Mechanical services contractor Murphy & Kelly (Thomastown) Ltd has successfully delivered a mechanical services installation for 72 A-rated social housing units in Dublin 1.
The newly built Dominick Street Regeneration Project, just off Parnell Street, consists of 67 apartments, five standalone townhouses, a community centre, retail space and a basement car park.
“This was a sizeable project in terms of physical proportions and complexity of work,” explained Dean Kelly, Contracts Director at Murphy & Kelly.
“The apartments are spread across seven stair cores, with seven rooftop plant rooms serving each core. We installed two large buffers inside each plant room, one for domestic hot water and one for LPHW, which were fed from three Kronoterm heat pumps – 21 in total – supplied by Glenergy.
“Each stair core plant room has its own BMS panel, supplied and commissioned by Controltech, which then link to a central BMS system located in the basement car park.
“Each townhouse has its own, standalone heat pump, while the community centre also has its own heat pump serving hot water, plus underfloor heating, heat recovery units and air handling units throughout.”
Internal pipework from the apartment plant rooms terminate in a heat interface unit that was supplied by RVR Tecnnologies. “The heat interface units then feed directly into the underfloor heating system, which was designed, supplied and installed by Base Engineering,” said Dean.
“Each apartment has a demand control ventilation system supplied by Systemair, which is operated on humidity,” he added.
All the lobbies, stairwells and communal areas are heated by Zehnder radiators supplied by Versatile, Cavan and fed by the rooftop plant rooms for each core.
All water services are fed from the water services plant room located in the basement car park. Booster pumps were supplied by Wilo, and all the tanks on the site were supplied by CubicM3.
The dry riser runs throughout the seven stair cores for fire protection, and was supplied by Apex Fire and installed by Murphy & Kelly. The considerable fire- rated ductwork in the basement car park was supplied by Airforce H&V. Ecocool supplied air conditioning equipment for the community centre and the comms room.
In addition to the heat pumps and other renewable and efficiency-minded equipment installed on the project, is a rainwater harvesting system. Dean explained, “The rain water captured from the large surface area on the roof of the apartment block flows into a tank in the basement area, where it is filtered in the water plant room and then distributed throughout the seven stair cores to the toilets in each apartment for flushing.
“From a water conservation point of view, it’s a great addition to the project to be able to collect rain water from the roof and use it to flush the toilet,” said Dean.
Challenges
“The biggest issue was the sheer amount of pipework and work that went into such a large-scale project, but we are extremely experienced in delivering complex mechanical services projects. Under the direction of Site Manager, Alan Grogan, who co-ordinated all the subcontractors, we ensured the highest standard of work was adhered to at all times.
“It was also great to work alongside MMA Consulting Engineers to find practical solutions to the onsite installation,” Dean added.
The risers below the seven plant rooms all terminate within the basement car park – with plans to connect to the future district heating scheme, which is hoped to be rolled out within Dublin City in the next few of years.
Commenting on the complete job, Dean said, “Murphy & Kelly was delighted to be appointed as mechanical contractors by Duggan Brothers Ltd, Templemore on this project; one of many we have successfully delivered for them.”
He spoke highly of the supply chain who helped pull the project together. “I like to say that our subcontractors don’t work for us, they work with us. This relationship results in projects of the highest standard of quality being handed over to the end-user and the client.”
For the full feature on the Dominick Street Regeneration Project, see Plumbing & Heating Magazine Issue 113 May-June here.
