Solray radiant panels from Comyn Ching & Co have saved space and helped keep installation time and costs under control while providing an efficient heating solution at Kingsford School - a new 1500 place secondary school in East London built under the PFI scheme.

Part of the £23 million NUPPP PFI project for the London Borough of Newham, Kingsford Community School in Beckton has been designed and built to the highest standards by main contractor, Skanksa. The School features an array of hi-tech facilities, such as PC's for every pupil, a fully equipped recording studio, drama and dance facilities and an assembly hall that can be quickly transformed into a theatre.

As part of the effort to maximise the space both in these areas, in the science and CDT rooms which are fitted with bolt-down benches and also in other classrooms and corridors, Skanska specified ceiling installed radiant panels throughout the School. "As the design and build contractor, one of our chief concerns is to make the space within the busy school environment work as efficiently as possible" says John Wood from Skanska. "The

Solray Radiant Panels free up all the available wall space from radiator clutter, helping us fulfil this specification requirement. As well as providing all the warmth the School will need, they have also allowed us to cut the time and cost of heating system installation". Installed by Essex based M&E contractor Arena Engineering, the Solray Radiant Panels have eliminated any requirement for boxing and have also reduced the length of pipework runs needed for ordinary radiator installation.

They run on the School's low temperature hot water heating system with panel operation controlled and monitored by the building's sophisticated BMS system to ensure optimum performance and energy efficiency at all times. Consulting engineers for the project were whitbybird. Solray is the market leading brand in Radiant Panels with its products featuring in a vast number of PFI school and hospital projects currently taking place across the country.

They are versatile enough for completely unobtrusive wall, floor or ceiling installation and can be used with low or medium temperature hot water, steam or electricity. Originally developed by Comyn Ching more than 70 years ago, Solray Radiant Panels have evolved through the generations into modern, highly efficient, state of the art designs. They can be tailor-made to the highest standards of quality and manufactured to suit specific project requirements at the company's London-based design and production facility.