If you look under the bonnet of Donnelly Group’s car dealerships you’ll find Firebird boilers at the heart fuelling a number of its sites and showrooms.

Firebird are market leading manufacturers of heating products with locations in England, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Its name is synonymous with performance, quality and innovative design which is why Firebird’s flexible and wide product range with high efficiency and low NOx emissions is an increasingly popular choice for commercial projects in the UK. 

The Donnelly Group, one of Northern Ireland’s largest car retailers, is one such example having refurbished several of its sites in recent years – ambitious projects with specific heat demands managed by heating engineer Brendan McGrath of BJ Plumbing and Heating.

Brendan chose Firebird boilers for each of the projects:  Donnelly & Taggart’s Renault and Dacia showroom in Ballymena, Donnelly’s Motorstores in Derry/Londonderry and in Bangor.

“Firebird was the ideal choice for the projects particularly given the product permutations it offers” Brendan explained. 

Donnelly Group’s Superstore in Derry required two of Firebird’s range of boilers – its Popular Envirogreen condensing 73kW boiler for its showroom and its 26kW for business’ offices on site. 

Meanwhile, Firebird’s hugely popular Envirogreen 100kW condensing boilers, the only ones of their kind on the market to meet a 100kW demand, ticked the box perfectly for the retailer’s Ballymena and Bangor sites. 

“Before the refurbishment of these sites, heating in these buildings was provided by large, inefficient cast iron boilers,” engineer Brendan McGrath described. “Although the properties were well insulated, areas of the buildings were un-zoned, which posed a problem as the car showrooms needed to maintain a comfortable temperature for customers and staff in the adjoining office areas. I needed a heating system that would rapidly respond to the needs of the client in all weather conditions.”

“I had used Firebird products in the past and had always been satisfied with the performance, reliability and support given, so they were an obvious choice for this project.”

Brendan worked closely with Cathal Rafferty, Technical Contract Manager for Firebird, who visited the sites and was immediately able to specify the correct appliances from Firebird’s adaptable boiler range and suggested that areas of the heating system should be completely upgraded and zoned for comfort and efficiency.

Cathal Rafferty of Firebird stated: “To meet the specific needs of these projects, I specified a single Envirogreen boiler for the Derry and Bangor sites from the Envirogreen Popular range. These boilers have an output of 100kW and are fired by an ELCO low NOx liquid fuel burner, making them one of the most efficient boilers on the market.

“An added benefit is that the boilers are also future-proofed for HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) an advanced fossil-free fuel derived from 100% renewable waste streams which will enable the Donnelly Group to adapt to this fuel source in the future with little or no additional cost if they wish.”

For more information visit www.firebird.uk.com