Heating & Ventilation

Air Conditioning Hire Specialist, Watkins Hire, has won a five year contract to supply and install air conditioning for The International Cheese Awards – Nantwich after impressing the show's organisers with the installation at the 2009 event.

Overhead ducting providing air conditioning inside the marquee

A high profile event attracting 28,000 visitors, The International Cheese Awards combines a trade show with a public event, with 2,761 producers exhibiting their cheeses this year. The perishable nature of the exhibits has presented problems for the show organisers in previous years and for the past three years they have used three separate air conditioning hire providers in an attempt to find a robust solution that would meet any climactic conditions. After a proactive approach from Watkins Hire, the show organisers accepted the hire company's quote and have been so impressed with the result that they have signed Watkins Hire up for the next five years.

“Keeping the marquee cool throughout the Show is absolutely critical to the success of the event,” explains Show Director, Roger Mills. “The Watkins Hire team was not only able to specify and provide the equipment that we needed to do the job effectively throughout the event. They also provided us with excellent service levels and competitive pricing. The system was unobtrusive and operated at very low levels of noise. We have been so impressed that we have been happy to commit to using Watkins Hire as our temporary air conditioning supplier for the next five years.”

Watkins Hire provided three 500kW rental chillers to keep the 110m x 40m marquee at the required temperature along with seven 150kW air handling units, all sited outside the marquee. The company installed fourteen 40m long ducting tubes across the

Boiler Hire specialist, Watkins Hire, can now offer customers even more choice when specifying temporary heating and hot water solution following the launch of the ‘HeatGen 22’ 22kW portable electric heating and hot water boiler to the company’s extensive hire range.

Compact and easy to connect to existing pipework using flexible hoses, the Watkins Hire HeatGEN 22 can deliver 22kW LPHW (low pressure hot water) of heating and hot water from 35°C to 85°C. The unit features a distinctive integral plate heat exchanger which keeps the primary and secondary water circuits separate.  For the end user, this means that any contaminants in the water system that could affect performance are prevented from entering the unit, enhancing reliability.

“The HeatGEN 22 is an important addition to our range and is ideal for all kinds of applications from breakdowns and disaster recovery through to occupied refurbishments,” comments Rob Kemp of Watkins Hire. “The integral heat exchanger mounted on the unit makes it particularly suitable for sensitive underfloor heating systems, and the product is backed, as always, by Watkins Hire’s personal service. We believe that this is the only product of its kind on the market and therefore expect interest and sales to be extremely strong.”

Speed of installation is also a key benefit of the HeatGEN 22, enabling Watkins Hire to put a fast, fuss-free solution in place in any boiler breakdown situation. The unit has automatic air relief valves on the primary and secondary heating circuits for efficient air removal during commissioning. Another unique feature is an integral single phase power supply, which allows a secondary circulating pump to be connected to the unit without any additional wiring and the connection is fully electrically protected with RCD protection, enhancing health &

Heating, cooling and events specialist, Watkins Hire, has appointed its first ever National Accounts Manager as part of the company’s strategic growth plans.

Terry Stevens-Smith National Accounts Manager

Terry Stevens-Smith's remit to assist the company's new Director of National Accounts* in setting up Watkins Hire's new National Accounts Division, including recruitment of a National Accounts team and establishment of all systems and procedures. He joins Watkins Hire from one of the company’s major competitors, where he was also National Accounts Manager, and brings with him a wealth of hire industry expertise, specifically in servicing national accounts, developing existing relationships and business growth.

Comments managing director of Watkins Hire, Mark Hills

“Watkins Hire has grown phenomenally over the past ten years, from a base of just 70 pieces of hire equipment in 1999 to a current hire fleet numbering more than 7,000. Our progressive approach, uncompromising service standards and carefully managed growth plan have helped us towards that success and the establishment of a National Accounts Division is a key landmark on our journey to further growth.”

Terry's new role will include day-to-day management and growth of Watkins Hires existing portfolio of accounts, maintaining good working relationships with key contacts as well as developing new accounts. Working closely with Watkins Hire’s territory sales managers and the company’s other divisions, Terry will help to drive the company’s expansion into new market sectors, targeting new clients to spearhead further growth.

* Watkins Hire’s new National Accounts Director has been appointed and an announcement will be made when he is in the post later in the year.

Veterinary practice, Rainsbrook Veterinary Group, was faced with running its busy surgery without a domestic hot water supply for a week - until temporary heating and cooling rental equipment specialist, Watkins Hire, stepped in to offer the firm an instant hot water solution.

A new boiler system installed at the Rainsbrook Veterinary Group practice in Leamington Spa required some essential maintenance work and shutting it down for a week while the work was carried out was unavoidable. At first, the Rainsbrook Veterinary Group team thought that they would have shut the practice or be forced to boil kettles to comply with strict hygiene standards, but after contacting Watkins Hire they discovered that a much faster, more economical and more convenient solution was available instead.

Explains Stacey Hammond from Rainsbrook Veterinary Group Vets: “The loss of our hot water supply was a business critical issue for us as we need to be able to wash our hands thoroughly to maintain hygiene standards. When we contacted Watkins Hire they suggested their portable emergency hot water tank and we had hot running water with an hour of it arriving.”

Designed to provide a domestic hot water supply via simple connection to the cold water tap, the Watkins Hire portable emergency hot water tank resembles a yellow wheelie bin and is simply wheeled into place and plugged in to an ordinary 13 amp socket. The tank's 3kW immersion heater can then heat up to 55 litres of cold water to a temperature of 600°C within an hour at a cost of around 20p, providing ample, low cost hot water. The heated water then stays hot for up to 24 hours and even when it's unplugged heat loss from the unit is less than

Heating and cooling specialist, Watkins Hire, has helped NHS managers keep their cool at the Princess Royal Hospital in south East England after installing a 170kW rental chiller in record time.

