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ressure on the owners of
P
public buildings to reduce
carbon emissions and save
energy has never been
greater. Tony Billett,
Chairman of Zenex Technologies,
reports on how new technology is being
used by a Devon leisure centre to
improve its energy efficiency.
Meadowlands is a popular public swimming
and leisure pool in Tavistock, Devon. Built 20
years ago, the venue attracts thousands of
visitors each month to its heated pools and
leisure flume. In 2008, the original boilers at
Meadowlands were becoming extremely
unreliable and the pool water temperature was
subject to fluctuation.
Reducing
The system was required to heat 80,000
gallons of water in the pool, but kept failing and
therefore needed replacing. Rather than simply
installing a new standard boiler set-up, the
operators replaced the original plant with an
Carbon Emissions
energy efficient system that saves both energy
and water. The new system comprises a that the annual saving of the gas required to neighbouring facility and were very keen to
combination of condensing boilers and gas produce hot water is some 50%, resulting in bring the prototype to Meadowlands.
saver units, which recover wasted heat from the overall savings of at least 14% of the annual gas “Since the installation there has not been a
flue gases and re-use that to pre-heat the hot heating bill and, of course, similar reductions in single problem with the system.
water supply. the emissions of carbon dioxide. Furthermore, With the management of Meadowlands being
West Devon Borough Council specified three if plans to add the technology to the venue’s outsourced to an external company the council
129kw condensing boilers each fitted with a showers go ahead, there will be an additional does not benefit from expected cost savings,
flue gas heat recovery device. Typically, this advantage. The device produces hotter water but we are still keen to see our overall carbon
technology consists of a water store in a six litre faster and, as a result, less lukewarm water is footprint reduced.
container placed in the flue above the boiler, drawn from the hot tap and wasted before the “We decided to address the most urgent need
together with a heat exchanger coil through water is hot enough for the pool visitors’ needs. first, which was the fact that the boilers were
which the incoming cold water main passes. This could save Meadowlands up to 5% in the breaking down. [In 2009] I would like to get a
It is installed on top of the boiler as part of the annual hot water use. dedicated system for the showers so that the
flue-way and recycles heat normally wasted in The pool operators are already seeing shower temperature control will remain constant.”
the exhaust gas. The water, or thermal store, reduced carbon emissions and energy bills less Given the size of operations at Meadowlands,
acts as an effective condenser and recovers the than six months after the installation of the gas engineers installed three independent systems,
latent heat of condensation from the flue gases saver technology. The payback period is each comprising a boiler, the gas saver device,
for re-use. It has no moving parts, is silent, and expected to be less than three years. a cylinder and all interconnecting pipework.
does not require any electricity or gas to The reduction in carbon emissions is estimated Each system is a fully self contained hot water
operate. The incoming cold mains water to be in excess of 37,000 kg of CO2 per annum. server which comes in different sizes to meet a
passes through one heat exchanger in this store Terry Beckett, Leisure Officer at West Devon diverse range of applications and is housed in a
and another in the flue. Heat is thereby Borough council, said: “The conventional rigid, space efficient enclosure. The three
transferred from the store to boilers were 20 years old and were becoming individual units are plugged together as a
pre-heat the hot water. This water is heated to a extremely unreliable. They kept breaking down modular solution that allows the gas and water
temperature as high as 80
0
C after which it is and needed replacing urgently. The pool water saving technology to be installed into both
mixed with the cold mains water to reduce the was subject to fluctuation, although that wasn’t larger and smaller applications.
temperature to 30
0
C before entry to the boiler. just down to boilers, but now it remains Such technology gives an overall system
Tests by certified independent bodies showed constant. We went to see the set up at a efficiency of some 98%.
223
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