Temporary Heating and Cooling for Commercial Accommodation

When heating or hot water fails in a commercial accommodation, the impact is immediate and serious. From care homes to student accommodation, downtime doesn’t just cause inconvenience – it risks resident wellbeing, compliance breaches, and reputational damage.

That’s why facilities managers turn to Rapid Energy to provide fast, dependable and engineered temporary solutions that restore comfort quickly and safely.

Commercial accommodations we support

• Care Homes & Nursing Homes – protecting vulnerable residents by maintaining safe internal temperatures and uninterrupted hot water.
• Apartment Blocks & Estates – keeping hundreds of homes supplied via central plant or heat networks, even in high-rise environments.
• Student Accommodation – ensuring continuous access to showers and hot water during peak demand periods.
• Retirement Villages – supporting large, campus-style developments with distributed systems.
• Housing Associations & Social Housing – responding to failures quickly to avoid widespread disruption and complaints.
• Sheltered & Assisted Living Schemes – providing safe, compliant temporary plant with minimal disruption to daily routines.
• Residential Developers – supporting planned outages during plant upgrades, refurbishments, or phased handovers.

Real-world commercial accommodation case studies

1) 2MW Packaged Boiler Hire – Apartment Complex, Norwood, London

Challenge: Complete plant-room failure left over 400 residents without heating and hot water across three primary circuits in a 16-storey building.
Approach: A same-day survey led to the specification of 1.3MW and 600kW boilers, two 4,500L tanks, heat exchangers, pumps rated above 6 bar, and 240m of hose to connect to a remote landing point with split circuits. Traffic management and car-park routing were implemented.
Outcome: Delivered, installed and commissioned within 24 hours, restoring heating and hot water to all residents with BMS visibility for ongoing assurance.

Read the full case study here.

2) 90kW Electric Boiler Solution – Student Accommodation, Nottingham

Challenge: Three student accommodation blocks lost hot water after their heaters were condemned due to flue issues, with only single-phase power available on site.
Approach: Installed 6 × 15kW single-phase electric boilers and 3 × 30kW DHW plate heat exchangers. Isolated failed heaters and tied into existing hot-water pipework and storage/buffer vessels to meet peak shower demand.
Outcome: Immediate restoration of hot water across three buildings (including 90 rooms with en-suites). The client even noted improved hot water delivery while awaiting permanent boiler replacements.

Read more about this project.

3) 300kW Packaged Boiler Hire – Care Home, Gloucester

Challenge: Cold-water storage tank failure caused plant-room water damage, threatening essential heating and hot water in an active care environment.
Approach: Deployed a 300kW boiler with hot water heat exchanger, hoses, fittings, and power leads, installed after a careful survey to ensure safety and compliance.
Outcome: 17 weeks of reliable temporary plant while insurance, repairs and a new plant room were completed. Seamless decommissioning and switchover.
Client feedback: “Prompt response and high-quality equipment saved us from potential disaster.” – FM Manager

Read the full story.

Resident-first installation standards

• Clear signage and safe routing around hoses and plant
• Minimal disruption to access, parking and amenity space
• Noise- and time-window-aware works scheduling where possible
• Handover briefings for reception, wardens or concierge teams
• Clean site etiquette

Why FM teams choose Rapid Energy

• Emergency response – rapid site survey, ring-fenced kit and fast mobilisation.
• Engineered, not improvised – package boilers, plate heat exchangers and pump sets sized to your circuits, heights and loads.
• Safety first – fencing, hot works, RAMS and clear handover.
• Remote monitoring – BMS visibility and proactive checks to keep uptime high.
• End-to-end support – design, install, commission, fuel management, maintenance and decommission.

How Rapid Energy can support you

From emergency plant-room failures to planned shutdowns, we provide reliable, resident-safe temperature control solutions for a wide range of commercial accommodations. Whether you manage care homes, housing associations, apartment blocks, student halls, retirement communities or sheltered schemes, we ensure continuity of heating and hot water when it matters most.

We provide rental chillers, portable cooling units, heaters and boilers, giving facilities managers the flexibility to maintain comfortable conditions all year round. Whatever the challenge, our responsive team and expertly engineered equipment keep residents safe, comfortable and supported.

Talk to us today about emergency support or planned works for your commercial accommodation on 0800 464 7025 or by email at hire@rapidenergy.co.uk.

FAQs

1. How quickly can you be on site?
   We attend the site the same day for a survey and begin mobilisation immediately after instruction – ensuring heating, hot water or cooling is restored as fast as possible.
   
2. Do you manage fuel and power?
   We provide a complete fuel and power solution. We arrange and manage fuel deliveries for oil-fired plants, and we can also supply and install temporary power generators to support electric boilers, chillers and cooling equipment where site power is limited.
   
3. Do you provide long-term hire as well as emergency cover?
   Absolutely. We support both short-term emergencies and longer hire periods, whether that’s days, weeks or several months while the permanent plant is repaired, replaced or upgraded.
   
4. What happens when the permanent system is ready again?
   Once your permanent plant is back online, our team will safely decommission and remove all temporary equipment, leaving the site clear and tidy. We coordinate the switchover to make sure residents never lose heating, hot water or cooling during the transition.