The hospital had recently increased the number of operating theatres at its Alan Cummings day surgery unit from four to six and this additional stress on the department's chiller system, combined with the age of the chiller, led to an irreparable breakdown. The hospital's management team immediately began the procurement process for a replacement chiller but needed a quick fix solution as soon as possible so contacted temporary heating and cooling specialists Watkins Hire for help.

Explains Peter Llewellyn from Princess Royal Hospital: “When the chiller broke down we had to take whatever action we could to keep the temperature down in the operating theatres and were able to manage the immediate situation. However, the procurement and delivery time on a new chiller is around 20 weeks and we needed an interim solution that would provide like-for-like cooling power and be up and running immediately.”

Watkins Hire's first step was to carry out a survey on site to determine the most appropriate piece of hire equipment for the job and decide where this should be located. The temporary chiller was delivered to site the same day and installed and commissioned within four hours. Sited outside the building as close as possible to the groundfloor plant room, the temporary chiller was connected to the existing pipework by Watkins Hire’s engineers using flexible pipework to ensure that the temporary chiller provided just the same cooling power as its predecessor.

“In applications like this, it's important to be able to respond quickly,” comments Andy Ellis from Watkin's Hire. “Thanks to the size and range

Watkins Hire has scored a major coup by recruiting Nick Campey from a rival firm to head up the firm's new National Accounts Division.

Nick begins his new role as national accounts director at Watkins Hire on 1 December, marking a major milestone in the company's continuing development as a key player in the Specialist HVAC hire sector. His remit is to establish the new division with consistent processes for handling larger, national clients and to build a National Accounts team, working closely with Watkins Hire's existing sales and service teams.

Nick Comments “Watkins Hire is a very dynamic business that has grown significantly over the past few years and already has a number of large, national clients. With the establishment of a national accounts division the firm is stepping things up a gear, ensuring that we are fully equipped to continue increasing our market share.”

Nick's appointment follows the announcement in October that Terry Stevens-Smith had left his national accounts manager role at a rival firm to take up a similar post at Watkins Hire. This established working partnership will now focus on increasing Watkins Hire's national accounts and adding value to the company’s existing clients, focusing in particular on the public sector, facilities management, IT and telecoms industries.

Mark Hills, managing director of Watkins Hire adds “This will not be the first time that Nick has set up a national accounts division from scratch. His talent and experience will ensure the new division is up and running quickly and smoothly and we're delighted to have him on the team.”

Does your company operate from Multiple Office locations and do you want a single point of contact for your entire specialist HVAC hire requirements? Our dedicated National Accounts team can help.

• National Accounts

Worries about the efficiency of hire equipment within the HVAC sector could soon be a thing of the past thanks to an innovative 'Remote Fault Monitoring System' introduced by specialist heating and cooling hire firm, Watkins Hire.

Using GSM technology to monitor equipment's performance and report any faults as soon as they occur, the fault monitoring device is now fitted as standard to all Watkins Hire's fleet of temporary split air conditioners, rental chillers and portable heating boilers. The unit can then be pre-configured to meet the needs of the end user, ensuring that the Watkins Hire Service team has real time information about any fault or performance issues that might need remedial action.

“Our temperature control rental fleet is all the latest technology selected for maximum energy efficiency, low noise levels and is regularly serviced so our customers are confident about its reliability,” comments Mark Hills, managing director of Watkins Hire. “However, any piece of temperature control rental equipment can develop a fault which is why we have invested in developing our own unique remote monitoring and fault reporting system. With it, we can ensure that any fault is picked up straight away so that we can alert the customer and either repair or replace the kit in the time that it would take any other rental company to realise that there was something wrong.”

If a fault occurs, the Watkins Hire GSM system automatically sends an email alert to the company's service team who will inform the customer and send an engineer to site to investigate and resolve the fault. The remote fault reporting system can also be used to monitor the equipment, checking the temperature

Over the last ten years, Watkins Hire Ltd has seen rapid growth and expansion and has established itself as a market leader in the rental of temporary temperature control solutions.

Due to this expansion we realised that many large and blue chip organisations were hiring equipment and using our services on a purely adhoc basis. It soon became apparent that these clients would greatly benefit from a more focused and bespoke personal service and hence our National Accounts division was established.

Since the formation of the Watkins Hire National Accounts division back in October of 2009, we have now negotiated and signed numerous supplier agreements with multi-located companies in business sectors that include, Facilities Management, Construction, I.T, Retail, Telecommunications and Financial and Commercial Institutions.

With the ever increasing pressures placed on Procurement Teams, Supply Chain Managers and Company Buyers to rationalise their supplier bases and make significant cost savings on the procurement of products and services, Watkins Hire can now further help by offering you benefits that include:-

• Preferential pricing in recognition of becoming a preferred supplier
• National Cover across England, Scotland and Wales.
• Priority response to all requests for emergency support and back up.
• Access to the UK's most diverse range of Temperature Control Hire units.
• Access to the UK's largest and most modern Hire Fleet.
• Uniform SLA's and KPI's across the UK, irrespective of whichever of our depots are supporting and delivering.
• Bespoke open book management reporting
• Single point contact for all communication.
• Retrospective rebate in recognition of the levels of spend.
• 24 / 7 Coverage, 365 Days a year.
• F.O.C. Site survey and equipment selection.
• We don't just offer the units; we can design, supply, install and commission all systems.
• Access to our industry unique Temperature Monitoring and Fault Reporting Telemetry.
• Full fuel management service with full telemetry ensuring you never