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View Moorland and Mist in the
comfort of Giacomini underfloor heating
A Giacomini state of the art underfloor heating system has been installed at the famous McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum, which houses the city’s main collection of historic artefacts, including the prized ‘Moorland and Mist’ painting by Peter Graham.
The splendid Gothic Revival building is currently undergoing the largest refurbishment project in its 138-year history and the Giacomini system, installed in all the galleries, will deliver important lifetime cost benefits as well as environmental advantages. It forms a major part of a ‘hybrid’ heating system, which includes staff areas heated by conventional, wall hung radiators and hot water services, all supplied by two high efficiency Hamworthy boilers.
To maintain the integrity of the building a Giacomini ‘joisted’ floor underfloor heating system was chosen. Covering an area of 1,463 m2, it comprises aluminium diffusion plates, grooved to take 16mm PB pipe, for efficient heat distribution, with insulation pads placed between the joists to reduce sound transmission. Mixing manifolds are controlled by Giacomini RET 230L room thermostats to regulate the flow water temperature at the lower 50ºC temperatures required for underfloor heating.
Installer, Jaydee Heating of Dundee, acted as main contractors for the heating on behalf of main contractors Muirfield (Contracts) Ltd, responsible for the overall renovation project.
“Giacomini underfloor heating provided the ideal solution with comfortable and even heat distribution throughout the galleries,” said John Diplexcito, Contracts Manager of Jaydee Heating. “This was a key requirement of the system and of particular importance where valuable and irreplaceable works of art are on display, as well as for the general comfort of visitors”.
The Giacomini system also eliminated the need for radiators in the galleries, which brought aesthetic advantages by allowing clear and uncluttered wall and floor spaces, plus a significant reduction in the hot and cold spots associated with most conventional ‘wet’ systems.
Importantly, Giacomini underfloor heating systems deliver significant cost savings through the use of lower operating temperatures and the consequent environmental advantages of reduced emissions.
“We have an excellent working relationship with Giacomini and are currently collaborating on a number of other projects in the Dundee area,” said John Diplexcito.
To prepare for the redevelopment work, McManus Galleries was cleared of all its contents. In all, around 150,000 items in the collection had to be packed and moved to new storage. The facility, managed and operated by Dundee City Council’s Leisure & Communities Department, is home to some famous and well loved items in addition to Peter Graham’s Moorland and Mist, including the best collection of Victorian paintings in Scotland, the Tay Whale skeleton and a Log Boat from Errol dating from c.500AD.
In addition to its nationally recognised Fine and Decorative Art and Whaling Collections, the city’s collections include geology and natural history, civic and community history and early history, covering Tayside’s diverse archaeology from prehistoric times to the Middle Ages.
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