Low-GWP 50kW heat pump, bespoke thermal stores, plate heat exchangers and ten cascaded I2HY20 hydrogen-ready continuous flow water heaters have been installed at a new, luxury development in the heart of the fashionable Farringdon district near the City of London.
The following case study is well aligned to the hot water demands of the care sector – and indeed, provides a useful read to care home operators and housing associations needing guidance on sustainability, cost-savings and improved efficiencies…
Rinnai’s hybrid water heating H2 array of Low-GWP 50kW heat pump plus bespoke thermal water stores, with optimised coil transfer to maximise heat pump performance, have been combined with 10x cascaded hydrogen blends ready (I2HY20 certified) continuous flow water heaters. The systems were delivered in one complete consignment, ready for installation at the new multi-million-pound development. The expansive complex comprises a new luxury hotel, prestigious and contemporary office space, plus affordable housing units.
The multi-purpose use of the site meant that only a fit-for-purpose design would satisfy the practicalities and nuances of space, demand, and energy usage in ensuring hot water requirements are met and exceeded 24/7.
The site was originally a Victorian-era schoolhouse for poor children. It was a ‘Ragged School’ – the term ‘ragged school’ was used by the London City Mission as early as 1840 to describe the establishment of schools, ‘formed exclusively for children raggedly clothed’. From around 1845 until 1881, the London ‘Ragged’ schools gave rudimentary education to about 300,000 children who were the poorest of the poor – orphans, waifs, and strays.
The expansive retrofit site pays respect to this heritage with many of the original features retained in the 150+ bedroom luxury hotel, almost 20,000 sq ft of opulent capital city office space and nine new-build affordable residential units. The hotel group already has one other unit in London with two others planned.
"The site is very complex and still has many original features from the Victorian era – meaning that a full and comprehensive site survey with capital expenditure, operational expenditure and carbon modelling was conducted. We paid special attention to the practical requirements of the site which included 150 luxury bedrooms that needed constant hot water on demand, but we also needed to meet the site’s decarbonisation credentials. The overall system design meant that a truly hybrid system employing a heat pump, plate heat exchangers, bespoke thermal stores plus Hydrogen-ready hot water heating units was supplied in one complete consignment."
Darren Woodward, Rinnai
Comments Darren Woodward for Rinnai, “We believe that a solution like this is the way forward on the bigger retrofit sites in London and all other UK cities. Once we had the data for capital expenditure, operational expenditure, and carbon modelling we were able to demonstrate to the clients a value proposition of a delivered-to-site-in-one-package. This site has proven that hybrids can create a practical, economic, and technical feasible solution whereby all technologies and appliances work efficiently in terms of operational costs and lowering the carbon footprint without impacting overall system performance."
