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Premier performance for Rada Sense!
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At the heart of the newly developed changing room complex at its St James’ Park stadium, Premiership football club Newcastle United has installed twelve Rada Sense digital showers in the shower room complex.
Many Premiership teams have Rada equipment installed in the shower and washroom areas of their changing rooms but in opting for Rada Sense in the home changing rooms, Newcastle is leading the way with Rada’s digital washroom technology.
As the facilities manager at St James Park Eddie Rutherford explains, “we were looking to create a five star facility for the new changing rooms and having seen at first hand the Rada Sense installation at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. I was immediately impressed and recommended the system for our shower rooms.
“They are highly efficient and the players are very impressed with their no touch flow and temperature controls,” he adds.
With their chrome plated control panels and high quality fittings, Rada Sense brings a very modern look to complement the high quality design and fittings of the changing rooms which have a black and white theme to complement the famous Newcastle United colours.
Aesthetics and showering performance aside, with its T-logic digital intelligence, Rada Sense is also smarter, safer and more hygienic than any other tap or shower control on the market and satisfies a range of issues addressed by The Health and Safety Commission’s ‘Approved Code of Practice L8’.
“Rada Sense is not an ordinary ‘no-touch’ control because not only does it allow the user to initiate water flow, it also allows the selection of the water temperature without touching the panel,” explains Roy Minett, marketing manager for Rada.
“For safety, precise maximum and minimum water temperatures and flow times can be pre-set using a remote hand held computer and these settings are maintained even if there are water pressure or temperature fluctuations.
“The Rada Sense digital mixing valve also incorporates an intelligent ‘duty flush’ feature that monitors the time since the outlet was last used. If it has not been used for a pre-determined time (say 24 hours) it automatically flushes through at a safe temperature,” he adds.
This feature is particularly relevant to shower areas that are not in daily use but where, in order to maintain best practice in the water supply system, regular flushing of the showers to prevent potential legionella and bacteria problems developing within the hot water system dead legs must be undertaken. This can be both time consuming and labour intensive if undertaken manually.
“The Health and Safety Commission’s ‘AcoP L8’ also recommends routine thermal disinfection as a means of preventing or controlling legionella,” explains Roy Minett. “With Rada Sense this can be achieved by activating its thermal disinfection mode which – under supervision – allows hot water at a temperature of at least 60°C to be flushed through the electronic mixing valve and all outlet pipe-work. Of course this is simply not possible where conventional TMV’s are fitted,” explains Roy Minett.
Other key features of the Rada Sense T-logic technology include a facility that performs 5 safety checks, 40 times a second, a ‘lock out’ facility that activates if a fault is detected and a second temperature sensor that will close down the system if for any reason the water temperature exceeds a safe level. The mixing unit is also supplied factory-set to comply with TMV3 safe temperature settings.
While Newcastle United have pioneered the use of Rada Sense in the players changing rooms, other Premiership clubs who use Rada showering and washroom equipment include Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Blackburn Rovers and Aston Villa along with Championship clubs West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers to name a few.
The complete re-furbishing project – including the plumbing and Rada Sense installation – was undertaken by Newcastle United’s in house maintenance team. “Graham Buckham, Rada’s local commercial specification manager gave the plumber and electrician a quick run through and they had absolutely no problems with installation. The plumber’s actual words were – it was a doddle! –“ concludes Eddie Rutherford.
