Longwave Radiant Heaters Installed at Spencer Squash Club in Wandsworth, London

The Project

Spencer Squash Club, based in Wandsworth South London, welcomes players from the local community irrespective of age or experience. The club has two courts both of which are in pretty constant use.

Court 2 with our radiant cassettes installed

Radiant cassettes omit no noise, light or draught output – ideal for squash courts

Squash Court Heating – Requirements

When BN Thermic were contacted by Spencer Squash Club’s management to discuss a suitable heating system for their courts, their key requirements were as follows.

The system should not interfere with matches
The heaters must not produce light output, noise or draughts
The required temperature must be reached as quickly as possible
Running costs must be kept to a minimum

Long Wave Radiant Cassettes

BN Thermic’s long-wave radiant cassettes are ideally suited to heating a squash court.

The cassettes are low profile and mounted at a high level, reducing the chances of interfering with a game of squash to an absolute minimum. Unlike other forms of radiant heaters, long-wave (sometimes called far infrared) heaters do not emit any light whatsoever and do not produce draughts or noise.

Radiant cassettes emit invisible long-wave radiant energy which heats solid bodies directly. In the case of a squash court, the sold bodies will be the floor, the walls and, of course, the players! This feature ensures a quicker warm-up than when using conventional heaters as the players are not relying on an increase in surrounding air temperature to feel the benefit of the heating system.

Radiant cassettes can be mounted up to 9m which is ideal for squash courts with abnormally high ceilings or viewing galleries

BN Thermic has vast experience heating squash courts, sports halls and leisure facilities

Another feature of long wave radiant cassettes is that they do not give rise to a significant temperature gradient meaning that the temperature at floor level is roughly the same as it is at high level. This is particularly significant when heating a high-ceiling space such as a squash court.

A typical squash court is 5.6m high. To achieve an air temperature at a floor level of 15°C using conventional heaters, the temperature at the ceiling level would inevitably rise to around 29°C. This body of super-heated air that has accumulated at a high level is expensive to generate and serves no useful purpose. The equivalent high-level temperature using long wave radiant cassettes would be in the region of 17°C. Compare the 17°C and 29°C and the energy saving is obvious.

The Heating Solution for Spencer Squash Club

The BN Thermic technical sales team produced a specification using two 3.6kW radiant cassettes in each court. The cassettes were suspended at a high level and positioned to provide an even heat distribution throughout the court.

Temperature control was provided by a wall-mounted, tamperproof thermostat positioned just above the court’s ‘outline’ so as not to interfere with a game.

We are pleased to confirm that the management team at Spencer Squash Club were delighted with the installation in every respect.