Mechanical Contractors North West and Wirral
Kimpton Energy Solutions are Mechanical Contractors in the North West. For over 50 years we have specialised in M&E, HVAC and building services with a huge portfolio of work to our name in many different sectors. So let’s look at some of them in turn.
Mechanical Contractors for Industrial Applications
Whilst many mechanical contractors prefer to work in purely domestic situations, at Kimpton, we love working in some of the more challenging industrial applications of warehouses and factories. These often present spatial heating and cooling challenges that others shy away from.
In one interesting case study for Jaguar Land Rover, we were given the task of creating an HVAC solution for machinery within two high specification high bay warehouses. The two new warehouses were built on JLR’s existing manufacturing site at Castle Bromwich to house components required for their just-in-time manufacturing processes. With the design of the warehouses at 25m high the aim was to maximise storage space within the footprint of 21,000 square metres. Unusually, they were also largely unmanned so the challenge was to maintain the temperature and humidity for the mechanical operation rather than human comfort.
Mechanical Contractors for Office and Retail
Every office and retail outlet in the UK needs to be properly heated in the winter months, cooled in the summer months and ventilated to create and maintain a conducive working environment. We recently completed a lovely small job at The Bangor Job Centre where the air conditioning was upgraded and replaced throughout. It went from an uncomfortable place to work, to one that performed beautifully.
Mechanical Contractors for Student accommodation
Over recent years, Kimpton have become the go-to partners for HVAC within new build and refurbishment of student properties with thousands of completed student rooms, built to a high standard and a sensible cost.
Kimpton has mainly been working with the main construction contractor to deliver a range of high performance mechanical, electrical heating and ventilation services designed to provide high levels of performance and comfort with low ongoing running and maintenance costs.
We are now coming to the time when many of these new student builds require some upgrading and refurbishment to maintain the quality of offer (and the rates the rooms can achieve) and again we have geared up ready to work with the main contractors to deliver the HVAC solutions.
Many student rooms are built with Modular Bathrooms that are built off-site and installed before the building is finally ‘wrapped’ and the Pod enclosed. This is a great solution for cost-effective new-build but does present some challenges for refurbishment further down the line. A new Pod cannot simply be craned into place and plumbed in, so more innovative approaches need to be deployed. We have those solutions.
The finished Greenbank Student Accommodation Project
Mechanical Contractors for Process Industries
Even within industrial environments, there are tougher contracts that require more experience. Bigger plumbing in harsher environments where others may fear to tread. In this type of environment, the sizes are often bigger, the temperatures and pressures more extreme and the cost of any downtime greater. But this is exactly where we excel. Where the team feel comfortable, knowing they can and will deliver an exceptional solution that makes a real difference and keeping the machines running.
Mechanical Contractors for Renewable Projects
Renewables may be fashionable of late, but the Kimpton team carried out our first low carbon technology project in the early ‘90s. Many of these have been in the North West and Wirral, but other more significant projects have been even further afield.
As a team, we have decades of experience in the design, installation, and maintenance of building services infrastructures. This range includes water, gas, heating, ventilation, plumbing, cooling and power. We now focus on renewable energy solutions, incorporating low energy, low carbon, micro generation and renewable energy technologies to minimise your building’s carbon footprint.
We also understand which ones work and deliver the most cost-effective savings into the long-term. We recently did a revisit to one of our most high profile projects – the Marine Source Heat Pump at Plas Newydd to assess how well it was delivering clean energy. The answer was very well indeed.
Mechanical Contractors with Acoustic Expertise
As new building land becomes more scarce and the need to provide ever greater HVAC power in every built environment grows, the space for the plant also becomes tighter. Every space has to work harder and deliver more heating or cooling power, with less energy input. This also means more noise to control, whilst at the same time, less tolerance for noise in these confined living and working spaces.
So the answer lies within acoustic control. It’s an area the Kimpton team know well and we have our own specialist acoustic division that focuses purely on acoustic engineering. This allows us to deliver the mechanical solution and ensure that noise in the surrounding areas is kept to a minimum.
