Converting to biomass boilers
Sidcot School is on track to make huge energy savings by converting inefficient oil boilers, supplying space heating and hot water, to Hargassner biomass boilers.
We acted as energy consultants to the school starting with a broad energy audit to look at energy savings opportunities across the site. The oil boilers were at the end of their life and considered to be a risk to the heating reliability of the school which dictated the priority this project had over other renewables.
The oil consumption at the school on the main building was around 748,500 kWh per year or 72,600 litres of oil.
Previous CO2 emissions were around 185 tonnes of CO2/year.
Expected savings should be around 167 tonnes/CO2/year.
Tender process
We managed the tender process and guided the school through the selection process. The tenders varied hugely in price and also in boiler sizing indicating the difficulty of approaching these types of projects without good technical support.
Wood Energy were the successful contractor working with their specialist installer Aston Cord Services. Simon Hayes, Aston Cord director noted that “the project was challenging because we set the target of integrating the system into the fabric of the school and had to design out noise to the boarding school area”.
The system also included a conversion to gas which the school believed would be too costly and difficult- we extended the gas main and installed gas back-up boilers for peak load conditions thus reducing the CO2 footprint further.
