Control Valves Help Excel Minimise Energy Costs

Samson Controls excel in providing optimum control for temperature regulation at London’s top exhibition venue.

Achieving energy savings at ExCeL, London’s prestigious exhibition centre has always been a key objective, but especially valid today as a result of ever-rising energy costs. Opened in 2002, ExCeL has become the established ‘home’ for some of the UK’s best known events, such as the London Triathlon and the London Boat Show. The centre has 90,000m2 of events, conference and meeting space, as well as cafes and restaurants. A typical exhibition hall would cover about 6400m2 and as a result of the flexible layout of the halls, adjacent halls can be easily joined together, with single halls of up to 3200m2 possible.

As the centre is a year round venue, with almost limitless combinations of halls available, consideration was given to creating the most energy-efficient methods of heating and cooling the various exhibition spaces. Clearly, it was important that the energy costs could be optimised for a wide variety of demands ranging from only a few halls in use, to all the halls being occupied.

To help achieve the key objectives, variable speed pumps for water circulation in the extensive heating and ventilation systems, were utilised to realise the potential for significant energy savings, especially when demands were lower. To ensure that the water distribution worked as the designers intended it was important that Differential Pressure Regulators were installed as the primary balancing device. Samson Controls were approached and provided over 225 valves ranging in size from ½” series 45 valves, up to size 400mm series 2333 valves.                                                    

The 400mm valves are some of the largest globe valves manufactured and were installed to handle flow rates as high as 375 lit / sec. The use of very large valves, which have to operate against high pump heads, requires special construction and this was a challenge which Samson was pleased to accept.

The Samson valves enabled speedy commissioning of the water distribution network because each sub-circuit could be set independently of each other circuit, without the need to go back and adjust previously set circuits. The large stocks of valves held by Samson in the UK enabled the project to be completed to tight deadlines, ready for the first exhibition being staged at the new centre – at which Samson was proud to be an exhibitor