Prudhoe Fire Station Site Progress: Drilling complete
Drilling is now complete at Prudhoe Fire Station; the boreholes have been grouted with a thermally enhanced geothermal grout from the bottom of the hole to the top.
In total, 696 metres of borehole were drilled.
The next phase of construction is for the boreholes to be manifolded back to the heat pump location. The trenches will be dug to a depth of 1.2 metres and the pipework laid into 200 millimeters of sand before back-filling and reinstating the reinforced concrete.
Watch the first borehole being drilled at Prudhoe Fire Station:
Amble Fire Station Site Progress: Commence drilling
Drilling has begun at Amble Fire Station; this is the second site in the programme for Northumberland County Council.
Amble is a retained Fire Station similar to Prudhoe. The boreholes will be placed into a grassed area out the front, which should speed up the process compared to Prudhoe.
The first two boreholes have gone in to the design depth of 133 metres with no sign of the expected mine workings. Ground conditions are as expected, finding mudstone, siltstone and sandstone with frequent bands of coal.
Next week’s key project stage:
Oakes Energy Services will begin the internal installation at Prudhoe on Tuesday 9th May.
As drilling is currently progressing well, we expect to mobilise to Seahouses Fire Station on Friday 5th May with drilling commencing the following week.
Keep following our blog here to stay up to date with this first project between Kensa Heat Pumps and Northumberland County Council.
Project in brief:
- Three fire stations operated by Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service;
- Heated by electric night storage heaters which have reached the end of their useful life and need replacing;
- A Kensa Twin Compact ground source heat pump system installed inside each station;
- Borehole ground array;
- Sequential installations to be completed in Summer 2018.
Read more about the background to this first project between Northumberland County Council and Kensa Heat Pumps here.