Wilo supplies pumps for Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth

Wilo supplies pumps for Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth

Client: Queen Alexandra Hospital
Type of works: supplied pumps

When the decision was taken to effectively demolish and rebuild the elderly Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, piece by piece, the PFI project that resulted imposed a number of demanding requirements on the consultants and contractors involved in delivering the required outcomes.

Because the hospital sits on a relatively small site for such a large undertaking, parts of the hospital had to be demolished and rebuilt whilst allowing the rest of the hospital to function normally. Storage space was at a premium so deliveries of materials required, had to be delivered as they were needed – a 'just-in-time' delivery regime had to be implemented and maintained.

Wilo used their technical expertise to help write and amend the specifications to ensure that the project benefitted from exactly the right pumps to deliver the huge demand for hot, cold and chilled water – to provide water at the taps and showers around the building, to run the air conditioning and heating systems and to provide the necessary water sources for specialist departments including for example, cooling water for the radiology centre.

As with most major projects this one evolved as the months ticked by, Wilo worked closely with the project team over the duration of the project to decide the way forward and deliver the finished project.

The pumps were required for three main buildings - Pathology, the Energy Centre and the main building. The pumps were required to drive the main heating systems and the air conditioning systems, and the specification included pressurisation units, and booster pumps – a five pump booster set was selected with a separate inverter in the control panel to ensure the circulating water was able to reach the upper floors and the extremities of the buildings, on demand.

For a big project, there was a need for big pumps and most of the pumps were end suction pumps with separate inverters, with a few in-line pumps and a couple of direct couple pumps. The pumps were mounted on concrete filled inertia bases and had anti-vibration mountings to stop vibration heading off around the pipework. The pumps were incorporated in a large number of plant rooms around the building and included sump pumps in the main plant room, on the ground floor to address potential flooding issues.

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