Service game

The Invicta Leisure Complex, one of the biggest in the North East, has a vast array of facilities including eight tennis and four badminton courts, two swimming pools, aerobics rooms, a gym, creche, restaurant and function rooms.

Middlesbrough-based Rotrax has shown its professional muscle, winning and completing the £1·25 million design and build, mechanical and electrical engineering contract at the fitness centre.

Ron Wiffen, contracts manager for Rotrax, said: "We have installed state-of-the-art electrical and mechanical engineering. It has been selected to be aesthetically pleasing, yet energy efficient and practical, for a centre expecting a large number of visitors." Pride of place are the full-size tennis courts. Rotrax ensured that all lighting and heating is away from the playing areas and as unobtrusive as possible.

The six Reznor gas-fired heaters in the court complex are attached to perforated, flexible ducting or 'socks' that allow heat to disperse through small holes, preventing any rush of air affecting play.

Thorn Lighting has manufactured special 2·44 m-long fluorescent lamp units for the courts. Rotrax needed 42 units for each of the 12 racquet courts.

In the squash courts the contractor has fitted grills over the lights and ventilation units to stop overenthusiastic players smashing the tubes in the luminaires.

Energy efficient measures are installed in the majority of new build projects but at this centre extra thought has been put into the aerobics rooms. The air conditioning, supplied and installed by subcontractor Acrol, is timed automatically for one hour, the length of a fitness class. Total cooling of this area is 8 kW, with heating set at 4·2 kW.

In the large gym the air is heated and cooled by a series of wall-mounted heat pumps. Total cooling capacity in this area is 71 kW while the heating is 75 kW.

Lighting for the fitness room has been provided by the T5 lamp. It was selected because it is small, energy efficient, and creates a softer lighting effect than larger linear lamps. The luminaire was designed to provide an element of uplighting to the ceiling as well as the downward light to the training area.

The external appearance of large-scale heating systems can sometimes be ugly and obtrusive, so Rotrax installed specially-clad, white air ducting in the gym so it blended easily into the overall decor. Outside, ventilation flues were also coloured to complement the building's exterior.

Outside, illumination has been supplied by Kingfisher Lighting. Columns standing 6 m high are topped with globe-type fittings.

The same attention to detail was carried over to the external tennis courts, which have a covered structure. This works like an umbrella, the light shining through it to allow play on dark evenings, without the distracting glare of floodlights.

Safety is obviously of paramount importance in a club open to members of all ages. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the creche. Wall sockets are 1·8 m above the ground to avoid little fingers being pushed into them. Radiators throughout the complex have a special low surface temperature and all water taps in the public areas have blending valves to protect against scalding.

  After sweating off the pounds in the gym, members can retire to the coffee bar and restaurant. Rotrax has designed a ventilation system for this area using Barkell equipment. It features a general supply air and specific exhaust within the designated smoking area. The system provides an air flow of 2·62 m3/s supply and 2·61 m3/s extraction. This gives 17 air changes/hour (ac/h) in the smoking area.

Lighting in the three function rooms adjacent to the restaurant is supplied using Thorn Chalice units which are fully dimmable. To highlight the bar front, Rotrax fitted a specially moulded 4·5 m cold cathode system which had been manufactured by ACDC.

Air control is particularly important in the swimming pool. There has to be negative air pressure to ensure the chlorine-laden atmosphere is not allowed into the changing rooms. This means extracting more than you supply. The ventilation plant serving the pool hall is designed to give an air change of 11 ac/h.

Lighting for the pool comes from various sources. Above the swimming area there is a barrisole ceiling – fabric over a framework to give the apearance of a plastered ceiling. Four 250 W and eight 400 W metal halide luminaires light up the canopy from beneath so that the light bounces down to the pool. This helps maintenance as the luminaires can be worked on from the pool side.

The plant room, which controls the whole building, houses six boilers, from Modular Systems, totalling 1·2 MW and an air handling unit, supplied by Barkell, for the swimming pool hall. Rotrax has also fitted a recuperator to take heat out of the extracted air and recycle it, saving up to 50% of the energy.

Physical fitness is now one of the nation's favourite pastimes and the Invicta Leisure Complex will certainly encourage many a potato off the couch and on to the court or into the pool.

Rotrax has shown its credentials and it is definitely fit for the job. Are you?