Keeping Hotel Guests in Hot Water

Staff -- Consulting-Specifying Engineer, 1/1/2001

When owners of the North La Quinta Inn in St. Petersburg, Fla., decided to replace the facility's three aging water-heating systems, they were faced with the problem of keeping the old units in operation while installing the new ones. For this particular inn, designers specified three 150,000-Btu units.

However, installation of these new units posed some challenges: a remarkably narrow mechanical room with limited space to maneuver and the need to continue providing hot water for guests during the changeover.

Providing an uninterrupted supply of hot water during a changeover is a requirement, and under normal circumstances is not a problem. Usually, the new equipment is installed in the mechanical room and put on line before the existing equipment is removed.

An unusual installation

In this case, however, the mechanical room was only three feet wide; a routine installation was not an option. The solution was to preplumb all the new heaters, run the necessary electrical conduit and perform any additional tasks in advance of the changeover.

Finally, at a predetermined time, the installation crew pulled all the old equipment out of the mechanical room. The first new unit was placed, the plumbing and venting was completed and the unit was started up. This single unit carried the entire hot-water demand until the two other units had been installed-about four hours later.

For more information about water-heating units from A. O. Smith, circle 102 on the Reader Service Card on page 77.