Carmelite Riverside, London

A prestigious new building situated on London’s Victoria Embankment overlooking The Thames has installed the very latest in tank technology to manage its provision of potable water (drinking water).

The Carmelite Riverside is the headquarters of global leading publisher Hachette and at full occupancy will be able to accommodate more than 1200 members of staff.

In common with most large commercial buildings, it is provided with cold water from the rising main via a basement tank, in this case a 24,000 litre capacity reservoir which guarantees uninterrupted supply to the building whatever the demands placed on it by its many occupants.

The issue was how to provide a safe but flexible supply to ensure that however many (or few) people were in the building, their potable water remained fresh and healthy.

As occupancy levels rose so demand was predicted to grow but, even at full occupancy, the number of people the building served was not expected to remain static. Changes to tenancy agreements, holidays and weekends meant that demand was anticipated to fluctuate throughout the year.

There was also the issue of managing how the water was actually stored.  The water tank was divided into two chambers which meant that it was easy to maintain and clean while still ensuring an uninterrupted supply of water to the building, but a divided tank can raise serious concerns.  Both sides of the tank need to fill with water at the same rate to ensure neither side became ‘static’, which could lead to bacterial growth, stagnant water and the ever-present danger of Legionnaire’s Disease.  As a general rule, if water within a divided tank is controlled by two independent valves these must work simultaneously to keep each side of the tank at level capacity.

For the Carmelite Riverside building, the situation was made more complex because the tank was situated in a plant room with an adjacent boiler, pump and electrical equipment – all of which meant the ambient temperature in the room was relatively high, which could warm the stored water to dangerous levels.

Sub-contractors Imtech Group turned to Keraflo for a solution that would not only guarantee the safety of the water, but also a flexible supply within the shared building.   The decision was made to install Tanktronic as the preferred option.

Tanktronic is an electronic tank management system which provides a complete solution to monitoring water levels and temperature, as well as managing and controlling tank filling.  It can be integrated into a building management system to alert the management team to any changes in the stored water.  It also has a very useful calendar (holiday) setting so that the building management team can vary tank capacity to match demand.

Its smart functionality includes a Repeater Panel, which enables control from up to 100 metres away (meaning tanks housed in basements or roofs can be controlled from the comfort of the management office) and the Battery Module, which provides up to two days of normal operation in the event of a power failure.

Having been launched three years ago, Tanktronic is already installed in many prominent buildings including The O2 Arena in London.

Dean Francis, commissioning manager at Carmelite Riverside, says: “We’re very happy with Tanktronic.  It’s given us a high level of control, ensuring among other things that water in the tank is regularly turned over to keep supplies healthy.  “It was easy to programme, it’s fully integrated through the BMS and essentially it looks after itself.”