ENERGY SAVING IN GYM
14 October 2010
A trio of sites operated by the world's largest health and fitness club group, energy saving is the focus in the running of the buildings.
Heat recovery units from Fastlane Ventilation Equipment are a central feature in the move by Fitness First to make their clubs as green and as energy efficient as possible. In one of three projects, Fastlane supplied bespoke units to Fitness First's new flagship club in the heart of London. The club is located on the famous Baker Street and was the first of the company's UK sites to use heat recovery technology which allows heat generated from the showers to be harnessed and used in other areas of the building. Fastlane, part of the Elta Group of companies, worked closely with Birmingham based distributor Air Conditioning Supplies (ACS) and heating and ventilating contractor TBS to design a system specifically to meet the needs of the club, supplying a total of eight bespoke units. Access to the Baker Street site was particularly difficult which meant a flexible approach was required. Peter Smith, Senior Contracts Engineer at TBS, said - "Many of the buildings we work with are awkward in terms of physically getting the plant equipment in but Baker Street proved particularly challenging. We worked with Fastlane to come up with a solution which required the Heat Recovery Unit which recovers waste heat from the exhaust gases - to be dismantled so that the constituent parts could be taken into the building where it was reassembled. Ana Cardoso, a Sales Engineer with Fastlane, commented - "We built the Heat Recovery Unit at our manufacturing facility in Kent before disassembly and delivery to the site in sections. We knew from our conversations with Peter that access during the refurbishment programme was going to be very difficult and we were obviously delighted when the reassembled unit worked perfectly. " Following the success of the Baker Street contract, the same team of TBS, ACS and Fastlane were reemployed for the fit out of two new Fitness First clubs, one in Brighton which opened in March 2009 and another in Wembley which opened at the end of 2009. With energy conservation a prime focus in UK construction, the heat recovery market continues to grow, with units increasingly being installed within the extraction plants of buildings to recover a large proportion of what would otherwise be wasted energy. Fastlane Ventilation Equiptment Ltd is part of the £62 million Elta Group, a family of businesses with operations in six countries on four continents which, together with a network of international distributors, provides quality fans and related air movement equipment to customers worldwide.Released By
Fastlane Ventilation Equipment Ltd
