Lord Combustion Services pass school heating test in style with hybrid retrofitting project

When a West Midlands secondary school was looking for a partner to modernise their heating and hot water system, Lord Combustion Services passed the test to deliver the results. The co-educational secondary school and sixth form, which has capacity for more than 1000 pupils, needed specialist engineering expertise to retro-fit a new system around their timetable and to a high standard of work. The school has more than 30 classrooms, as well as science laboratories, computer rooms, workshops for design and technology and creative art suites. The school also has its own theatre, sports gym, sixth form centre and swimming pool. Lord Combustion Services were enlisted to introduce a modern, energy efficient heating system, utilising air source heat pumps to bring the site up to date and replace a set-up which had been in place for more than 30 years. The work needed to be conducted during the winter months while the school was operating as normal. The experienced team at Lord delivered a successful installation which gives greater efficiency and zonal control while ensuring there was temporary heating and a hot water plant to serve all requirements within the school, including the swimming pool.

From an initial review of their requirements and the existing installation, Lord provided a comprehensive design and project management strategy for the school, part of an academy trust, which incorporated the following design features and benefits:

• A decarbonisation strategy to reduce energy usage.
• The decommission and removal of all legacy mechanical and electrical equipment within the plant rooms.
• Replacement of an outdated plant and heating and hot water systems with improved energy efficiency and reliability.
• Installation of hybrid systems using high efficiency, modulating, condensing gas fired boilers, coupled with a cascade of air source heat pumps.
• The installation included air source heat pumps (ASHP), condensing gas fired boilers, buffer storage vessels, DHW generators, swimming pool heat exchanger, pressurisation equipment, variable speed circulation pumps and hydraulic pipework.
• Installation of interconnecting pipework to provide a hybrid heating / hot water / swimming pool heating solution.
• Location of leaks to existing distribution pipework within the school and installation of new circuits complete with associated building works.
• Replacement / upgrade of heat emitters within the building.
• Electrical and controls installation works including: electrical wiring complete with local isolation and containment, BMS control systems with energy efficient control strategies, weather compensation and remote web access, gas safety circuit and detection system, plus full commissioning and software development.
• Water treatment, thermal insulation to pipework with aluminium metal clad finish.
• Changeover from temporary plant onto new installations with negligible down time.
• Full commissioning, demonstration, handover and operation / maintenance manuals.

All the works to teaching areas, offices and corridors within the school buildings were undertaken by Lord Combustion Services during the 2021/22 academic year including the winter months, with heating and hot water for the swimming pool maintained throughout. The school team were impressed by the results as the old system had become unreliable and did not give the control and energy efficiency needed for modern school usage. They were conscious of the need to introduce a system which was sustainable and reduced the environmental impact. With the new heating system installed, they can control specific zones in the building to reduce energy saving costs which has been beneficial at the time of increase utility costs while working to achieve net zero. Working with the team at Lord Combustion Services, they benefitted from a high-quality service from the initial visits through to the delivery stages. The new plant rooms are set up for the school to benefit from an improved system for years to come. The customer was pleased with the Lord team’s attention to detail. Being able to carry out the key work during term time with measures in place to reduce the impact was helpful as they could keep operating as usual throughout. Lord Combustion Services Managing Director Stuart Smith said:

“Working to the school’s requirements, we were pleased to deliver a project which was the typical of the high standard of retro-fitting project which Lord regularly delivers.

“The quality of the work produced demonstrates the evolution of renewable and hybrid solutions. We were pleased to introduce a system which modernises the heating and hot water system while benefitting the site from greater control of energy levels.

“We are reducing fossil fuel usage, particularly during the school’s summer months when consumption will be down 100 per cent on peak levels. We have been recognised with awards for our success on sustainability so it is pleasing to deliver another example of how we can make a practical difference to our customers’ future energy consumption without compromising on quality.”

Technical specification Main Plant Room 1 Three boilers, output 200kW each: Total 600kW Four air to water ASHP Units 45kW each: Total 180kW Total plant room output: 780kW Plant Room 2 – Pool Three boilers, output 120kW each: Total 360kW Two air to water ASHP Units 45kW each: Total 90kW Total plant room output: 450kW To find out how Lord Combustion Services can deliver your heating and hot water project, get in touch: https://www.lordcombustion.co.uk/contact/

School main plant room stripped by Lord Combustion Services