In spite of significant technical challenges, Calor’s Customer Engineering Team has plunged in to lay a gas supply line to a National Trust-owned property on Derwent Island situated off the picturesque shores of Derwent Water in the Lake District.
Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from Calor was specified to fuel the privately let residential dwelling on the island, which had previously used oil that was pumped through copper pipework under the lake from the mainland.
The combination of converting from oil to LPG, and the installation of a high- efficiency boiler sees fuel consumption for the heating and hot water system reduce by around 27%, while CO2 emissions reduce by around 36%.
The National Trust was understandably concerned about the potential pollution hazards associated with running a copper pipeline under the lake as Tom Slater, Project Manager for the National Trust explains:
“We needed an alternative energy source that could overcome the logistical challenges we faced in providing heating to the mansion on the island. Heat pumps, biomass, mains gas, electricity and mainland to island heat mains were all considered, but LPG was ultimately selected as being the most robust and reliable option.
“A specialist dive team was used to sink the new, high-strength polypropylene pipe under the lake, which now supplies clean-burning LPG to heat the property and fulfill all domestic hot water needs.
“LPG will reliably provide sufficient energy to meet the heating needs of the house, and there is now far less risk to the lake and its ecology. The higher pressure pipeline also has a smaller diameter, which was one of the attractions over mains gas, while a variety of safety systems shut off the supply should an escape occur.”
The dwelling’s heating system has been updated with a Blades low carbon boiler - replacing the old oil boiler, which was running at less than 70% efficiency.
A Blades installation is designed to extract every ounce of heat from the burnt gas and to take full advantage of existing radiator systems. The new system is no exception, delivering heat and hot water at c.97% efficiency, representing a saving of c.27%.
Two, 2,000 litre underground tanks are used to supply LPG to the Blades system from the mainland. The total pipeline distance is 500m, 160m of which is below the lake. The tanks remain the property of Calor, negating the need for the customer to purchase replacement tanks.
To make the ordering of gas simple for the customer, the tanks are fitted with Calor’s Think Tank® telemetry system, which regularly monitors gas levels via a contents gauge, and alerts the Calor team when the tank requires a top up so a timely delivery can be scheduled.
Tom Slater concludes: “We needed a reliable fuel source that would overcome the logistical issues we had, and Calor LPG proved to be the best solution for the job.”