Futurebuild 2023
Updated: 24/03/2023
The first resident in the Cornish village of Stithians has today had their ground source heat pump (GSHP) connected to an ambient heat network that will draw energy from under the street. It’s thought to be a world first shared ground array being retrospectively installed in a public highway.
The pioneering project, Heat the Streets, is run by Kensa Utilities and part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and represents a significant investment in the future of sustainable energy.
Each home involved in Heat the Streets will swap either carbon intensive oil or LPG fossil fuels for its own low carbon Kensa ground source heat pump that will provide 100% of the property’s heating and hot water year round. Homeowners will pay a monthly standing charge to access the heat network, much like the existing gas connection fee.
The in-road ground source heat pump network, also known as Networked Heat Pumps, in Collins Parc, Stithians, will consist of 42 boreholes, drilled to an average depth of 106m. It allows homeowners to utilise the heat from the ground to keep their houses warm and reduce carbon emissions. The infrastructure emulates the existing gas grid and has been designed to accommodate future connections, allowing households who were not ready to change their heating system to connect at a later date.
Unlike traditional district heating, there is no need for a central plant, no heat loss around the network, and customers can still change their energy provider at will, promoting energy independence.
Heating accounts for around 30% of the UK’s carbon emissions and The Committee on Climate Change estimates 80% of the buildings that will be here in 2050 have already been built. As ground source heat pumps are electrically powered, non-combustion devices that emit no local emissions or air pollution, they will reduce the carbon output associated with heating each home by around 70%.
Wouter Thijssen, Managing Director of Kensa Utilities comments:
It’s fantastic to have the first heat pump up and running on this landmark project which provides a blueprint for the decarbonisation of heating in the UK. Our model replicates the gas network with a pipe in the ground, a flat rate standing charge to consumers and a little white box in the house.
Just as Burton Upon Trent was the first UK town to convert to natural gas in 1968 – at the time a cheaper, better, cleaner fuel than towns gas – we believe Stithians is the first UK town to convert to the 21st-century equivalent: networked heat pumps. Residents will have access to a network that will provide cheaper and cleaner heat for 100 years to come.
Some locals have already been connected to a parallel scheme in Stithians which involves drilling a borehole into their front drive. They’re delighted with the results from their Kensa ground source heat pumps.
Caroline Bolitho, resident of Stithians who’s heat pump was switched on today comments:
As a grandma I feel that I’m doing my bit for future generations and reducing my carbon footprint by having a ground source heat pump system which is important. I have been using oil heating before this and i feel really privileged and excited to have the system up and running.
Jackie Barson, a resident of Stithians is already connected, she commented:
I am happy with it. It’s smart and efficient. It’ll take a few weeks to fully get to grips with the operation, but I have no regrets. I do know there are other residents who are disappointed they’re not part of the project.
Kensa believes that street-by-street deployment of this infrastructure is the most efficient way for the country to reduce the carbon output associated with heating for the lowest overall system cost.
In order to make projects like Heat The Streets easily replicable across the country, effective zoning and the granting of statutory rights for heat networks are crucial.
Achieving energy sovereignty: security, resilience and affordability
It is Kensa’s mission, as the UK’s leading ground source heat pump manufacturer and networked heat pump installer, to mitigate climate change through an optimal transition to zero carbon heating and cooling.
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Summary:Residents and their families at three council-owned tower blocks in Chadwell St Mary are benefiting from a newly improved community room and brand-new community pantry initiative, thanks to a collaborative partnership between Thurrock Council and Kensa Contracting.
On Tuesday 7 March, local residents from Gooderham House, Poole House and George Tilbury House joined Cllr Qaisar Abbas, Cabinet Member for Culture and Communities, to experience their new community room in George Tilbury House at a special event. Residents enjoyed refreshments, while children were invited to take part in arts and crafts activities.
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Summary:As part of an extensive energy-saving overhaul delivered by Kensa Contracting, Richmond Hill Primary Academy, part of the Roselearning Trust, in Doncaster, is having a low carbon ground source heat pump system installed, allowing the school to focus on teaching without having to worry about heating.
For many years, the large primary school lacked properly functioning central heating, with some children having lessons in temporary classrooms with interim gas heaters. These systems were costing the school lots to run, emitting lots of carbon dioxide, and were ultimately ‘stop-gap’ measures for the real problem of the redundant gas central heating system and poor insulation in the main building.
