Eco friendly and thermal-efficient plastic pipe technology has been used to replace aged cast iron hot water pipes showing signs of corrosion in Edinburgh Castle’s Crown Square. The square, which dates back to the 15th century, is located outside the Royal Palace, and now benefits from a pre-insulated Flexalen pipe system supplied by Glenrothes-based Flexenergy.
Surveyors investigating a leak in Castle Square found a defective section of iron pipework in the heating network serving the Queen Anne building. During the attempted repair programme, other sections of pipe were found to be corroding so the decision was taken to replace the entire section of flow and return pipes.
The flexibility of the Flexenergy product meant that much of the pipework could be prefabricated before being brought to site, which was important because of the space-constrained nature of the location. The pipe was then fusion-welded together to take account of the numerous bends in the heating network.
As Flexenergy’s Sales Director, Sandy Fairley explains: “Flexalen was ideal for this particular project as it is lightweight, highly flexible, very thermally efficient, recyclable and offers a much more enduring solution than equivalent iron or steel pipe network in this type of environment.
“It was also very pleasing from a company perspective to be able to contribute to a more sustainable future at one of Scotland’s most historic settings.”
Flexenergy is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of pre-fabricated and pre-insulated polybutene pipe for heating and hot water distribution systems and supplied a total of 80 metres of its Flexalen 600 pipe technology to complete the Castle Square project.