Follow Hanover Housing Association’s first ground source heat pump project with Kensa Heat Pumps as they upgrade the heating in 22 flats this Summer.
You can keep up to date with the project’s key milestones via regular blog updates.
Over the coming weeks we will bring you live updates as they happen, including:
- Tenant liaison
- Drilling of the boreholes
- Trenching and headering
- Internal plumbing works
- Heat pump installation
- System commission
- System handover
The project:
The project needs to be completed by the end of September to receive ECO funding. It is on schedule for commissioning on the 23rd September.
Ashfield Court – in brief:
- 22 flats – 21 are 1 bedroom and 1 is a 2 bedroom flat
- Built in 1977
- Heated by electric night storage heaters which have reached the end of their useful life and need replacing
- Residents aged 55 +
The Kensa ground source heat pump upgrade will feature:
- A Kensa Shoebox ground source heat pump (6kW) in each flat
- New 150 litre unvented hot water cylinders in each flat
- New radiators in each flat
- New heating controls in each flat, which will be much easier for the residents to use
- A ground source heat pump for the site office
- 12 boreholes will be drilled with depths up to 154 metres to form a communal ‘micro district ground source heat pump system’.
This is the first micro district ground source heat pump project that Hanover has been involved with. They hope to use this as a blueprint for future heating upgrades in Hanover’s housing stock as they see the benefits the system can bring to the tenants (lower fuel bills) and to them as the landlord (payback via the Renewable Heat Incentive).
Background:
The existing electric storage heaters at Ashfield Court were at the end of their useful life, having been installed over 20 years ago. Hanover Housing Association had this site earmarked for “fuel switching”, meaning that they were intending to install a new mains gas supply to the site with individual boilers in each dwelling. However, the near-by gas main did not have sufficient capacity to allow the flats to be added to it. Consequently, this meant bringing in a new gas main from over 500 metres away. Additionally, due to the design of the flats it was not easy to find suitable locations for the flues. This ruled out gas as a cost effective solution.
Hanover decided to look at other options for heating the flats and it became clear that the micro-district ground source heat pump solution proposed by Kensa was the best solution. Although the up-front capital cost was more, the potential to receive both ECO funding and RHI (this scheme has closed) income along with lower maintenance costs meant that this system would more than pay for itself in the long-run. It was the cheapest long-term solution.
In addition, the running costs for the residents would be the lowest possible helping to address fuel poverty. All of this was enough to convince the Hanover board to opt for Kensa micro-district ground source heating.
Progress so far:
The live project blog starts from the drilling on site, so here is what you have missed in the run up to the set up for the drilling of the boreholes:
- 18th July: Tenant liaison day. This was a meeting for all tenants held in the grounds of Ashfield Court. It provided an opportunity for tenants to ask questions to Kensa and Hanover and find out more about the project. All tenants had been sent a project overview booklet in the post beforehand.
- 25th July: The first day in site. Drillers arrived to set up and take delivery of all equipment.
- 26th July: Drilling started.
- Follow the rest of the project’s progress in detail via our regular blog posts!
