ENERGY
HERITAGE AND HIGH TECH AT CASTLE HOWARD WITH DIMPLEX HEAT PUMPS
A
s part of a major conservation programme, one of Britain’s finest historic houses, Castle Howard, is combining heritage and high tech following the installation of two 100kW Dimplex ground source heat pumps, which has seen energy costs reduced by nearly 90 percent.
The programme was introduced to help secure a more sustainable future for the leading visitor attraction which is set in spectacular Yorkshire countryside and provided the location for the lavish Brideshead Revisited TV series and film.
Key objectives were to target and slash the annual £40,000 fuel bill, improve the carbon footprint and reduce overall expenditure to allow more investment in conservation.
The radical overhaul at the 142,400sq ft house and the Grade 1 registered park and gardens involved the replacement of the old heating and hot water systems with the latest Dimplex heat pump technology. And measurements taken over just three full winter months of operation, since the heat pumps were switched on in October 2009, have shown the average fuel bills drop from around £4,690 per month to just £644.
Energy and conservation are at the top of the agenda for forward- thinking owner Simon Howard and his team who are very pleased with the early payback results. Dimplex installer-partner Ecovision Systems devised an innovative solution using two Dimplex high power 100kW SI 100 TE ground source heat pumps, with a projected payback of just six years. And the six month long £200k project received a significant level of grant support from Dimplex
MEGA HEAT AT COLLEGE A
new college campus in Luton being constructed has used Dimplex ground source heat pumps to help meet its twin objectives of energy efficiency and sustainability in a large-scale 1.5MW installation.
As part of the Building Schools for the
Future initiative, the £56 million development will see a new Luton Sixth Form College built on the site of the existing facility. Part of the brief for the new building was a commitment to sustainability, so renewable heating was a high priority.
The design consists of 28 ground source heat pumps ranging in size from 11kW to 75kW with a combined output of around 1.5MW to provide space and water heating. Some of the heat pumps are reversible, so in summer, cool liquid can be circulated through the system to draw heat out of the building; the heat pumps give a total of 712kW cooling capacity.
The Dimplex heat pump range offered solutions to all the different requirements
via the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target scheme, as well as an interest free loan of nearly £60,000 from the Carbon Trust. Plans for a fast track installation were finalised during 2009 and the three-acre lake which is designed to allow the glorious house to be reflected on its surface, was drained for the installation of the coiled pipes which are then connected via 1m deep pipes to the basement in the house. The system provides hot water and heating for the main house, the estate office and four staff residential flats, generating four kilowatt hours of heat for every kilowatt hour of electricity the heat pump uses.
The conservation management plan has already scooped a prestigious national award from the Royal Town Planning Institute and it was developed by the Castle Howard team in conjunction with English Heritage, English Nature and Ryedale District Council. The plan included a full investigation of the alternatives to oil, with extensive feasibility studies, including one undertaken by the Carbon Trust. Tel: 01489 773336 Email:
marketing@dimplex.co.uk www.dimplex.co.uk
of the building – high temperature units for hot water, reversible units to provide heat recovery to the hot water when in cooling mode and a complete package of compatible cylinders.
An open loop borehole will extract groundwater directly from the aquifer beneath the site and circulate it around the site on a ring main via a 1MW heat exchanger. Distribution systems specified vary according to the use of the area; a combination of Tarmac Termodeck, underfloor heating and air handling units will be used. Luton Sixth Form College achieved the
Learning & Skills Beacon status in 2004 and was awarded Outstanding by Ofsted in its last inspection. The new college will accommodate 2,300 students, in line with projected demand, and will actually offer around 20 percent more space than the current site, although on a smaller footprint. The old buildings are still operational while the new building takes shape on the current playing fields. The new complex is scheduled to be opened to
students in September 2010, after which the old buildings will be demolished and that space used to accommodate new sports facilities and car parking. The new college site will incorporate a wide variety of environmentally-friendly features, including a containment area under external recreation space to minimise the risk of flooding in the event of exceptionally heavy rain, a brise soleil mounted on south sides of the buildings to limit solar gain and glare in summer, rainwater harvesting for reuse in the toilets and for irrigation and maximum use of natural light and ventilation. Tel: 01489 773336
Email:
marketing@dimplex.co.uk www.dimplex.co.uk
SUSTAINABLE FM | AUGUST 2010 |47
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