Community school benefits from duo of Hamworthy green technologies

NPS Property Consultants Building Services engineer Stephen
Stanforth commented: “The school’s heating was running on an oil-fired
boiler and the hot water on a direct gas-fired water heater. There was
not a sufficient gas supply nearby to fulfil both the heating and hot
water requirements and the school was keen to move to a greener fuel
source than oil. We needed to review all the available options to see
what would be the best solution for the school, both financially and
environmentally.”

NPS Property Consultants worked with Hamworthy
Heating and their agent, Mike Crouch, to design a tailored renewable
solution for the community school with over 320 pupils. The chosen
scheme combined solar thermal and a biomass boiler to offer an
ecologically efficient heating and hot water system. The school was able
to part fund the project through the Carbon Emission Reduction Fund
from Norfolk County Council.

Eyre Building Services installed the
equipment which included a Hamworthy Herz Firematic 199kW biomass boiler
operating on wood pellets to provide the heating for the school. The
space previously used for the oil storage was utilised for the flexible
hopper wood pellet store with blown delivery to the biomass boiler. A
Kamstrup heat meter was fitted to measure the heat generated and used in
order to submit a Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) claim.

A
Hamworthy Trigon solar thermal system was installed alongside to satisfy
the hot water needs of the school. Six flat plate solar collectors
fitted to the roof on A-frames feed two Powerstock PS500 calorifiers. An
RHI-compliant solar heat meter was positioned to correctly measure the
water flow through the system to calculate the eligible heat that is
generated and used.

A Hamworthy Stratton 100kW wall hung boiler
completed the installation to provide peak load duty assist or standby
for the biomass boiler.

Mr Stanforth added: “I have a great
working relationship with Mike and have used Hamworthy products in many
projects before so I know they are reliable. The installation was
successful and as well as benefitting from lower fuel bills, Norfolk
County Council are currently working on the application to receive the
Renewable Heat Incentive payment.”

With current RHI tariffs the
school hope to profit from payments of 8.4p per kWth of heat generated
from the biomass boiler and 10p per kWth of eligible heat generated from
the solar collectors.

Mr Stanforth concluded: “The caretaker of
the school, Darren, has been ‘hands on’ throughout the project to
understand how the specialist equipment works. This enabled a smooth
handover to the school and Darren is able to clean and monitor the
equipment to ensure it is operating as effectively as possible all of
the time.”