Miskin Manor, a prestigious Grade II listed hotel and leisure club in Wales is now ‘future fit’, with Dimplex heat pumps as part of a £1.2million refurbishment that has combined facilities upgrades with the latest technology for lower energy costs and environmental impact.
Set in 22 acres of parkland near Cardiff, the leisure club is a standalone building which attracts all types of users, from sports professionals to families with young children and an essential part of the facilities upgrade was the fast response and control of the heating system.
Miskin’s group facilities manager, Amanda Rosenberg, explained: “We wanted to achieve the best of all worlds in terms of environmental measures and control. Lower fuel bills are key but it’s equally important for us to be able to regulate the temperatures easily to accommodate the needs of different user groups from our 2,000-strong member base. And the control is quite literally push-button.”
Dimplex installer partner WDS Environmental designed the system which is due to be extended into the main hotel building later in 2009. Two Dimplex LA 28 AS air source heat pumps have been installed; one to provide heating and high demand hot water for the showers, the other for the swimming pool, with spare capacity for extension into the next phase of the hotel’s refurbishment programme.
The heat pump serving the swimming pool is connected to a hot water and air handling unit, with a 500 litre buffer tank to meet demand as required. And the high levels of efficiency were put to the test as soon as the installation was complete in December 2008 when the weather conditions were very cold – the external air temperatures didn’t rise above four degrees Celsius for over two weeks and dropped to around minus five degrees at night. However, the heat pump successfully raised both the water and air temperatures in less than a week, allowing the pool to be opened in time for the Christmas holidays.
“The cold winter was ideal for us to really see how this system worked and we were not disappointed,” added Amanda Rosenberg. “As soon as the system was fired up it delivered mountains of hot water and it’s been even more efficient than forecasted. We’ve seen a major reduction in all our fuel bills since the Dimplex heat pumps were installed and estimate our energy consumption has come down by as much as 50 percent.”
The family-run business took a strategic, long term business decision to invest in low carbon technology, the first phase of which within the £1.2million refurbishment has a project cost of over £100k.
“Already we’ve halved our energy bills but this is not just a quick fix. We’re making these investments for the long term for environmental reasons as well as being in a strong position for the future as the tax and corporate social responsibility pressures on businesses to lower their carbon footprint will continue to increase,” said Amanda.
Dimplex Tel: 0845 601 5111 Fax: 01489 773061
email: marketing@dimplex.co.uk or www.dimplex.co.uk
