MISKIN MANOR GETS ITS HEATING IN THE RIGHT SHAPE

Miskin Manor, a prestigious Grade II listed hotel and leisure club in Wales, is now ‘future fit’ following the installation of Dimplex heat pumps as part of a £1.2million refurbishment that has included the latest technology for lower energy costs and environmental impact.

Set in 22 acres of parkland near Cardiff, the leisure club is a standalone building and fast response and control of the new heating system was key, as group facilities manager, Amanda Rosenberg, explained. “We wanted to achieve the best of all worlds in terms of environmental measures and control. Lower fuel bills are key but it’s equally important for us to be able to regulate the temperatures easily and to accommodate the needs of different user groups. And the control is quite literally push-button.”

Dimplex installer-partner WDS Environmental designed the system which includes two Dimplex LA 28 AS air source heat pumps. One provides heating and high demand hot water for the showers, the other for the swimming pool, with spare capacity for future expansion.

Energy consumption reduced by as much as 50%

The system’s high levels of efficiency have been put to the test over winter, during times when the external air temperature didn’t rise above 4°C for over two weeks and dropped to around minus 5°C at night! As Amanda said “The system delivered mountains of hot water, we’ve seen a major reduction in all our fuel bills and estimate our energy consumption has come down by as much as 50 percent.”

Travelodge pick an award winner

A new £2.6 million, 53 bedroom Travelodge is using three Dimplex LA 28 AS air source heat pumps to pre-heat domestic hot water. The project won Non- Domestic Installation of the Year in the Dimplex 2009 Heat Pump Awards for accredited installer Micro-Generation Systems.

Andy Brown, technical director for

Micro-Generation Systems, says “We worked with Travelodge and the planners to show how the Dimplex air source heat pumps would help achieve the percentage of renewable energy required to meet the Merton Rule and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.”

The LA 28 AS heat pumps for Travelodge Devizes are installed outdoor and have a flow temperature up to 55 degrees Celsius. The model has a powder-coated metal casing to withstand the British climate!

Heat pumps boost the environmental health of Hellesdon Hospital

When the Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health Foundation Trust decided to invest £8.2 million in a new hospital unit, it needed to ensure that the building took into account the NHS’s target to be zero carbon by 2018, so installing Dimplex ground source heat pumps was a natural choice.

The heating was required for Hellesdon Hospital’s new award-winning Psychiatric Intensive Care and Low Secure Units and the Trust consulted Econic, one of Dimplex’s heat pump installer- partners, for a low carbon heating solution. Econic developed a system using two Dimplex SI 50 TE 50kW heat pumps to draw heat from one of the largest ground collectors of its type in the UK to date. As Dimplex was also able to offer grants of up to 50% under Phase 2 of the Low Carbon Buildings Programme, Econic was able to secure £142,000 in grant funding for the project.

The design of the extensive ground collector system took into account the geological conditions underlying the site, the heat yield available from the ground, and the annual heat load profile of the new building.

The installation of the collectors used hydraulic pushing technology, with a 33 tonne 8x8 wheel truck carrying hydraulic rams pushing a steel casing into the ground, into which the collector pipes were inserted. The steel casing was then withdrawn, leaving the pipes in the ground. A total of 120

25-metre deep collectors were installed, which together are expected to produce a total of around 75kW per hour throughout the collector system’s lifetime, estimated to be around 25 years.

Rachel Newson, director of business development at the Trust, explains:

“We wanted to incorporate best practice in low carbon building technology, in readiness for the 2018 zero carbon target. We chose Dimplex, and having found our partner we were able to access grant funding.”

A PASSIVHAUS FIRST TOPS THE SHOPPING LIST FOR TESCO

A Dimplex ground source heat pump is being used to supply domestic hot water to the first supermarket built to PassivHaus standards in the UK and Ireland, at a Tesco store in Tramore, County Waterford.

A PassivHaus building is designed to be extremely energy efficient – usually this means the annual energy consumption is under 15kWh/m2

. The building fabric features

high levels of air tightness and insulation to keep heat in, meaning only minimal space heating is required – and making the water heating an even more important consideration in the performance of the building.

The building’s hot water is provided by a heat pump system jointly designed by Dimplex and Dynamic Energy Solutions and installed by County Kildare-based Geothermal Solar. The system takes an unusual approach to meeting the store’s requirements; it uses a Dimplex SI 11 MEH ground source heat pump to draw heat directly from the water used in the building’s cooling system, efficiently recycling the ‘waste heat’ from the chiller cabinets on the shop floor.

Fergal McEntee of Dynamic explains

“The closed loop Dimplex ground source unit allowed us great flexibility in the system design. Plus, we wanted to take advantage of the

higher flow temperature that this unit gives – it’s ideal for meeting the supermarket’s hot water requirements.”

To minimise time spent on site and associated costs, a complete plantroom containing the heat pump was pre-assembled in the UK and shipped to Ireland, to be ‘plumbed in’ in situ. The pipework sizing and performance adjustments were then made onsite.

Fergal continues “This application has opened the business community’s eyes to the possibilities for heat pumps and we are now talking to commercial clients in a wide variety of sectors.” Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8