Fire station retrofit Case study
waste
Hosing down
The need to renovate a 1960s fire station gave its owners the opportunity to make a wide range of efficiency improvements to the building. Mark Jansen takes a look at the CIBSE award-winning project
B
uilding services managers at the London Fire Brigade (LFB) have a particularly challenging remit compared with some other parts of the UK. The service has been ordered by
the Mayor to cut carbon emissions from its estate by 60 per cent by 2025. However, around 30 per cent of LFB’s 113 properties are listed, which limits the amount of work that can be done to them. Therefore, says LFB energy manager Ian Shaw,
when an unlisted fire station is to be refurbished, the building services team will look to go all-out to achieve the biggest carbon savings it can. The refurbishment of Croydon fire station in south London, built in 1961, presented just such an opportunity. The project was completed last October, and the team was soon rewarded by winning the Refurbishment of the Year award in the 2010 CIBSE Low Carbon Performance Awards. The £1.3m Croydon refurbishment was financed
partly with £375,000 from the brigade’s Invest To Save fund for low-carbon projects. This fund ‘loan’ will be repaid gradually from the anticipated savings on fuel costs, which Shaw believes will amount to £7,200 a year at current fuel prices. The savings were calculated using SBEM software to
model the premises before and after construction. The payback period for the £375,000 funding is predicted to be 17.4 years, which may seem like an aeon to the private sector, but Shaw points out that the fire brigade tends to occupy its buildings for very long periods of time, with the Croydon site expected to serve the brigade for another 70 years.
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The cost of exceeding the minimum required by the
Building Regulations has been calculated at £125,000. This was spent on improvements to the thermal insulation of the walls with cavity insulation, fibre installation to cavities behind the rainwater cladding and the concrete frame, and foam insulation to the roof. The fenestration was improved by replacing single with double glazing featuring Pilkington Optitherm S4 glass with a 16 mm cavity and argon-filled, Optifloat green glass.
Biomass
The station, which measures 2,932 sq m across three storeys, has two biomass boilers to meet all heating and hot water needs. The building energy management system has been optimised to maintain the most effective use of the biomass boilers in maintaining the temperature to the low loss header, Shaw says. The Croydon site had an ideal, ready-made fuel store
in the form of a redundant Derv tank underground that can hold 14 tonnes of biomass fuel, he adds. The Croydon site also offered good access for fuel deliveries, and the fuel is ordered automatically, based on the remaining levels in the store. The wood pellets are sourced in Farnham, nearly 30
miles away. Ten tonnes of pellets are delivered every three to four weeks during winter. Biomass fuel is significantly more expensive than gas, at just under 4p per kilowatt hour compared with 3.2p per kilowatt hour for gas, according to Shaw, but he argues: ‘Our targets are carbon targets, not fiscal targets, so we are paying to save carbon,’ adding that the station will use far less
Our targets
are carbon targets, not fiscal targets, so we are paying to save carbon –
Ian Shaw
>
April 2010 CIBSE Journal
35
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