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Summary:Kensa Contracting and Thurrock Council celebrated an important milestone as the first energy and carbon saving ground source heat pump was switched on. It is one of over 270 residences benefiting from a landmark energy upgrade scheme delivered by Kensa Contracting.
Kensa’s sustainable, low carbon ground source heat pumps are replacing night storage heaters in three social housing high-rise tower blocks at Chadwell St Mary in Thurrock. They are estimated to reduce fuel bills by over 50% for some households, due to them being three times more energy efficient.
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Summary:Kensa Contracting win District Heating Project of the Year at the H&V News Awards 2022 with Daisyfield’s project and were Highly Commended for Heat Pump Project of the Year – Residential.
Residents living in three tower blocks in Blackburn are benefitting after receiving an award-winning renewable refurbishment. The people living in Daisyfield Towers in the Lancashire town have had their old, outdated and inefficient gas boilers replaced by ground source heat pumps.
The switch is expected to save 6,556 tonnes of carbon monoxide emissions over the next 20 years – the equivalent of taking 1,413 cars off the round for a whole year, or 283,781 bags of waste being recycled instead of landfilled.
Summary:
133 new energy-efficient homes comprising of 2, 3 and 4-bedroom houses and 1 and 2-bed apartments have been built for Bristol City Council by Willmott Dixon. The housing development, Ashton Rise, in Ashton Vale, South Bristol is part of Bristol City Council’s commitment to build 2,000 new homes in the city including 800 affordable homes.
Kensa Heat Pumps has won £92K of Government funding to develop an online dashboard using AI to monitor single or multiple ground source heat pumps, allowing for remote commissioning and predictive maintenance to reduce installation and ownership costs and keep systems running efficiently.
The 19-month project, worth £263K is part-funded by Department for Energy Security & Net Zero through their Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP). Kensa, the UK’s leading ground source heat pump specialist, is one of thirty-seven British companies to get a share of a £19 million Energy Entrepreneurs Fund: phase 9.
Kensa’s new project – PREDICT (Predictive Remote Engineering Diagnostics Integrated Communication Tool) – will develop a user-friendly dashboard that processes and interprets heat pump operating data, allowing end users, installers and landlords to remotely manage the health of their heat pumps.
Using AI, the dashboard will provide alerts of potential faults before they occur and suggest how to combat them through a predictive and proactive maintenance package. This pioneering feature will give PREDICT the capability to improve customer experiences and prolong heat pump unit lifespans.
Dan Roberts, Technical Director at Kensa Heat Pumps, said:
We’re delighted to have been awarded funding under EEF to develop the PREDICT dashboard which will benefit our customers and make the transition from gas boilers towards heat pumps more financially favourable.
Linking ground source heat pump operating data with the new dashboard and predictive maintenance package will reduce the costs associated with unexpected maintenance and heat pump ownership, increasing consumer confidence in the technology.
Kensa’s is continually innovating to boost heat pump sales and promote the widespread adoption of the technology. This is necessary if the UK is to increase current levels of heat pump sales to 600,000 a year by 2028 (UKGov Ten Point Plan), helping the country to hit its net zero targets.
The product will benefit many customer stakeholders:
- Homeowners will be able to monitor the health of their heat pump, review electricity usage vs heating, look at past maintenance dates and plan services to suit their budgets.
- Installers and landlords can monitor all their heat pumps from one dashboard, making it faster to identify issues with individual units and run basic diagnostics.
- Installers will be able to carry out remote commissioning, meaning cheaper installations and less disruption for homeowners and residents.
- Homeowners and landlords will be notified of potential faults before they happen, meaning costs saved in emergency callouts at inconvenient times.
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is a financial grant backed by the government to support the costs of installing low carbon heating systems, such as heat pumps and qualifying biomass systems for off -gas grid properties. The scheme supports air source heat pumps (ASHP), ground source heat pumps (GSHP) and biomass in qualifying areas.
Factsheet
Version 4.0 | Updated: 06/08/2024
In this article, the Technical Support Team at Kensa Heat Pumps gives their top tips for proactive maintenance on ground source heat pump systems to ensure your customers stay warm and cosy throughout winter.
Before we go into details about heat pump maintenance, if your customers are worried about the price of energy bills, please do share with them this article with Kensa’s heat pump energy saving tips. With the cost of living on the rise and cold weather hitting, people will be thinking about how to keep their energy bills as low as possible. We offer advice on how consumers can lower their energy usage, making their homes more efficient to help to reduce the cost of their energy bills.
