Hamworthy brings renewable energy to school in Norfolk
With oil-fired heating and gas-fired hot water plant at Fairstead Community School in King’s Lynn coming to the end of its expected life, Norfolk County Council took the opportunity to look for a more energy-efficient solution that would satisfy the school’s heating demand and reduce its carbon footprint.
Stephen Stanforth, building-services engineer at NPS Property Consultants, explains, ‘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 its agent, Mike Crouch, to design a tailored system for the school, which has over 320 pupils. The scheme combined solar thermal and a biomass boiler, and the school was able to part fund the project through the carbon-emission-reduction fund from Norfolk County Council.
Equipment installed by Eyre Building Services included a Herz Firematic 199 kW biomass boiler using wood pellets to provide heating. The space previously used for oil storage was utilised for the flexible hopper wood-pellet store with blown delivery to the boiler. A Kamstrup heat meter measures heat generated for claiming the Renewable Heat Incentive.
A Trigon solar-thermal system satisfies the hot-water needs of the school. Six flat-plate solar collectors on the roof feed two Powerstock PS500 calorifiers. There is an RHI-compliant heat meter.
A Stratton 100 kW wall-hung boiler provides peak-load duty assist and standby for the biomass boiler.
With current RHI tariffs, the school hopes to benefit from payments of 8.4 p/kWh for heat from the biomass boiler and 10 p/kWh for eligible heat from the solar collectors.
Stephen Stanforth concludes, ‘The school caretaker, 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 the time.’
