Project Profile: The Courtyard, Great Yarmouth
Client: Maincross Holdings Ltd

The Courtyard project in Great Yarmouth involved the refurbishment of a former herring industry warehouse into a new tourist attraction for the resort consisting of a micro-brewery, craft workshops and art gallery space, as well as offices and some on-site living quarters for artisans involved in the scheme.

Heattend was asked to help with the design of a heating system for the £500,000 project which was to take place over three phases.

Mains gas was not available on-site and the cost of installation alone made the decision to use electric heating a sound one. This was reinforced by the economical cost of an electric system which was almost 50 per cent less than an equivalent gas-fired system.
By fitting the heaters at the second fix stage and not being restricted by flues and ventilation, additional savings were made and design flexibility was achieved.

Future running and maintenance costs were also reduced as there was no need for boiler servicing and landlord inspections, making the lifetime costs of the system compare very favourably to other fuels.

Phase 1 – Offices
The first phase of the project involved the conversion of a large three-story warehouse into a brewery on the ground floor and 5000 sq ft of office units for let to local businesses on the upper two floors.
The heating system had to be flexible as not all offices were occupied at regular times and the running costs needed to be passed on to the tenants.
Ducasa Sunburst and Sunrise radiant panel heaters were the obvious choice of product as they are fast acting and offer individual temperature and power settings which can be adjusted by the user.
An electricity meter was fitted to each office supply to enable the landlord to accurately invoice individual offices for energy used.
Shared areas of the building, such as washrooms, kitchens and corridors, were fitted with the Ducasa Avant DGP providing fully programmable heating. The highly accurate digital temperature sensors and timing facility help keep running costs to a minimum.

Phase 2 – Apartments
The second phase involved converting warehouse space into four ‘high end’, loft style apartments for full time occupation on the 2nd floor. The brief was to supply attractive, controllable and efficient heating. Each apartment has a large open plan living / kitchen area / bedroom and bathroom.
The Ducasa Vitro proved to be a real success, easily heating the main area and providing the stylish look required for this quality development. The slim Sunrise fitted neatly under the newly-replaced windows in the bedroom area and the Colorado towel radiator was ideal for bathroom heating.
All of these products can be controlled by pilot wire. However on this occasion, the first fix electrics were already in place so the client opted for the Ducasa remote programmer.

Phase 3 –Craft / Retail Units
The final part of the development involved converting the first and ground floor of the apartment building into work space and craft units and covering a cobbled courtyard to make a visitor attraction. Each of the four crafts units were to be produced as ‘empty shells’ to allow total flexibility for future tenants, therefore Heattend recommended inexpensive free standing heaters which could be moved or removed as necessary. The wall-mountable Ducasa Sunburst is supplied with feet and castors and economy heat settings, so was the ideal solution in this case.

Ducasa – Advanced Heating Technology

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