Oak Trees is a new housing development in Slough Lane, situated in the market town of Attleborough, within the rural Norfolk landscape.
The site consists of 22 houses, chalets and bungalows built in a traditional style. The developer, Bennett Homes, wanted to offer superior specification houses with high energy efficiency performance.
In order to obtain planning approval, Breckland Council required 10% of the energy demand of the development to come from an on-site renewable source. In keeping with its philosophy of sourcing high quality materials for its properties, Bennett Homes chose air-to-water heat pumps from Daikin UK, coupled with high levels of thermal insulation. This also provided a solution to the problem of the properties being some distance from the mains gas network.
Air-to-water heat pump technology has been chosen for the 22 properties at Oak Trees to provide an alternative heating solution to fossil fuel boilers. Sixteen of these properties under construction are for private sale of which Daikin Altherma Low Temperature split air-to-water heat pumps are being installed, to provide heating and hot water. The other six properties classed as affordable housing are to be built at a later date.
Heat loss calculations were carried out for every house type to ensure the correct heat pump was selected. In the smaller properties with 90 square metres of floor area, a 6kW heat pump was installed. Properties between 95 and 110 square metres required an 8kW capacity heat pump. The larger properties up to 200 square metres floor area were fitted with 11kW heat pumps.
All properties had underfloor heating installed to their ground floors, producing an even level of comfort. Radiators which were designed to operate at the same low flow temperature as the underfloor heating were fitted to the upper floors to optimise the performance of the heat pumps.
The flow temperature of the warm water running through the system is set at 45 degrees centigrade for all the homes at Oak Trees. This is much lower than a domestic boiler running on fossil fuel to ensure high system efficiencies and lower fuel bills are achieved.
The heating and plumbing services including the air-to-water heat pumps were fitted by EOC Services, of Downham Market, Norfolk. Robert Hill, Technical Services Director at EOC commented: “A Daikin Altherma system was chosen for reliability and performance: furthermore the split system has no requirement for water pipes outside the building.”
Colin Sells from Bennett Homes explained that “the Daikin Altherma air source heat pump was chosen as the product’s reputation stood out for reliability with good after sales care by the manufacturer. Air-to-water heat pumps will also be installed within the affordable housing to ensure lower energy bills for householders.”
For the developers, the air-to-water heat pumps met ever-tightening Building Regulations. The local authority’s 10% renewable energy target was also met and the properties achieved a high level of energy efficiency performance.
For private owners the Daikin Altherma systems help reduce ongoing running costs. The system also enables affordable housing providers to meet legislative requirements; reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, while also helping to reduce tenants’ fuel bills in both new and refurbished homes.
With heat pumps from 4kW to 16kW, the Daikin Altherma range is capable of satisfying heating and hot water requirements for new build homes and low energy houses, as well as replacing existing heating systems in older properties. The stylish, compact wall-hung indoor hydrobox unit can be combined with a separate unvented hot water cylinder (from 150 to 300 litres). Both can be sited flexibly to suit the building layout and end user requirements. Heat pumps can be integrated with underfloor heating, heat pump convectors or appropriately sized radiators designed to operate at low flow temperatures.
Designed for even the most severe European winters, the outdoor units now have a host of frost protection features to avoid freezing and ice build-up. This means that Daikin Altherma LT Split heat pumps continue to provide a highly reliable, efficient heat source, whatever the weather. In fact, they are guaranteed to operate even when the outside temperature is down to -25°C.
Along with improved levels of comfort and lower fuel bills, the new homeowners will benefit from the new easy-to-use intelligent control unit, with a back-lit and plain text interface. As a result, day-to-day control is straightforward, while accurate feedback is provided on operational conditions and energy consumption.
The installation of Daikin Altherma Low Temperature air-to-water heat pumps at Oak Trees, Slough Lane has provided an efficient heating system whilst being a cost effective renewable energy solution.
The heat pumps provided a solution to the provision of energy where the mains gas was some distance away. Bennett Homes was able to meet the local authority’s 10% renewable energy target as well as providing an energy efficient heating solution for their customers.
