Heating and Ventilating

Wood biomass could save thousands on heating bills, but a replacement may mean downtime. Euroheat has a solution - wood heating supplied ready-to-fit in a prefabricated box
Historically heated by oil, Lord Wandsworth College had a considerable fuel bill that it was keen to keep down. By switching to carbon neutral wood biomass, the school has saved over £19,000 a year on heating costs, with the added bonus of an RHI yearly payment of £23,033. While the figures are impressive, what's significant about this project is the ease and speed at which the biomass system was installed, thanks to Euroheat's Energy Cabin, a pre-fabricated heating plant room, which simply has to be plumbed and plugged in on-site.

Installed by Kindling Investments, the Energy Cabin houses a 190kW HDG pellet boiler, hopper (to store the fuel) and accumulator, which heat two boarding houses, home to 120 pupils in total.

Simon Holden, co-founder of Euroheat explains why the Energy Cabin is so well suited to school projects: 'Schools just can't be out of action for long periods, so by building the kit at Euroheat which is then delivered on-site ready to go, installation and commissioning time are dramatically reduced - one week instead of several. The other benefit, which is particularly relevant to schools that utilise listed buildings, is that the Energy Cabin is a non-permanent structure which means it usually negates planning permission. We're also supplying the storage for the heating system, cutting the requirement for suitable buildings to be found or built.

'All this adds to a reduction in costs - up to 30% compared with a traditional biomass system,' concluded Simon.

With all manner of system configurations available, pre-fabricated biomass is providing a solution to the specific issues faced by schools and the public sector in general, making something that has traditionally been a fairly drawn out process into a fast and relatively hassle-free option that can be turned around in a matter of days.