Newcastle University is a diverse and globally recognised university, set in the North-East of England. The campus is located in the centre of the city, welcoming approximately 26,000 students annually, across five hundred courses, supported by about 6,000 staff.

The university is also a leading establishment for sports, and has received significant investment over recent years to ensure that the facilities remain state of the art. 

In addition, the university has made significant improvements across the entire campus to ensure a transition towards more efficient solutions, mindful of energy consumption and water wastage. Such is the focus to achieve a more sustainable campus, the university has developed an extensive sustainability programme to ensure that it remains on target and that any decisions taken today are the right choices for the campus in the long term. 

Set within the busy Cochrane Park Sports Complex, the changing facilities housed a bank of eight separate showers that had been installed in 2002. As these showers had been heavily used over the years, the university felt it appropriate to evaluate the efficiencies of these units. 

Following this evaluation, it was concluded that the showers needed to be replaced with more energy efficient devices that consumed less water and energy, in line with the university’s sustainability programme. 

After researching suitable options, the university invited Cistermiser to Cochrane Park Sports Complex for its Vecta+ mechanical push button-activated slimline shower panel (MSPV), since this model includes a sustainable 8l/pm flow rate regulator as standard. 

In addition, the flow duration of around 30 seconds ensures reduced water wastage and energy usage to heat the water, which significantly increases the site’s carbon off-set to provide a more sustainable, economical, commercial shower, while maintaining reliability and offering the user an enjoyable showering experience.

A prerequisite for the university was that the showers would be simple to install. The Cistermister MSPV shower panels arrive pre-assembled with integrated, concealed fixings and include isolation valves in the box as standard; features that were highly attractive for the university. 

Furthermore, the Vecta+ MSPV showers, which are mechanically activated and not dependant on mains or battery power, offer greater flexibility during installation, making them a suitable choice for a retrofit installation such as this.

In August 2022, Newcastle University decided to purchase eight Vecta+ showers from plumbing merchant Wolseley. 

The university also appointed qualified plumbing engineers to install them into the changing facilities at Cochrane Park Sports Complex. The retrofit installation was quick and simple, taking two plumbers two days to successfully remove the existing showers, install, and commission the new ones. 

Following their installation in August 2022, it is expected that the upgrade will help the university save a tonne (approximately) of carbon annually, while offering a payback in as little as four months. 

Additionally, it is estimated that the university will save over £5,500 in water utility costs, or 2,329,600l of water, successfully reducing water wastage and energy consumption. 

The 10 year manufacturer’s warranty also helps provide the university with confidence that the showers will withstand heavy usage over their lifetime.

NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY TESTIMONIAL:

“Newcastle University is committed to making the campus more sustainable; it is therefore essential that we make the right choices today for the longer term. 

“The Cistermiser Vecta+ MSPV showers ticks all those boxes for our university, and we were delighted that these showers will not only be minimising our water wastage, but will also be essentially contributing to reducing our overall carbon emissions, by saving approximately 1 tonne of carbon annually. 

“Cistermiser were able to quickly and efficiently supply the units when we needed them, the installers found them to be quick and simple to retrofit, while the 10 year manufacturer’s warranty gave us the reassurance that they would be robust for continual heavy use.”