Our work with Halo Towers Stratford

Getting Into the Flow of Things at the Halo Towers Stratford

The Halo Towers Stratford is a large-scale modern development in East London, which has accelerated the regeneration of the Olympic Park.

Developed by Notting Hill Genesis (NHG), the 43-storey tower is at the heart of the excitement and atmosphere in East London. By creating 704 homes in the community, the Halo Towers Stratford has become a cornerstone of the area.

Communal Energy Partners (CEP) were approached by NHG to help source a solution to water heating issues in the tower, as hot water was returning to the plant room at a higher temperature than was expected. As a result, there were complaints that water temperatures were not uniform; residents’ water was, at best, lukewarm.

If left unresolved, NHG could have faced hefty penalties imposed by the heat supplier. CEP’s engineers had to work quickly to rectify the issue before these fines were issued.

The Challenge

CEP identified inefficiencies that affected water flow rates, with 600 litres per hour in one apartment and 400 litres per hour in another apartment both on the same floor. CEP also identified by passing in the system, meaning that a full service of their heat interface units (HIUs) was required. In addition, a flow restrictor valve needed to be retrofitted to ensure that hot water continued to pump efficiently and economically around the communal network heating system.

The Customer

Notting Hill Genesis is a housing association formed by the merger of Notting Hill Housing and Genesis Housing Association. Their primary purpose is to work in the community to provide decent and affordable homes for lower-income households. They currently provide affordable housing to 170,000 people in the South of England.

How did CEP help?

Working closely with NHG, CEP adopted a business-focused maintenance approach to deal with the issues at hand.

By establishing a data-driven servicing programme, CEP were able to target specific assets that were creating inefficiencies. Engineers balanced system settings, serviced & repaired HIUs, and flow restrictor valves were retrofitted onto all HIUs to control flow rates (preventing bypassing). In the following weeks, CEP’s engineers downloaded all meter reading data to help analyse what impact the restrictor valves were having on the communal network heating system.

 

The Outcome


After collating and reviewing data over a 12-month period, it has been noted that there have been significant improvements relating to flow and return temperatures across the network back to the plant room. Further improvements are expected when the site is completed.