days with no interruption to the operation of the buildings. 

The chemical free system immediately started to move the water to a non-corrosive state before cleaning through the resultant sludge, slurry and fixed debris caused by the corrosive system. Since installation the conductivity was reduced by over a quarter whilst the total irons were reduced by over 90%. The pH, which was low in both towers was bought into range for VDI2035. Within three months the biggest improvements were seen in the strainers which were finally running clear meaning the strainer servicing was now at expected intervals.

As a leading class Real Estate Investment Trust the client felt they had industry leading water treatment but are now moving their assets to chemical-free both for the reliability and the environmental benefits. 

“This should be the new standard of water treatment as why would you go back to chemicals when you can be chemical-free and get a more reliable system”. Added the consultant. 

The 4-year-old Building Performance Engineering Consultancy had been following IWTM's progress on LinkedIn and requested a survey when faced with water quality issues on the adjoining Finsbury Avenue office towers. The towers required replacement boilers but the consultant felt there was a risk on newer more efficient units with aluminium components and the smaller pipework which could be easily blocked by the particulate in the water.