Swindon’s new hospital relies on Honeywell valves to regulate water supplies

The Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust relocated its main hospital services to the new £148 million Hospital in December 2002 from the Princess Margaret Hospital, also in Swindon. The new hospital was built by Carillion Building under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme and Crown House Engineering carried out the services installation. The Hospital Company, of which Carillion is an equity partner, owns and manages the 55,900 sq.m building, leasing it to the NHS Trust. It has 464 in-patient beds; 87-day care beds and ten operating theatres.

Adequate water supplies at a uniform pressure are crucial to the hospital’s operation: for drinking, for its 1,222 washbasins and 169 sinks, to flush its 516 toilets and to supply equipment. The water system is fed at 6 bar by a booster set to ensure delivery at adequate pressure at the top of the six-floor building. But without regulation, the pressure would be higher on each floor, from top downwards, with taps on the ground and lower ground floors delivered at the full 6 bar – much too high for washbasins, sinks, toilets, laundry and kitchen equipment.

Cold water supplies to the hospital’s hot water system are regulated by 3 to 6 inch diameter Honeywell valves installed in the hospital plant room. Each department has its own cold water feed, so numerous small and intermediate-sized valves – from 0.5 to 2 inch diameter – are installed in the ceiling void on each floor to regulate individual supplies. The smaller valves are from Honeywell’s DO6F series, which features a unique mechanism that enables accurate setting without the need for a gauge, while the larger sizes are from the Honeywell’s D205 pilot operated pressure regulator range.

Its Energy Centre provides the hospital’s heating and utility services, situated 250 metres from the main building on the 32-acre site. A six-inch diameter Honeywell D205 pressure regulation valve is installed on the mains water feed to the softening plant, which delivers to two 42,750-litre capacity soft water storage tanks.

The hospital was completed and handed over by Carillion on schedule and handed over to the Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust on 5th November.

Details of Honeywell water control products are available online at:

www.honeywell.com/uk/homes.htm and from Honeywell Control Systems Ltd, Honeywell House, Arlington Business Park, Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 1EB. Tel 01344 656000. Fax: 01344 656240. E-mail: uk.infocentre@honeywell.com