One of the unique benefits of ground source heat pumps is their minimal maintenance requirements and long life expectancy. However, as with all heating systems, it is good practice for the heating distribution system, including energy collectors, to be proactively checked and maintained to ensure optimum performance when colder weather is on the horizon.
Temperatures below ground remain relatively constant all year round, so a sudden drop in air temperature during winter will not affect the performance of a ground source heat pump, nor does the impact of exposure to the elements affect the operation, as it would an air source heat pump.
Heating Distribution System
Tom Worth, Kensa Technical Support Manager, says:
Well designed ground source heat pumps require only a minimal amount of maintenance, however, it is important that the whole system is checked.
Tom recommends the following basic checks are made on the heating distribution system:
- Check the inhibitor levels and ensure no corrosion or degradation has occurred.
- Encourage your customer to regularly clean the convector fins of their radiators with a long-handled radiator brush or the nozzle attachment of a hoover.
- Make sure that all pump valves and actuators on the system are functioning correctly.
- Ensure all room stats and programmers are operating correctly and are programmed correctly.
- If any components require a battery to function, check that the battery has charge.
- If the system has filters or a MagnaClean, check that this is cleaned and/or serviced.
- Check the pressure of the ground and heating system; Kensa recommends that it is above 2 bar.
- Perform a gas charge pressure check on the expansion vessel.
- Check antifreeze concentration and health.
Renewable Energy Collectors
Tom Worth, Kensa Technical Support Manager, says:
This is where the maintenance of a ground source heat pump system becomes slightly different to that of a standard fossil fuel system, as it is important to ensure that no issues can occur in the collectors that harness the renewable energy from a ground or water source.
Any issues with the energy collection system could mean the heat pump has to work harder and hence becomes less efficient. In the worst case, the source energy could become depleted causing the heat pump to stop operating altogether.
Tom recommends the following quick and easy checks on ground source heat pump energy collectors:
Slinky pipe and sealed boreholes
- Samples of thermal transfer fluid should be taken and the concentration of the antifreeze solution measured using a refractometer.
- After a number of years, the concentration of antifreeze solution within the ground arrays can drop due to possible top-ups of fresh water to maintain the ground array pressure. Antifreeze solution provided by Kensa contains an anti-bacterial agent and an inhibitor to avoid bacterial growth and corrosion. Maintaining the correct concentration of this antifreeze solution is important as it will stop the system from freezing and also prolong the lifespan of the circulation pump. The bacterial agent will ensure no bacterial growth occurs, thus further increasing the lifespan of the antifreeze.
- The manifold should be thoroughly inspected, checking that any insulation is still in good condition and the components are still fit for purpose. Ground array manifolds on the ground collector can suffer from condensation due to the low temperatures of the thermal transfer fluid, which if not properly controlled can cause damage.
- After a period of time any disturbed ground will settle, so manifolds should be checked for strain on pipework connections caused by ground settlement. It can take up to 12 months for any disturbed ground to fully settle and if any pipework is under strain this must be remedied.
- The pressure of the thermal transfer fluid within the ground array should be checked and increased if required. Kensa recommends that it is above 2 bar.
Pond Mats
- It is advised that pond mats are inspected, cleaned and maintained regularly. After a period of time sediment, mud and leaves could build up around and under the pond mat collectors causing a potential loss of performance and reduced ability to harvest heat from the water.
Open Loop
- Check the manufacturer’s guidelines on maintenance for external heat exchangers. Manufacturers of plate heat exchangers can recommend that the plate gaskets are replaced every two years.
- Any external filters or treatment systems fitted to an open loop system should also be checked
and maintained in line with the manufacturer’s guidelines.
- Open loop heat exchangers can suffer from condensation damage due to running with liquid at lower than ambient temperatures, which if not properly controlled can cause damage. Any heat exchanger should be inspected checking that any lagging is still in good condition and any components are still fit for purpose. If corrosion has started, these areas can be treated to preserve their longevity.
- The open loop pump and pump control may also need to be maintained and it is advisable to check with the manufacturer or suppliers for their recommendations.
- Particularly for any surface water sources, check inlets and outlets are free from vegetation and also from any flotsam and jetsam.
Contact Kensa’s Technical Support Team
Kensa Heat Pumps has a dedicated Technical Support team that can help, advise and direct any enquiries about Kensa Heat Pump systems. They can be contacted on 0845 680 4328.