Norwich Union and Reznor - together they're warmer

Norwich Union and Reznor have teamed up to ensure life for employees at Norwich Union/Aviva Group UK's main literature storage facility is comfortable all year round.

Norwich Union, the UK's largest insurer, and Reznor, the UK's leading supplier of bespoke warm air heating systems, have teamed up to ensure life for employees at Norwich Union/Aviva Group UK's main literature storage facility is comfortable all year round.

Ensuring even distribution of heat between the pallet racking and above the mezzanine floor required the precise positioning of warm air unit heaters around the building.

Eleven C4074 compact heaters were wall mounted between racks just below roof level.

The warm air is redistributed throughout the main storage area by 20 roof-mounted Maximisor recirculation fans.

A ducted warm air system, powered by five Euro T2236 units, maintains constant temperatures of 210C for personnel working at mezzanine floor level.

This system also provides warmth to high bay areas The Reznor system was recommended by Roberts and Partners of Glasgow, retained consultants for Norwich Union, and installed by M and E contractor ABB Building Technologies of Ipswich.

John Shannon of Roberts and Partners comments: 'The system effectively achieves total heat distribution around the racking and working areas of the building.

Reznor warm air units are renowned for good quality and longevity - I had no hesitation in specifying them for this application.

Warm air heating solves air distribution and heat recovery challenge.

Reznor warm air heating solution is ensuring even heat distribution throughout a refurbished Norwich factory, in spite of an unusual building design that would normally impede effective air flow.

The 3,000m2 factory was gutted when the current occupier, retail display joinery manufacturer Quantum Industries , moved in.

A new heating system was tailored to their specifications for a comfortable working environment with no temperature stratification.

The system had to be economical and capable of re-distributing heat from a wood burner that would otherwise be wasted, to drive running costs down further.

The system also had to achieve good air flow to maintain good air quality at all times.

The building has a 7m high central section, with 8m wide / 4m high wings running down either side.

Conventional heating solutions would have to deploy many units to achieve consistent warmth throughout all areas of the factory.

The Reznor solution uses just six, all positioned at high level above the central section.

Reznor UDSA100 high performance downflow units were installed by MandE contractor Custance and Son of Wicklewood, Norfolk.

The heaters have two-stage burners so that once any of the six independent zones of the room approaches set-point (16 degrees C), the adjacent heater will reduce to half-fire rate, saving running costs and energy.

More importantly, the heater's fan continues to operate at 100% duty so the recycled heat from the waste wood burner is evenly distributed.

Destratification fans are unnecessary for this system design.

Instead, the Reznor heaters are fitted with an Econostat destratifying/air recirculation thermostat that automatically kicks in the fan without the burner firing up when air in the high roof space rises above 20 degrees C.

This has the effect of recycling warm air back down to low level.

This feature eliminates the need for sophisticated ducting to redistribute recovered heat back into the factory.

Reznor UDSA heaters have an exceptionally long throw while using less fan-motor power than any other similar heater.

Optimum positioning of the six heaters ensures that the entire floor area, including the extremities under the low roof section have good heat coverage.

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