Alarms must be taken seriously
Beth Werner
Fortunately, the damage was limited, but I have learned a thing or two about alarms, says the cinema director of Værløse Bio
Oh no, not again, thinks cinema director Tine Kirkeballe, as she once again turns off the alarm in the DanTaet leakage protection system connected to Værløse Cinema’s district heating system.
Maybe it’s a false alarm, because after a thorough search for water around radiators and radiator pipes, Tine Kirkeballe and her staff can’t see a single drop of water anywhere.
But the alarms that have been sounding for a week are not false and water is escaping – it’s just not visible. Finally, Tine Kirkeballe calls in her plumber.
Værløse Bio and Cafe is used extensively as both a cinema and a cultural center.
28 liters of water disappeared under the floor every hour
Tine Kirkeballe is standing in the vestibule of the Glass House, which houses the cinema’s café, and is immensely relieved that what turned out to be a totally corroded district heating pipe was fortunately in the floor very close to the radiator to the right of the entrance door.
“If, on the other hand, it had been the pipe that runs under the floor across the entrance to the Glass House, the repair would have been more time-consuming and much more inconvenient for our guests,” says Tine Kirkeballe.
A review of the leak detection system log showed that every hour for a week, 28 liters of water was slowly leaking out of the system every hour, totaling about 5,000 liters.
This is similar to a running cistern, so you can just see turbulence on the surface of the water.
Good idea to leak-proof heating systems
Morten Jensen, plumbing and energy specialist at BC Gas & Vand, who replaced the corroded district heating pipe, notes that 27 years of operation does not leave the heating pipes unaffected.
– That’s why it’s a good idea to have leak-proof heating systems, he stresses.
Furesø Municipality, which has owned Værløse Bio since 1982, had leak protection installed on the cinema’s heating system in spring 2011. An initiative that the cinema director is pleased with.
– It is the first time I have experienced a break in a district heating pipe, but I can thank the leakage protection system for the fact that the consequential damage was not greater than it was, says Tine Kirkeballe.
Cinema run by the same family for 30 years
Tine Kirkeballe has a special relationship with the 64-year-old cinema, which is centrally located in Værløse town center.
Tine Kirkeballe narrates:
-It was a local couple, Mr. and Mrs. Jensen, who built the cinema in 1954. In the early 1980s, Mrs. Jensen sold the cinema to the then Værløse Municipality and in 1988 my parents took over the lease.
Tine Kirkeballe took over from her mother in 2004 and ran the cinema with her father until 2014, when she took over the lease and became the sole manager.
Voted cinema of the year in Denmark
Værløse Bio has undergone major changes since its construction in 1954. The largest in 1991, when the Glass House was built and converted into a large, beautiful and bright café. The incredibly popular cinema was also named Denmark’s cinema of the year in the same year. A few years later, in 1994, the cinema was expanded again, this time with an additional 82-seat auditorium.
Værløse Bio may be a cinema, but it functions just as much as a cultural center. This is where the city’s associations and organizations hold meetings and events, accompanied by meals and films.
Just as Morten Jensen and his bricklayer colleague finish replacing the pipes and laying and grouting the floor tiles, the members of the local senior citizens’ association swarm out of the cinema hall, ready to have lunch in the café.
Cinema director Tine Kirkeballe shows the replaced, corroded district heating pipe.
