A major energy refurbishment project at a University of West London College has achieved dramatic energy efficiency improvements, replacing the complex’s gas-fired boilers with a district heating scheme fed by air source heat pumps, where ESBE valves are crucial to the management of the heating and hot water supply.
The year-long upgrade at Ruskin College was led by Norfolk-based Finn Geotherm whose engineers fitted a cascade of four Carrier 85.9kW capacity ASHPs in a central plant room, laying underground thermal mains around the site and also fitting new radiators along with large capacity DHW storage tanks in each of the teaching and accommodation buildings. Finn Geotherm also oversaw significant improvements to the properties’ heat loss profiles with new roof insulation being installed while blown Thermabeads replaced existing cavity wall insulation.
Crucial to the success of the changeover was the ability of Finn Geotherm’s designs to manage the variation in supply temperature required for the individual heating and hot water circuits within the four buildings.
Technical Director David Alston said: “I have a long-standing relationship with ESBE and we’ve fitted thousands of their valves over the years. We do so because of their build quality and reliability while we were particularly keen on using the ‘rotary shoe principle’. This district heating system has a design SCoP of 3.83 and has run reliably over the whole of the winter.”
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