By Rory Macnamara. Technical input by Consulting Engineer Charl Esterhuysen of Triocon Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd (TRIOCON) Godfrey van Kesteren of Peninsula Plumbing and Engineering Works (PPEW).
Eris Property Group, developed, amongst others, the Cape Station Student Accommodation complex.
- 1 to 3: Pipe configuration showing the supply to the different levels. All images by © Plumbing Africa
“Our (ERIS) student accommodation development philosophy embarks on providing accommodation that offers strategic choice of locations, coupled with cutting-edge design and exceptional build quality.
Demand for student accommodation is increasingly high, leading to more and more Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) developments being built to overcome what seems like an endless shortfall in supply not only in South Africa but worldwide. With most university cities in South Africa suffering from a structural under-supply of quality student accommodation, this is the perfect time to invest, therefore Eris Property Group is currently invested in supplying high standards of construction and innovative design at optimal cost of our student accommodation developments.
Our student accommodation is based on a 6-principle philosophy namely.
- Affordability
- Convenient Locations
- Quality Accommodation
- Safety & Security
- Health & Safety
- Great Student Experiences”
As was so aptly stated by Charl that ERIS has had much experience in providing such accommodation and this project is the largest of its kind being 21 stories high and providing accommodation for 3027 students.
With Eris’s experience they were intimately involved in defining the brief both from design and engineering perspectives. TRIOCON have been involved in many facilities like this and all the different players like the architect, developer and engineering expertise made for a focus on the operational requirements which made the project so unique. This site had challenges like coverage, height, and sight lines. The architects had to really work within these parameters.
The real uniqueness in the building is the offering of one, two, three and four bedroom units. Each unit has its own ablution facilities unlike the dormitory type of accommodation with central ablutions.
Clearly there is a demand for this type of unit as it is fully occupied.
Godfrey of Peninsula Plumbing and Charl of TRIOCON described how each unit has access to hot water immediately (students apparently get very touchy when there is no hot water!)
Because of the shape of the building, it was necessary to divide it into three pressure zones, namely,
The low zone, middle zone and then the upper zone. Because the middle zone was to big to handle as one entity we sub divided it into two zones, effectively creating four zones.
The reasoning behind this that with any large system a failure is catastrophic but by dividing into smaller areas total system failure risk is eliminated and faults can be attended to faster than one large system.
How was this achieved?
Twelve heat pumps and booster pumps as required for the various pressure zones were installed. This provided efficiency as was required in the brief together with energy saving and low operating cost.
Why heat pumps?
Economics, as electricity tariffs increase as with the cost of other elements like oil, gas, etc. It is a characteristic of heat pump-based systems that heating is stretched over a long period of time, so we use storage and buffering to compensate to generate water over a long period of time, but at a low cost. Put another way hot water is required at peak times i.e., morning and evening and the heat pumps simply cannot provide the large amounts of heat instantaneously.
The system at Cape Station is really designed to generate the total storage volume twice a day, the full quantum of water storage that is in the building, which is in the order of 160 cubic metres of water. In theory then the systems would be able to generate approx. 300 cubic meters at 60 degrees minimum per day.
It is a City of Cape Town water by-law requirement that any sectional or apartment type living unit, must have its own metering to monitor water usage i.e. hot and cold water. Metering also establishes the ability to monitor and manage potential abuse or wastage, especially hot water.
Together with the OEMs backing, the project included a five-year warranty arrangement on the equipment that feeds through the installation contractor back to the OEM. Whilst sounding onerous the reasoning is that it takes a year or two for a client to really have benchmarks and history. This commits the installers and OEM to ensure longevity and performance of the key elements of the installation. Considering the major investment made by the Client who is demanding and correctly so, it is to their credit and the credit to the OEMs, committing to the longer warranty period. The Client also prefers local support and local manufacture as far as possible without compromising on quality.
- Also hot water return pipes entering the plant room from plumbing ducts.
- Hot water (this pic and above pic together apearing below top pic)
- Hot water return pipes returning to hot water storage tanks to be reheated after circulating through the building
The storage tanks used are plastic but at first glance one does not notice the insulation around the tank with strengthening bands. We had to consider that this building has to be operating for at least say 50 years. The tanks carry a 15 or 20 year guarantee. (can we confirm the period please)
Plastic tanks are easily repairable in case of leaks.

Cold water booster pumps taking water from the cold water stoorgae tanks and distributing through the building.
For the piping, stainless steel was used for the main feed from the municipal system to ensure longevity and robustness.
The engineering was pretty standard as was the installation and the challenges were manageable with a few more grey hairs and sleepless nights! However, the sections created was not rocket science but ensuring that the students had hot water at any time.
Due to Eris’ experience, we were able to draw on their statistics and methods to end being spot on.
The building has raised the standard of the area, provided close access to transport for the students and once this railway is up and running again even better still.
Client: Eris Property Group
Professional team Consulting Wet Services, Fire and Vertical Transportation engineer: Triocon Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd (TRIOCON) Plumber: Peninsula Plumbing and Engineering Works (PPEW). Pumps – Wilo Heat pumps – Tekniheat Pipes: Geberit Mepla |