REHAU’s RAUTHERMEX
Plus pipework has been chosen for a district heating installation in Glasgow,
which aims to provide more than 350 homes with affordable, low carbon heating.
The Hillpark Drive
estate in south Glasgow was built in the 1970s and the estate, consisting of
eight individual apartment blocks containing 351 flats, is operated by Glasgow
Housing Association (part of the Wheatley Group).
In 2016, Glasgow
Housing Association announced it had secured a £2.5m grant from the Scottish
Government’s Local Energy Challenge Fund and funding from Glasgow City Council
to put towards a £5m project to upgrade the heating systems installed in the
Hillpark Drive accommodation. The project’s objectives were to help provide
affordable heating for its social housing tenants, reduce carbon emissions and
make the estate more sustainable.
The Hillpark Drive
apartments had electric storage heaters fitted, which were inefficient and
expensive to run. Project consultants WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff suggested these
were replaced with a low carbon district heating system, powered by an
innovative industrial air source heat pump by Star Refrigeration, never before
seen on a project of this scale in the UK.
The heat pump would
be supported by energy generated by solar panels (to be installed on one of the
apartment blocks) and gas would be used as a back-up energy source if and when
required.
Although the estate
is very large, the linear layout of the 8 apartment blocks leant itself well to
a traditional district heating installation with a single energy centre to
generate heat for users. Heat would then be transferred from the energy centre down
a central flow and return spine pipe, with individual branches coming off to
provide heat to each block.
When considering the
choice of materials for the pipework, the consultants looked at both polymer
and steel alternatives, and carefully considered how each would perform and how
easy they would be to install.
Due to the long pipe
runs required, heat loss was a major concern for the consultants as this would
impact the efficiency of the system. To minimise heat loss during transport,
REHAU’s RAUTHERMEX Plus, for example, boasts a high performance polyurethane foam
insulation which has excellent thermal insulation properties to guarantee ultra
low heat losses.
In terms of ease of
installation, polymer district heating pipework also competes well against
steel alternatives. Steel pipework needs to be joined every 12m, whereas
polymer pipework is available in lengths of up to 570m. It is also very
flexible and pipe runs are easily joined together with compression joints,
which offer a leak-free seal without the need for o-rings or tightening up once
the system is pressurised.
After speaking to
REHAU about its district heating offer, WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff decided to
specify more than 1km of RAUTHERMEX Plus to be used on the Hillpark Drive
project. The pipework chosen to be installed was a mixture of UNO and DUO
RAUTHERMEX Plus pipes with sizes ranging from 110 mm UNO (one pipe) to 250mm
DUO (two pipe) RAUTHERMEX Plus.
This innovative
district heating system served prodominently by the air source heat pump will
help provide heating and hot water to the residents of Hillpark Drive and
Pentland Road at affordable rates which will help tackle fuel poverty in this
area.
With a service life
of up to 50 years, the RAUTHERMEX Plus piping is capable of providing heat to
the Hillpark Drive estate residents for at least two generations.
Steve Richmond, Head
of Marketing and Technical in Building Solutions at REHAU, said: “The Hillpark
Drive installation is a fine example of how to make social housing more energy
efficient and sustainable for the benefit of both the tenants and the environment.
The project is the first in a number of ways, and we are very proud to have
been chosen to be part of it.”
The Hillpark Drive
district heating scheme is due for completion in late 2017.
