COMBINED HEAT & POWER
CHP packaged plant room identified as best solution for landmark Bristol development
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CHP systems can provide an effective solution to high heating and hot water requirements on refurbishment projects, especially within a packaged plant room, says Mark Gibbons, Baxi’s CHP national sales manager
istry Energy has selected a premium offsite-
fabricated CHP packaged plant solution to heat and power its new landmark development in Bristol.
Working in partnership with Homes England, Bristol City Council and Sovereign Housing Association, Vistry Partnership has transformed the former Blackberry Hill Hospital site in Fishponds, creating 346 high-quality new homes (including 100 affordable homes). As well as new housing, the project has also created retail and start-up business units, a community building and extensive green spaces for the community to enjoy.
Blackberry Hill boasts a long and fascinating history. Dating back to the 18th century, the site has served as a prison prior to its use as a hospital and many of the historic buildings are Grade II listed.
Evaluating the options
As with most refurbishment projects, there were a number of constraints to consider when assessing the feasible options for the heating system upgrade. After factoring in every requirement, a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system was identified as the best solution to meet the high heating and hot water requirements efficiently while generating onsite electricity. David Cowling, Project Manager at Vistry
Energy, explained: “When evaluating the options for this project, we had to rule out both ground source and air source heat pumps due to insufficient external space – they simply weren’t feasible. Instead, an energy-efficient CHP and boiler system was deemed the better option, easy to run and simultaneously providing heat and onsite electricity at lower prices.” A Remeha R-Gen CHP 20/44 unit, two Remeha Gas 610-10 Eco Pro boilers and two buffer vessels were selected to serve the four district heat circuits feeding the original Blackberry Hill buildings, a converted chapel and several new blocks on the site from one centralised location. Both the Remeha CHP unit and high efficiency boilers are capable of operating on the projected 20% hydrogen blend into the natural gas mix, enhancing the sustainability of the installation. Remeha is part of Baxi Commercial Solutions.
How does CHP work?
CHP produces useful heat and electricity at the point of use in a single, highly efficient process, helping support carbon reduction programmes. Rather than rejecting ‘waste’ heat to atmosphere like traditional power stations, CHP captures it and feeds it into the building’s heating network to produce useful thermal energy. This energy can then be used to provide primary space heating and/or pre-heat for domestic hot water within the building. At the same time, the CHP efficiently generates onsite electricity for improved onsite resilience.
Taking it all offsite
Offsite fabrication has been central to the design of the Blackberry Hill development with many of the new homes being built via an innovative modern method of construction – the SIG I-house. This means that the homes can be built to high standards but in a much quicker timeframe than traditional construction methods. A similar approach was adopted when designing the heating and hot water services. Baxi’s dedicated packaged solutions team were brought in to design and manufacture a bespoke packaged plant solution that would meet the unique project requirements at Blackberry Hill within the design parameters. “We faced a number of challenges on this
project,” David continued. “First, the ability to fit the central plant into the extremely tight space within the plant room. There was also the matter of the listed status of the building which ruled out any changes to the exterior fabric and meant that all equipment needed to fit through the existing window louvres. “The advantage of working with Baxi Commercial Solutions was that they were not only able to supply all the equipment but to design and produce a quality packaged solution offsite that would address and overcome these restrictions,” he added.
Tailor-made solution
The Baxi Packaged Solutions team proposed producing tailor-made skids with pump sets and fully insulated prefabricated pipework, using specialist equipment design to achieve the compact footprint that the project required.
Working with Vistry Energy, the team prepared the layouts and schematic 3D drawings to reach a final design that met all the site needs. Once the system had been fully assembled in the factory and end-of-line testing had been completed, the Vistry team were able to inspect the modules before Baxi reassembled them in the Blackberry Hill plant room. Skids are similar to plant rooms, having all the equipment without the walls. At Blackberry Hill, the skids connect onto two prefabricated frames accommodating the pumps and high- level pipework that are positioned against the walls. Two buffer vessels are sited at the opposite end of the plant room.
“Space constraints aside, using an offsite- fabricated packaged plant solution made the installation process faster, easier and, ultimately, safer,” said David. “It also meant that fewer workers were required on site at a time when Covid safety measures were still in place. A further benefit was that it removed the need for onsite hot works, such as welding, which greatly improved onsite safety.” With the system fully operational, Vistry are pleased with the outcome. “It’s a really good job,” said David. “It would have been extremely challenging to have attempted to do this project onsite. The Baxi Packaged Solutions team were great and made the whole project so much easier. We are very happy with the solution which is running extremely well.”
8 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER OCTOBER 2022 Read the latest at:
www.bsee.co.uk
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