Hatfield & Askern Colliery Band
Continuing on from our recent works with several brass bands, Torr were delighted yet again to help when we were contacted by the Doncaster area’s leading brass band;
The Hatfield & Askern Colliery Band.
Formed by a recent amalgamation of the Askern Colliery Band and the Hatfield Band, the new Hatfield & Askern Colliery Band are based in Doncaster at the Askern Miners Welfare Club.
The club is currently undergoing major refurbishment works, with the downstairs bar & club works nearing completion, the upstairs bandroom is now being worked on after repairs to a leaking roof.
The band has fantastic facilities with a huge bandroom and adjoining function room taking up the whole of the first floor.
As part of the bandroom refurbishments works, the band’s committee wisely and proactively decided to install a new ventilation system. Due to the nature of brass banding, with many people gathered together blowing brass instruments, a ventilation system upgrade is a sensible choice at any point in time. But with the current climate of airborne Covid-19 viruses, and most recently the extremely infectious Omicron variant, good ventilation of any enclosed space is extremely important, more now than ever.
From Brass Bands England’s own Covid advice, they make it very clear to:
Increase ventilation as much as possible.
Brass Bands England.
Similar to previous brass bandroom installations, our system of choice was the superb Mitsubishi Heavy Industries SAF1000E7 heat exchanging ventilation system.
The system uses heat that would normally be wasted by being extracted directly out of the room, to warm the cooler fresh incoming air – effectively for free.
You can read more in-depth details on exactly how the system works in our article on Woburn Sands Brass Band, who had the same system installed.
Unlike previous installs though, the Hatfield & Askern Colliery Band rehearsal room had a suspended ceiling with just enough space (millimetres to spare) to mount the ventilation system above the ceiling grid and out of sight.
Not that the system is particularly unsightly, in the right setting the system can add to the aesthetic in a room, like our installation at Immingham Town Council Museum, but where possible it is sometimes preferable to install the system in the ceiling and out of sight. In cases like this, the only noticeable difference to the look of the room is several vents that sit in the space of a ceiling tile grid. That, and a remote control mounted on the wall.
It’s difficult to tell that this bandroom now has a new energy efficient heat recovery ventilation system installed that both removes stale air & brings in tempered fresh air at the rate of 1,000 cubic metres per hour.
This large bandroom is approximately 200m³, meaning the new ventilation replaces the ENTIRE volume of air in the room with fresh, filtered air 5 times every hour, or once every 12 minutes!
The installation took 3 days from start to finish:
With the ventilation unit in place, the ducting was connected to the internal & external vents:
For the exhaust air (stale air being removed from the room and exhausted to outside), simple flexible ducting was used.
For the supply air (fresh air being brought in to the room from outside and through the heat exchanging ventilation unit), thermally insulated flexible ducting was used to preserve the heat generated by the heat exchanger and additional heater bank.
Solid spiral ducting was used for both the exterior wall penetrations to the outside vents.
With the system fully installed, the airflow from the vents is balanced and the additional heater bank is tested for efficiency & safety.
At the time of testing, the outdoor temperature was approximately 9°C
With the system wired up & running:
And the heater bank drawing 11.39 Amps:
We can see from the picture below that is taking the temperature of the air leaving the room, even though it’s only 9°C outside, the room has already warmed up to 19°C inside:
Once we are happy that the system is performing perfectly, and the built in heater safety features were tested and proven, it’s time to put the ceiling back together and get the room tidied up ready for the band’s return.
And that’s it. Another Brass Band who can now rehearse in warm, fresh, filtered air – so fresh it’s an entire bandroom of fresh air every 12 minutes!
We’d like to thank the members of Hatfield & Askern Colliery Band, who like many bands before them, chose the services of Torr Engineering to deliver their new ventilation system.
On the whole a great bunch of people, though we found the trombone section at little ‘frosty’ at times.
For more information on the Hatfield & Askern Colliery Band, please take a look at their fantastic website by clicking this big blue link.
For more examples of Torr Engineering installations using the Mitsubishi SAF1000E7 system, you can see our posts on:
Cleethorpes Brass Band
Foss Dyke Brass Band
Swinton Excelsior Band
Woburn Sands Brass Band
Immingham Town Council Museum
And for any further help or information on your refrigeration, air conditioning & ventilation needs, we’d love to hear from you. We’re a friendly bunch, unlike the TromBONE section, and you can get hold of us here.
