Product category:
Plumbing Services
News Release from: Tapworks | Subject: Tapworks North Star commercial water softener
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 06 April 2007
5 star soft water for new 4 star Bristol
hotel
With the installation of Tapworks North Star commercial water softener, the Holland House Hotel has banished problems of hard water.
When you welcome guests to your hotel, you want them to be dazzled rather than disappointed but in many cases hard water may take the shine off aspects of their stay This certainly won't happen at the Mercure Holland House Hotel and Spa which has recently opened on Redcliffe Hill in Bristol city centre
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 6 Apr 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Bristol is part of the more than 60 per cent of the UK to be affected by hard water and the evidence of the damage it causes is clear for everyone to see - shower heads get quickly clogged up with scale, bathrooms look grimy, and clean glasses and cutlery look smeared.
That's areas where you can see its effects.
It's arguably worse where you can't - in heating systems - with boilers, radiators, pumps and pipework suffering the ravages of limescale build up that can make a huge impact on energy bills and major maintenance costs.
Further reading
Say goodbye to hard water
Around 60 percent of people in the UK live in hard water areas and suffer the problems that go with it.
Tapworks water softeners mean savings all round
Tapworks commercial water softener system has become an attractive alternative to high energy costs and unnecessary maintenance expense.
Water softener makes 'huge difference' at College
Tapworks North Star Ion Exchange system - a PA131 Triplex installation - softens water for both the primary and secondary systems at College.
However, the Holland House Hotel has taken steps to make sure that this will never happen there.
With the installation of a Tapworks North Star commercial water softener, the hotel has banished the problems of hard water before they even begin.
Guests at a four star hotel expect luxury and that's something hard water doesn't offer! It reduces the effectiveness of soaps and detergents by up to half, meaning that you need to use twice as much.
It also creates a scum which clings to everything it comes into contact with, including appliances, work surfaces and tiles, and makes everything appear dingy.
More worryingly it has the same effect on laundry and your skin! Elbow grease alone is not enough to combat the effects of hard water.
Not only does it take its toll on the things we can see, it also plays havoc in out of the way places, such as inside pipes, tanks and boilers, and in washing machines, dishwashers, and kettles.
They will all become less efficient as scale builds up, and are likely to break down more frequently because of it.
Hotel operators don't want high energy bills or on-going maintenance costs when simply by installing a water softener they can make a significant difference and keep costs to a minimum.
So, when work began on the conversion work to create the luxury 275 bedroom hotel - formerly a four-storey office block - Mechanical Design Engineer James Mogg, of McCann and Partners, Design Consultants based in Cardiff, considered that a Tapworks water softener was an absolute necessity.
He says: "The Mercure Holland House Hotel and Spa is a four star hotel so it is important that consideration is given to the problems associated with hard water.
Soft water will help create a great impression on guests, and it will also have added benefits of providing long term energy efficiency and cost savings for the hotel.
The softener we specified has a capacity to soften 52,600 litres of water a day and a peak flow rate of 16.5 litres a second - plenty to cope with a 275 bedroom hotel and all its water requirements." Brett Benson, National Sales Manager explains this in more detail: "When hard water is heated - in hot water systems, kettles, washing machines and the like - it forms limescale which clogs up pipework and appliances, reducing energy efficiency, and resulting in increased energy bills.
According to Government figures, scale can build up at 1.5mm every year and a leading trade association representing the interests of the water and wastewater industry in the UK and overseas - says that in hard water areas, just 1.6mm of scale in heating systems causes a 12% loss in heat transfer from the energy source - gas or electricity - to water, in terms of heating efficiency.
If scale builds up on an element, it has to heat the scale before it heats the water so it really is money down the drain." He continues: "Tapworks' North Star range of commercial water softeners has a fantastic reputation for reliability which means that maintenance costs are negligible.
On top of this, running costs can be up to 50 per cent lower than competitors' products because Tapworks North Star softeners feature Genius Chip technology that precisely measures the amount of water used.
This in turn enables a more accurate calculation of the salt and water needed to cleanse the softener, resulting in more than 50% less water and up to 50% less salt being used.
The Tapworks water softener installed at Holland House is a quadplex system - and it will provide softened water throughout the entire hotel.
The Hotel's General Manager is Damian Kaye: "The Tapworks Water Softener is a key part of the quality and luxury we offer to our guests.
They expect the water to be of good quality when they stay here - it's not really an option - its part of what we offer.
Having the softener installed means that our guests experience soft water whenever they turn on their taps or showers in their rooms and as a business we know that limescale build up will not be a problem in our heating system or in any of the appliances we operate, reducing the likelihood of emergency call outs to failed appliances and reducing medium and long term maintenance problems significantly.
And of course it reduces our energy bills which for a hotel this size are considerable.
Any savings we can make will be well received by the company!" Joe Hooper from CMB Engineering was the contractor who installed the softener: "The water softener is installed in the basement plant room and it was very straightforward to install and commission.
It was the first large scale water softener I have ever been responsible for installing and I guess I had some reservations before starting on the job.
I shouldn't have worried.
It was very straightforward to install and I'd have no problems with doing similar jobs in the future.
The support from Tapworks which is key in these situations, was first class and it's a very neat and simple installation as far as I'm concerned." Tapworks Brett Benson added: "We're getting more and more enquiries for commercial ion exchange water softeners from the Tapworks North Star range as increasing numbers of businesses realise how much hard water is costing them, in the main through on-going high maintenance costs and the costs of replacing appliances.
Indeed, in 2006 we also saw a significant increase in enquiries from companies that already had competitor softeners and were obviously concerned about the high running costs they were incurring.
In these instances we have been able to show an average 32 per cent saving on running costs by installing a Tapworks unit.
We're working with restaurants, hotels, hospitals, nursing homes, laundries and many more businesses - a wide range that all need soft water and the confidence that soft water gives that it will prevent damage to their equipment or systems." Full details of the Tapworks North Star Commercial range of ion exchange water softeners can be obtained by calling Tapworks on 01494 480 621 or visiting northstar.tapworks.co.uk.
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