Paul Collins Of PK services was recently awarded the contract to replace the three existing Hamworthy Wessex Modumax boilers and upgrade the heating in the Meerkat Restaurant. Finding a suitable replacement for the small footprint Wessex boilers is often a challenge, but after detailed discussion with Paul we were fortunate to be able to provide a solution with the new Viessmann Vitocrossal 100 boiler.

The Viessmann Vitocrossal 100 utilizes high water content technology which has significant advantages over the previous low water content modular boilers that PK Services replaced. The old modular boilers required primary pumps (1 per boiler) & low loss header to maintain the design flow rate of the boiler. Viessmann’s alternative removed the need for primary pumps & low loss headers, allowing the existing secondary circuit pumps to pull from the boiler as heat is required by the system. The system is split between underfloor heating & air handling units. Both circuits have different requirements that the Vitocrossal 100 can satisfy.

An underfloor heating system generally uses only a small amount of energy to maintain temperature in a room, this can cause frequent but short calls to bring the boiler on. This frequency can increase the wear & tear on the burner which may increase service costs and cause parts to be changed earlier than expected. The Vitocrossal eliminates this issue due to the high-water content heat exchanger allowing the boiler to act like a buffer tank, the underfloor can pull heat away as is required, while the boiler will only fire up when a drop in temperature is detected.

The AHU requires high flow temperatures to operate correctly, the Vitocrossal 100 can work with flow temperatures as high as 95°C.

Due to the nature of this commercial property, there was an urge to get the boiler change over completed in a short time period. Thankfully the Vitocrossal 100 comes fully pre-wired and pre-assembled which significantly reduces installation time. The boiler arrives with wheels for ease of movement and has a fully assembled width of 750mm, so it fits through standard doorways and narrow corridors.

Overall PK Services have achieved the following for Dublin Zoo:

• Reduced installation time as boiler comes pre-assembled & pre-wired
• The Vitocrossal 100 comes with built in wheels and is only 750mm wide, allowing it to be easily wheeled into position
• Increased efficiency due to the use of Viessmann’s Lambda Pro control technology & the Vitocrossal’s gross efficiency of up to 98%
• Reduced the amount of electrical energy consumed in the boiler room by removing the 3 no. primary pumps with the previous boilers
• Reduced ongoing service costs over multiple boiler systems
• Professional and clean install with strong back up provided by both contractor & supplier

Quote from Paul Collins Of PK services “this was the first Vitocrossal 100 I’ve fitted but it won’t be the last. It was so simple to install. No casing to fit, prewired. The lambda pro control made commissioning very straightforward”