Right at home with the Grundfos FireSAFE

The Grundfos FireSAFE domestic range delivers a compact, consumer and installer friendly response to the growing demand for domestic fire suppression systems as well as meeting the legislative demands that new homes in Wales must meet.

Designed to ensure flexible installation and easy maintenance, these models comply with BS9251:2014 and are WRAS approved. Each unit comprises of a dedicated controller and Grundfos CM pump mounted in a tamper resistant metal enclosure. The enclosure comes in two sizes, both of which are dimensioned for easy installation in domestic environments.

This range can be used in a variety of domestic installations including houses, apartments, sheltered and student accommodation, care homes and small hotels. Larger properties could benefit from specifying larger FireSAFE Residential products.

Offering a great range of features such as simple installation and commissioning, a compact size, minimal maintenance, combined with their advanced system controller and in-built self-test makes these the ideal solution in many situations.

For more details on this and other Grundfos product ranges visit www.grundfos.co.uk

er-tightness and improved sound attenuation.

The QAS machine’s anti-rust canopy has a unique “no weld” corner design to eliminate traditional rusting spots. Furthermore, the spillage-free frame that is standard across all QAS models helps to minimise environmental impact.

Power management system
A major feature of each of the QAS 630 units is a controller equipped with an energy management system to optimise fuel consumption and extend the useful life of multiple generators when they run in parallel to form a mobile or independent power plant.

The generators at the Portillo site incorporate Atlas Copco’s Power Management System (PMS). It is an innovative feature that manages the four generators running in parallel with load demand, starting and stopping units in line with increases or decreases in load. In this way, the load on each generator remains at a level which optimises fuel consumption and eliminates the need to run with low load levels, a situation which can cause engine damage and shorten the life expectancy of the equipment.

Explaining why Ski Portillo opted for the Atlas Copco solution, Jorge López, Key Customer Manager from Atlas Copco Power Technique Chile said: “We managed to demonstrate to the customer that, considering the snow cannons have a demand for energy that varies over time, a configuration of four QAS 630 generators with PMS power management system is more efficient than two 1000 kVA units or a single 2000 kVA generators, which is what was initially requested”.

López also confirms other factors which influenced the decision in favour of the Atlas Copco solution. The most relevant was the compact dimensions of the generator equipment – 20% smaller than other equivalent designs – that allowed it to be accommodated within an existing building.
Additionally, simple installation and AOP configurable control plus user friendly operation were key features. So too was Atlas Copco’s role in providing a basic engineering study to assist in sourcing other essential components for the snow generation power network.

Power bonus
But there was an additional bonus to be derived from the QAS installation at the resort. The Hotel Portillo operates at peak hours during the winter months. So, every day for six months a year it disconnects from the normal electricity network at 5:45 p.m. until 11:10 p.m. and meets all its energy needs by using the generator sets as the sole source of electrical power.

To get the latest news from Atlas Copco Power and Flow, please visit https://blog.powerandflow.atlascopco.com/