Background
Newcastle University is a diverse and globally recognised university, set in the North-East of England, which offers a world-class education and proudly ranks 122nd in the world. The campus is centrally located to the city, welcoming approx. 26,000 students annually, spanning across five hundred courses. The campus is also supported by approx. 6,000 staff.
Newcastle University is also a leading establishment for sports and has welcomed significant investment over recent years to ensure that the facilities remain state of the art. In addition, the university has made significant improvements, across the entire campus to ensure they transition towards using more energy efficient solutions, by being mindful of energy consumption and water wastage. Such is the focus, to achieve a more sustainable campus, the university have developed an extensive sustainability programme to ensure that they remain on target and any decisions taken today are the right choices for the campus longer term.
The Challenge:
Set within the busy Cochrane Park Sports Complex, the changing facilities housed a bank of 8 separate showers which had been installed in 2002. As these showers had been heavily used over the years, the university felt it appropriate to evaluate the efficiencies of these units. Following this evaluation, it was concluded these showers needed to be retired and replaced with more energy efficient devices which consumed less water and energy, which would complement their sustainability programme.
The Solution:
After researching all suitable options, Cistermiser were invited to Cochrane Park Sports Complex, as the university were particularly interested in the Vecta+ mechanical push button activated slimline shower panel (MSPV), as this model included a sustainable 8lpm flow rate regulator as standard. In addition, as the flow duration is set to ~30 secs, this ensures reduced water wastage, a reduction in energy usage to heat the water to provide a more sustainable, economical, commercial shower, while maintaining exceptional reliability and offering the user and excellent showering experience.
A prerequisite for the university was that the Vecta+ showers were simple to install. Given the Cistermister MSPV shower panels arrive pre-assembled with integrated, concealed fixings and include isolation valves in the box as standard, this was highly attractive for Newcastle University. Furthermore, as the Vecta+ MSPV showers are mechanically activated and not dependant on mains or battery power, this offers greater flexibility during installation, making it the perfect choice for a retrofit installation.
In Aug 2022, Newcastle University took the decision to replace the existing showers and appointed a qualified plumbing engineer to install 8x Vecta+ MSPV Cistermiser showers into the changing facilities at Cochrane Park Sports Complex. The retro fit installation was quick and simple, taking two plumbers two days to successfully remove, install and commission.
The Conclusion:
Following a considered selection process, and since their installation in August 2022 it is expected that the payback will be fully complete in 4 months. Additionally, over the coming year the estimated water savings will be significant, saving the university over £5,500 in water utility costs, or 2,329,600 ltrs of water*, successfully reducing their water wastage and energy consumption after each shower activation, which strongly aligns with their sustainability programme, while the 10-year manufacturer’s warranty provides the university total confidence that the showers will withstand heavy usage over their lifetime.
Client Testimonial:
“Newcastle University are committed to making the campus more sustainable, it is therefore essential that we make the right choices today for the longer term. The Cistermiser Vecta+ MSPV showers ticks all those boxes for our university, and we were delighted that Cistermiser were able to quickly and efficiently supply the units when we needed them. The installers found them to be quick and simple to retrofit, while the 10 year manufacturer’s warranty gave us the reassurance that they would be robust for continual heavy use.”
“Representative – Newcastle University
* Water saving calculations are based on the following assumptions:
Duration of each shower: 5mins
Total no. of daily showers : x256
Total no. of days used p/yr: 260
Original showers flow rate of: 15 lpm
Original total water usage: 4992000
Original cost of water £11,920.40 (based on Thames Water pricing)
