Neil Parry, Head of Specification at Altecnic LTD, discusses a recent project that they worked on with Amber Heating. With a challenging task, Parry describes how him, and his team utilised their expertise on heat pump installations to overcome any issues that they faced.

Brewham Lodge in North Brewham, Somerset is a small estate consisting of one main house, which dates back to the 17th century, and three 150-year-old cottages, together with several barns.

Amber Heating of East Knoyle, Wiltshire were brought on board to modernise the heating system for the estate.

The Brewham Lodge cottages were modernised 15 years ago but running on oil-fired heating, a costly heating solution with a negative environmental impact. Amber Heating approached Altecnic to advise, design and develop an effective heat network running off a ground source heat pump, that would meet the requirements of residents and provide a high quality, reliable and energy efficient solution appropriate for 21st century living.

Amber Heating had been recommended Altecnic by another contractor as a well-established supplier that could provide them with a relevant solution and give assistance with the sizing and design of the project.

Simplicity, as well as cost and energy efficiency, were at the heart of this project, with the aim of creating a modern-day instant, streamlined solution to their heating through a district heating network.

The Altecnic Specification Team consulted with Amber Heating regularly throughout the project to understand the limitations on the design and implementation to ensure the heat network configuration overcame any concerns or challenges.

The original concept was to integrate domestic hot water (DHW) storage within the network. In the majority of cases, DHW storage has negative effects on the efficiency of a heat network. Altecnic’s team recommended the removing of the DHW storage and showed that the DHW requirements could be met by the SATK20307 HIU, that has been specifically designed for heat pump led networks with low primary flow temperatures.

The team calculated the typical flow and return temperatures that could be achieved and showed the benefits of instantaneous DHW generation over a more traditional stored DHW solution. As a ground source heat pump installer, this was the first time Amber Heating had used HIUs and therefore benefited from the Altecnic team’s continued advice and expertise throughout the project.

It also provided its Heat Network Bypass control modules to minimise bypass flow and increase network efficiency at times of low demand.

The advice and solution that the Specification Team provided resulted in many benefits to its client, Amber Heating, as well as the end users.

The HIUs installed provide instantaneous domestic hot water and controlled the space heating, whilst taking up minimal space within the cottages.

Now that the network is operational, the fuel saving versus the old oil heating is considerable as well as the subsequent reduction in the buildings operational carbon footprint. Previously it was costing around £1200 a year in fuel per cottage. Now the year-on-year savings are so influential that tenants aren’t being asked to pay anything by the landlord!

Considering the overall product lifespan and a highly beneficial 6.7 year Renewable Heat Incentive payback period, the projected return on investment is a staggering £306,118.

Bob Roddy, Managing Director of Amber Heating said: “As ground source heat pump specialists, we were new to the world of HIUs but wanted to provide a more efficient approach than stored hot water.

“We hadn’t worked with Altecnic before, but the team offered excellent specialist advice from the start and were able to provide the high quality and efficient systems we needed to deliver the best solution.

“Using the latest heating technology in such old buildings shows that it’s not just a solution for new builds.”

Since the successful completion of this project, Altecnic and Amber Heating have continued to work together.