McDonald Engineers has designed, manufactured and supplied a number of horizontal calorifiers for a major UK supermarket ranging from 500 Litre to 1000 Litre Powerflow Commercial calorifiers.
As well as providing a like for like replacement for a calorifier which had failed, McDonald Engineers also manufactured four additional calorifiers for upgrade works at various locations throughout the UK.
When you were thinking about building a tree house as a child, ensuring it had piping hot water would possibly not have been top of your wish list, however McDonald Engineers has delivered just that for a client in Wales.
The company, which is widely regarded as one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of bespoke hot water cylinders, were asked to design, manufacture and supply an indirect combination hot water cylinder for a luxury tree house in a Welsh forest.
Times have moved on dramatically from the traditional approach to domestic hot water systems, with a vented cylinder fed by a tank in the attic, heated by solid fuel or an immersion heater.
The increase in hot water demand, developments in technology, combined with rising energy prices and a growing pressure to reduce the carbon footprint, has seen the range of hot water cylinders on the market explode.
Getting clients into hot water isn’t everyone’s idea of good business, but McDonald Engineers is celebrating its 70th anniversary of doing just that and has worked hard to become one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of high quality hot water cylinders.
Originally incorporated in June 1945, McDonald Engineers is one of few independent manufacturers who remain in the sector.
McDonald Engineers has enabled a specialised property development company to achieve dramatic savings on the hot water solution for an 89 bedroom student accommodation scheme thanks to a change in design. This change involved a solution that reduced the requirement for 89 individual unvented stainless steel cylinders to only 9 centralised copper calorifiers.
The multi-million pound refurbishment project of transforming eight properties into 89 self-contained residential suites with en-suite bathrooms and kitchens, had originally specified a cylinder for each apartment.
The University of Ulster has recently published a report which compares the performance of a stainless steel hot water cylinder with a copper cylinder manufactured to the exact same specifications.
The research project’s aim was to provide a definitive answer to how effective a copper coil type heat exchanger was, in comparison to that of a stainless steel coil.
The results of the report found that using a copper hot water cylinder on an exact like for like specification reduced the heat up time of the water by 28.8% over stainless steel.
McDonald Engineers has manufactured 2no 1200 litre Calorifiers for a school in South Lanarkshire which were designed to minimise the risk of legionella and allow easy maintenance.
The project was part of South Lanarkshire Council’s refurbishment programme and McDonald Engineers were asked to design and specify the Calorifiers which would meet the exact water demands of the building.
McDonald Engineers has transformed the performance of an 800 litre pre-heat solar calorifier in an existing building following routine maintenance to address lower temperatures during peak periods.
The low temperatures being achieved by the pre heat calorifier was resulting in increased energy consumption by the rest of the system as the benefits of the solar thermal technology was not being capitalised upon.
The additional concern was the lower temperatures in the cylinder may have caused potential issues with legionella in the future.
McDonald Engineers have continued their investment programme to maintain the company’s position as one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of copper hot water cylinders.
The investment programme is seen as a key factor in allowing McDonald Engineers to deliver a total quality solution with the latest equipment and state of the art communications systems.
McDonald Engineers has designed, manufactured and supplied a 750 Litre copper calorifier for the upgrade works to Ullapool Ferry Terminal.
The development features an innovative heating and hot water system which uses an ocean source heat pump topped up by solar, photo voltaic panels, located on the terminal roof.
The specification required a sophisticated calorifier which featured a range of additional safety features including an anti-vacuum valve, bursting disc, an anti-legionella de-stratification pump and inspection manhole to meet BS:853 standards.
