Heating and hot water are two of the most critical elements of a building’s operation and are instrumental in ensuring occupants’ health, wellbeing and comfort. Should these two services ever be compromised, it is vital to have a temporary solution in place to enable their supply to continue without causing significant disturbance. Steve Warne, National Sales Manager at temporary heating provider, Ideal Heat Solutions gives insight into the importance of temporary heating, explaining how it can be utilised to ensure a slight issue doesn’t manifest into a big problem.
“A boiler is a household essential, pretty much every building contains one,” begins Steve. “Even though they are found in many domestic and commercial dwellings, something like temporary heat is not necessarily a concept people are aware of, until they need it or have been in a situation where they require a temporary solution.”
Boilers are essential to building operation. For that reason, the industry is seeing an increasing interest in temporary plant solutions. The need for temporary heat is evident across many buildings of different natures; from educational to government sites, healthcare, hospitality and industrial. These solutions including temporary boilers provide a quick remedy if and when a boiler or plant room fails, ensuring that a building continues to operate whilst the measures are put in place to rectify the permanent source. Fixing a plant room can take a long period of time which many dwellings can ill-afford. With the likes of temporary solutions to hand however, challenges are overcome and heat supply is guaranteed.
Steve from Ideal Heat recognises temporary heat’s ability to bridge this challenge. “In the event of plant room failure, it is damaging and expensive to go without heat even for 12 hours. Without a supply, hotels are at risk of losing a great degree of money and occupant comfort in care homes is put in jeopardy.”
“Ideal Heat provides a turnkey solution that minimises downtime and gets a building back up and operational,” continues Steve. “Temporary heat is only good if it is immediate – at Ideal Heat we can deliver what is needed and pronto.”
A speedy service isn’t the only offering when it comes to temporary heat. Expertise is essential when delivering a solution across all manner of sites, as Steve explains. “Ideal Heat devises bespoke solutions and has the flexibility and team of experts to craft an answer for even the most complex requirements. We can deliver what is needed to the highest standard. It truly is an end-to-end process. We account for any design considerations, if need be. We also identify the right solution for the job and then have a team to fit the temporary boiler.”
This combination of service and technical expertise is essential when establishing trust. “When you solve an issue for a client quickly and safely, they know they can trust you should another problem emerge. It is why our customers keep coming back to us again and again,” highlights Steve. “We are always on hand to help them.”
A huge focus across the industry currently is technology and its ability to perform tasks that conventionally would take time and manual effort. “At Ideal Heat we utilise the latest IQ®VISION platform from leading BEMS (Building Energy Management Systems) manufacturer, Trend Control Systems, to provide improved visibility on the performance of our temporary plant,” explains Steve. “Each of our boilers has a unique IP address in which our engineers can use an app to monitor the performance. If something goes wrong, an alarm sounds from the app. The problem is subsequently resolved remotely using that technology without any intervention from our engineers. Should an issue require our engineers to go to site, engineers use the app to identify the issue and see how it can be rectified instead of waiting until they’ve reached the destination. The technology enables greater transparency and is a huge assurance for customers.”
As well as being a beacon in an emergency, Ideal Heat works with its customers to create a contingency plan in the event of plant room failure. “As with many processes, it often pays to take a proactive approach. We have the skill to create a contingency plan that truly minimises down-time. Even in an emergency, preparation – in the form of connections and power sources – has to be undertaken to ensure temporary plant can be installed. Although this is always done as quickly as possible, a contingency plan factors in all of these considerations so there are no barriers to temporary plant installation. No one ever knows when a boiler is going to malfunction, yet having a contingency plan in place means you are fully prepared if and when this happens. It ensures a mild inconvenience stays as it is and doesn’t become a disaster.”
