Case Study – Eagles Community Arena, Newcastle

The new state-of-the-art facility will cater for grassroots initiatives for all ages and abilities from pre-school community programmes to senior European club competitions and International events for Great Britain.

A £1.1m grant was given to the project by Local Growth Deal through the North East Local Enterprise Partnership.

Not only will the project provide opportunities for sports participation but it has also crated a new facility where the community can access opportunities to learn new skills and enhance their chances for employment.  Significantly, the ECA will provide invaluable sports participation space for Newcastle College – one of the largest further education providers in the country with more than 10,000 students on campus every day.

The state-of-the-art venue houses the award winning North East charity and host the regions most successful sports team – the Esh Group Eagles Newcastle.

Reznor, part of Nortek Global HVAC (UK), were able to offer the ideal heating solution for the new 2800 seater venue, allowing the most successful franchise in British basketball history to pursue its long-term dream of competing on the European stage.

Reznor provided a total Nor-Ray-Vac system of 12 x 24kW modulating NRV burners suspended at approximately 9m complete with ball guards arranged in two temperature zones controlled by two Reznor SmartCom3 controllers.  The single discharge fan is located remote from the hall.

The modulating NRV burners can turn down to 50% of capacity, thus maximising comfort conditions and efficiency whilst minimising fuel consumption.  The NRV system design layout provides blanket heat coverage of the sports facility eliminating any cold spots. 

Suspended from the roof, the heaters emit infrared rays that warm only objects and people in its path.  They do not waste fuel heating the volume of air in the building.  This will ensure that the ECA arena’s heating costs are kept to a minimum.

The Nor-Ray-Vac system provides even heat coverage throughout the building, with rapid warm up time and low noise operation.  All Nor-Ray-Vac systems modulate down to 50% of high fire and not only more closely matches the thermal needs of the dynamic situation but also provides greater occupancy comfort at lower operating costs which is a major benefit to the end user.

Economy and effectiveness are the two key criteria specifier’s required to answer when selecting a heating system for new manufacturing facilities. Finding a solution to both in a single heating system can be challenging.  However, one form of space heating technology is ideally suited to a demanding working environment – Nor-Ray-Vac radiant tube heating.

Low operating costs are achieved by concentrating the heat at low level, where it is most needed, without heating the volume of air in the building.  Rapid response times reduce running costs further.  Such flexibility means that warmth is felt by people in the building within minutes of start-up and no fuel is wasted bringing the internal environment to a comfortable temperature.  Since the Reznor radiant system burns fuel at point of use, there are no distribution losses to take into account.

The ECA is open for 362 days a year and stage up to 40 events annually, including a minimum of 22 Eagles’ fixtures.  The venue embraces a wide range of sports clubs, organisations, age groups and abilities and has become a focal point for leisure and recreation in the West End of Newcastle.

Installation Summary

• ECF invested in a Nor-Ray-Vac continuous radiant tube heating system
• Suspended from the roof, the heaters emit infra-red ray that warm only objects and people in its path
• Low operating costs are achieved by concentrating the heat at low level

Technical Summary

• Area        15,000 m²
• Height        Eaves 10m / Ridge 11.6m
• Volume        24,495m²
• Heaters        12 burners