So if you are looking for Mechanical Contractors in the North West or Wirral, then give the Kimpton team a call on 0151 343 1963.
We’d be happy to get involved.
Case Study
Bailey Fields, Sheffield – Mechanical Services
Project details
The Client: Watkin Jones
Service: Mechanical Services
Project Value: £1.1m
Project Completion: July 2018
The Project:
Working alongside Watkin Jones, Kimpton Energy Solutions were tasked with the design and install of the mechanical services for this 543 bed student accommodation. Located within close walking distance of the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University the accommodation will provide the perfect base for new students.
The work included the provision of a new 6000 litre cold water storage tank which serves a cold water booster set. This set pumps the cold water throughout the building to serve all bedrooms. The boosted cold water also supplies two hot water cylinders within the boiler room serving Blocks A & B. These in turn are heated up by three 150kw boilers and provide the hot water services throughout the building.
A new CHP unit was also installed which provides power, but also assists the boilers by capturing heat and using this to create a heat buffer as part of the return circuit. In effect it preheats some of the water so the boilers have to work less hard to deliver the same amount of hot water to the building.
Ventilation to common areas and office/meeting rooms are delivered through heat recovery units located at high level in the open plan areas. A range of ductwork and supply/extract grilles provide fresh air into the areas. A VRF system has also been installed into the same areas with suspended cassette units being used to provide both the heating and cooling.
It’s a system design that combines a number of advanced renewable systems to deliver cost-effective and efficient heating and cooling throughout the building.
We are pleased to say that the project was handed over on time and on budget, we are also very pleased to have delivered another successful project with a key client in Watkin Jones.
This is just the start of our work in Sheffield, with the recently secured Hollis Croft project starting to take shape we are planning for the project to be delivered with similar efficiency. For us, it only goes to back up our experience in delivering large scale student accommodation schemes on time and budget.
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- Interior of Bailey Fields by Watkin Jones and HVAC by Kimpton
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- Interior of Bailey Fields by Watkin Jones and HVAC by Kimpton 3
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- Interior of Bailey Fields by Watkin Jones and HVAC by Kimpton 2
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- Exterior of Bailey Fields by Watkin Jones and HVAC by Kimpton
Key Statement
Working alongside Watkin Jones, Kimpton Energy Solutions were tasked with the design and install of the mechanical services for this 543 bed student accommodation in Sheffield.
Case Study
UoL Laboratory Air Handling Unit
PROJECT DETAILS
The Donnan & Robert Robinson Laboratory are contained with the Chemistry Building at the University of Liverpool. With this project, our brief was to replace the Air Handling Unit.
An Air Handling Unit (AHU) is a piece of equipment within an HVAC system that is used to regulate and circulate air. It’s normally connected to the ductwork to move air around a building whether hot, cold or ambient. They are normally located outside of the building on the rooftop or sometimes within the basement of the building. There were a few complications however. The main one being that the AHU was not only located within the basement, but it was also extremely tight, in terms of access.
For the Kimpton team, this presented a few issues. To avoid huge disruption with a large crane, the team had to work through the night to complete the job. There was also a short-term road closure for the lift itself. Some very careful handling of a delicate unit in the space outside of the basement and the transfer of the unit to the internal lifting equipment to move it into position. You can see the process in the pictures below.
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- It's a very tight fit to get the AHU into the basement of the Donnan & Robert Robinson Laboratory
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- But it's slowly lowered into the space to load into the basement
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- you can see from the other end how tight it is as a working space for the Kimpton team
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- The unit is now ready to slide into place
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- Once lowered, the team lift the AHU through the gap into the basement
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- The Air handling unit is finally through into the basement of the Donnan and Robert Robinson Laboratory
Key Statement
The replacement of an Air Handling Unit into the basement of the The Donnan & Robert Robinson Laboratory presented some interesting challenges for the Kimpton team.