The Challenge
Having outgrown their previous premises, Regency Glass relocated to a newly constructed 420,000 sq ft manufacturing and logistics warehouse in Cheshire.
The new building has been designed to modern standards, with excellent insulation, strict U-values and a BREEAM Excellent rating. With no gas permitted on site, the customer required an efficient electric heating solution, with a strong three-phase electrical supply available.
The building also contains large furnaces used within the glass manufacturing process. These will generate additional heat, although the exact amount of heat they will contribute to the warehouse environment was not yet known. Maintaining an ideal temperature of around 15°C is important for the quality and consistency of the manufacturing process.
The Solution
OKEL designed a high-performance three-phase electric warm air heating and destratification system, comprising:
25 x Winterwarm EH three-phase electric air heaters
80 x Winterwarm WCU destratification and circulation fans
The system has been designed to work alongside the heat naturally generated by the furnaces, with the WCU fans helping to distribute warm air throughout the vast warehouse and prevent heat accumulating at high level.
Importantly, we have gone slightly lighter on the initial installed kW capacity because the extent of the heat generated by the furnaces is not yet fully known. Rather than over-specifying the system from day one, the design allows the customer to assess the building’s actual heating requirements once the manufacturing operation is fully established.
If additional heating capacity is required, further electric heaters can be added in the future, providing a flexible solution that can adapt to the building and manufacturing process.
The Winterwarm EH heaters will also modulate between low and high fire to maintain the required 15°C temperature. This allows the system to respond to the actual heat demand within the warehouse, helping to avoid unnecessary energy consumption whilst maintaining a consistent working environment.
Installation Within a New-Build Facility
The heating installation took place over approximately one month, working closely alongside the M&E contractors responsible for the wider electrical fit-out of the building.
With a large number of contractors working on site, OKEL coordinated closely with the customer’s health and safety and maintenance teams to ensure the heating installation was completed safely and without disrupting the wider construction programme.
All works were completed to schedule, ready for the customer’s new manufacturing and logistics operation.
The Result
The completed electric heating and destratification system provides Regency Glass with a flexible and efficient heating solution designed specifically around the scale of the new facility, the available electrical infrastructure and the additional heat produced by the manufacturing process.
By combining electric warm air heating with extensive air circulation, the system can distribute available heat more effectively throughout the warehouse, whilst the modulating heaters respond to changing demand and help minimise unnecessary energy use.
A Flexible Electric Heating Solution for Large-Scale Manufacturing
For a facility of this scale, heating requirements can change as the manufacturing process becomes fully operational. By taking a measured approach to the initial heating capacity and combining three-phase electric warm air heating with destratification, OKEL has provided Regency Glass with a system that can respond to the building’s actual requirements while avoiding unnecessary installed capacity and energy consumption.
