The Ship Centurion

 

The Ship Centurion, nestled on the sunny Kent coast in Whitstable, has proudly served the local community for over 30 years, fusing authentic English and German heritage into their range of cask ales and fresh, daily prepared dishes. More than just a pub, it serves as a cherished spot for a well-established local community to gather and socialise. To craft a personalised life safety solution, Acer Electrical collaborated with Hochiki to not only protect the pub and its hospitality offerings, but its rich legacy.

 

The Ship Centurion was founded in 1996 by the Birks family after returning from Germany. Since then, their traditions have been passed down to their son, Roland, alongside their trusty team who have been determined to preserve its longstanding heritage well into the future.

 

The pub comprises distinctive areas, including a bar, kitchen, games room and renovated bedrooms above, with a basement to store beer kegs. The pub’s room variation combined with its unique historical infrastructure made finding the right solution challenging; one that needed to be tailored and flexible for this small establishment.

 

Acer Electrical, based in Whitstable, have been working within the electrical industry for many years. As a family run business, their understanding of this projects importance made them the perfect choice for this installation, treating the property with respect to preserve this historical building. Using their expertise, the installation needed a solution to overcome any loose cabling issues. The pub's flooring void was utilised to discreetly hide the cabling used for the project, helping preserve the historical aesthetics and charm of the pub.

 

 

To overcome the requirements needs of each room within the pub, Acer Electrical deployed Hochiki’s ESP technology as the foundation for the entire system. The ESP’s wide range of products, from smoke and heat sensors to visual-alarm devices, offered a diverse range of solutions to help Acer Electrical address the needs of each room, ensuring each device chosen was designed to match the room’s core function.

 

In total 33 ESP devices were used throughout the pub, tailored to each space. The kitchen utilised intelligent heat sensors to ensure advanced protection in this high-risk area. As a small, compact establishment, a potential fire at the Ship Centurion could cause irreversible damage to the pub’s occupants, future growth, and its legacy.

 

Smoke sensors were also installed throughout the pub to detect rising smoke levels related to a fire outbreak. Their adjustable sensitivity reduces susceptibility to false alarms, providing reliable performance in any given environmental condition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Within an intimate yet bustling environment, such as in the Ship Centurion, devices need to blend seamlessly with the infrastructure, where possible reducing visibility of fire alarms and their presence within the building. To ensure all building occupants would be clearly alerted in the event of a fire incident, Acer Electrical also fitted all the sensors with Hochiki’s base sounders. These loop-powered sounders fit discreetly beneath smoke and heat sensors, provide an alarm volume of up to 98 dB(A) and are automatically addresses by the fire control panel, simplifying installation.  This fully complies with BS 5839-1 guidelines, overall improving evacuation times and reducing risk to life.

 

 

At the centre of the entire system, an Hochiki addressable one-loop HFP AP panel delivers comprehensive fire alarm management tailored to smaller, compact-sized applications, reducing the installation complexity and cutting costs. The panel provides a user-friendly event log from a single control point. This detailed record of panel events makes maintenance straightforward, helping to pinpoint the exact location of a fault. The HFP panel has provided the Ship Centurion with a cost-effective and user-friendly fire system, which can be easily expanded thanks to Hochiki’s open protocol.

 

 

Water leak damage within hospitality venues is a common issue; often the result of persistent, undetected equipment or pipework leaks that produce permanent damage when unnoticed over a period. The consequences can be just as costly and catastrophic as fire damage, and for a family-run business like the Ship Centurion, the impact could be devastating in terms of potential structural damage as well as loss of revenue.  With their large basement containing large amounts of pipework, special consideration was needed to protect the Ship Centurion’s contents and historical infrastructure.

 

 

Hochiki's LEAKtrace is a conventional water leak detection and alarm solution, operating independently from the fire system, and chosen to address the challenges posed by potential undiscovered leaks within the pub cellar. The installed system consisted of a two-zone control panel, complemented by specialised water detection cables and floor probes covering the basement's perimeter, activating an alarm at the first sign of moisture.

 

LEAKtrace offers a cost-effective life safety solution ideal for smaller applications. From environments where mitigating financial loss is critical, to heritage venues where infrastructure or assets must be protected or preserved, LEAKtrace ensures that water leaks are detectable, delivering targeted protection to the most vulnerable of environments.

 

 

 

 

Commenting on the installation, Roland Birk said:

 

“Our new LEAKtrace and ESP fire system is much simpler and easy to use. The panel’s interface is user-friendly and ensures we can monitor the entire system from one place. The entire system delivers protection from water leaks and fire to ensure that our small business continues to run smoothly. I would not hesitate to recommend Hochiki.”

 

The Ship Centurium’s new life safety system blends specialist leak and fire detection technology to comprehensively protect this historical pub, its community, and visitors but most importantly, preserving Jan and Armin Birk’s legacy for generations to come.

 

 

 

Download the PDF Case Study