Frenger supplies new £14 million first of its kind Ashlands Blue Light Hub (Fire Service, Ambulance, and Police)

Image showing the outside of the Ashlands Blue Light Hub in Milton Keynes

Frenger© was selected to supply the new Ashlands Blue Light Hub with both of their Active Multi-Service Chilled Beams complete with fully integrated DALI dimmable LED lighting and their ceiling integrated Eco Active Chilled Beams to provide the Cooling, Heating, and Ventilation for the building, whilst providing an energy-efficient HVAC solution, which delivers long-life expectancy and minimal maintenance along with superior room occupancy comfort.

Located in Milton Keynes, UK, the Ambulance, Fire, and Police Hub will act as a base for Buckinghamshire Fire & Service, Thames Valley Police, and South-Central Ambulance Service to work together for the benefit of the local area. The new location gives the crews the advantage of being close to the A5, which allows them to respond to the farthest parts of Milton Keynes much quicker than their previous stations.

The new £14 Million hub replaces the Bletchley and Great Holm fire stations, with the scheme to move the fire stations into one larger hub set to save the taxpayer over £6 Million over the next 10 years.

Built on a 3-acre site, the buildings construction comprises of a concrete frame with a fully glazed facade to the main central hub and two steel frame 'wings' clad in the relative emergency colour.

The three-storey complex, which houses over 200 fire, police, and ambulance staff, incorporates multi-use community facilities to enable educative programmes based on fire prevention and crime reduction. Also situated at the hub is a state of the art 4-storey live-fire smoke house training building, which will give fire crews an on-site advanced training facility that will provide them with 'realistic and challenging scenarios'.

In addition to the on-site advanced training building, the hub will also provide storage for up to 6 fire engines, with further secure storage for ambulances, patient transport vehicles, and police vehicles. Also provided on-site at the hub is a vehicle wash down area, fuel storage, and dedicated parking for both staff and visitors.

Active Multi-Service Chilled Beams

A render of the Active Multi-Service Chilled Beam used on the project


As mentioned before, Frenger supplied Active Multi-Service Chilled Beams with fully integrated DALI dimmable LED lighting to provide a complete HVAC solution. Frenger's MSCB units offer a 'plug and play' solution that can provide water driven cooling, heating, fresh air delivery, sensors, controls and many other key building services (compatible with sprinkler systems).

Bringing several services together in a single integrated MSCB unit means that the physical dimensions of the unit can be optimised; to enable use in spaces where the floor-to-slab height is minimal. The concept also provides the various different building services with a single source of responsibility for the design, supply and integration of all services, ensuring reduced costs and on-site installation time.

Multi-Service Chilled Beam (MSCB) solutions are typically used for high-profile buildings such as government buildings, and owner occupied buildings due to the lower running costs (with the beam being extremely energy-efficient), a long-life expectancy (30 plus years), very low maintenance, and the high levels of Thermal Comfort provided for the health and wellbeing of building occupants.

All of Frenger's MSCBs are 100% prefabricated and tested in a controlled environment using our in-house Testing Laboratories at our UK Head technical facility in Derby, UK. Frenger have significantly invested into these testing facilities with our previously mentioned UK head technical facility having 3x Climatic Testing laboratories, 2x Lighting Laboratories, and an Acoustic Laboratory.

To find out more about the Active Multi-Service Chilled Beam and view the product brochure, click the button below.


Eco Active Chilled Beams

A render of the Eco Active Chilled Beam used on the project


The ceiling integrated Eco Active Chilled Beams supplied to the Ashlands Blue Light Hub contains a number of patented performance enhancing features, with the Eco beam also being designed to be easily tailored to suit the unique parametres of individual project sites.

This is partly achieved by the 'burst nozzle' arrangement that helps to optimise the heat exchange performance, meanwhile helping to reduce the noise produced by the beam. Given the size and amount of burst nozzles being appropriately quantified for each individual project, this provides consistent jet velocities and equal distribution of the air discharge and continuous induction through the entire length of the heat exchanger (battery).

Heat exchanger batteries are also fitted with extruded aluminium profiles to not only enhance performance but also provide a continuous clip on facility for the underplates. This arrangement keeps the underplates true and flat for long lengths, even up to 3.6m.

The Eco beam has a 'closed back' design, meaning that all induced air (recirculated room air) is induced through the underplate within the room space to avoid any need for perimeter flash gaps and/or openings in the ceiling system. This also provides for a better quality of recirculated air, as the recirculated air does not mix with any air from the ceiling void.

To find out more about the Eco Active Chilled Beam and view the product brochure, click the button below.


You can learn more about the products Frenger® has to offer by visiting our products page or read more articles about the international projects Frenger® has supplied on our latest news page. Alternatively, you can contact our UK Head Office on +44(0)1332 295 678 or sales@frenger.co.uk.