Installer chooses >B< MaxiPro as smart solution for 'smart' homes

Background

The installation was at Sumner House, a landmark development in Chorley town centre, Lancashire. The build-to-rent scheme offers 43 one and two bedroom apartments and includes smart technology to, among other things, manage energy use. 

Products

With long runs of refrigerant pipework in difficult spaces, no lifts in which to carry heavy gas bottles, and other ‘trades’ working at the same time, the installer needed a flame-free method to complete the project.

Oakes Energy Services was contracted by developer The Heaton Group to install 10 Daikin Altherma air-to-water low temperature heat pumps. The pumps extract heat from the outside air, making heating and cooling the homes more energy efficient.

As heat pumps use refrigerant gas the traditional jointing method would have been brazing. Had this been chosen, the installer would have needed to complete the time-consuming tasks of carrying out a risk assessment and applying for a hot works permit. In addition, he would have had to manhandle heavy gas bottles around the building and each brazed joint would have required a nitrogen purge.

Instead, Andy specified >B< MaxiPro, the flame-free jointing solution developed specifically for air conditioning and refrigeration applications by Conex Bänninger.

>B< MaxiPro is designed to cope with the higher pressures of ACR systems. As a purely mechanical joint, it has a 3-point press that provides a secure, permanent, leak-free joint. Once it has been prepared it takes no longer than 5 seconds to press the joint.

Andy said: “The pipe runs were long, around 40 metres times two, and up to the fifth floor. All the pipes were concealed in ceiling areas and brazing would have been an awkward and time-consuming exercise. There were no lifts and other ‘trades’ were in there all the time. It would have been a nightmare if we had to use brazing.We did all the connections, approximately 90, in one day. The time saved was unbelievable.”

Andy said he found the press tool, supplied by ROTHENBERGER, light and easy to use.

“We have another big project coming up, installing a further 10 heat pumps in a 35-flat block in Preston, and we will definitely be using >B< MaxiPro again.”

>B< MaxiPro can be used with hard, half hard or annealed copper tube conforming to EN12735-1 or ASTM-B280. The innovative press system can be used with many refrigerants, including R1234yf, R1234ze, R32, R134a, R404A, R407C, R407F, R410A and R507, and more.