Energy Efficient Heating for Schools
May 2, 2013
In a new article on our website Turn Key Air Conditioning draw attention to a recent project providing heating and hot water to a school in Sheffield. Woolley Wood School is a new-build special needs school comissioned by Sheffield City Council. Amongst the design specifications was the requirement that it met the local authority requirement to reduce carbon emissions by 20% and that at least 10% of its energy requirement comes from renewable sources. There were additional restrictions on access to the site and severely limited space to work with.
Engineering consultants Thornley & Lumb called in Turn Key because of our expertise and experience in developing heating systems in challenging environments.
TKAC opted for Ecodan CAHV air source heat pumps from Mitsubishi for a number of reasons. Air source heat pumps are classified as renewable energy technology for the simple reason that they produce over three times more energy than they consume. Ecodan air source heat pumps operate in ambient temperatures from -20C to 40C producing heat and hot water up to 70C. Each Ecodan monobloc heat pump is capable of providing up to 43kW of energy and work in combination to produce as much energy as is required. In the case of Woolley Wood School this was enough to run an underfloor heating system, provide hot water to the entire school, and heat a hydrotherapy pool.
The challenge of limited space and restricted access was solved through the use of off-site manufacturing. Two skids were assembled, one supporting the Ecodan air source heat pumps and the other containing the operating plant for the heating system. Both were then placed directly onto anti-vibration pads, eliminating the cost of having to reinforce the building structure. This ‘plug and play’ solution simply neded to be connected to electricity and water supplies once in situ.
Ecodan air source heat pumps from Mitsubishi have reduced CO2 emissions by over 30% and made a substantial saving to the heating costs of the whole school.
Ecodan Air Source Heat Pumps for Domestic, Commercial and Public Buildings
