A rural new build
development straddling England and Wales is the fourth project by Shropshire
Rural Housing Association (SRHA) to feature ground source heat pumps,
delivering on its commitment to provide affordable warmth to its 300-strong
housing stock.
The high
specification development of new family homes in Llanymynech is built in the
carpark of the former Lion Hotel, which famously was divided through the
building by the national border, resulting in a front bar in Wales and back bar
in England.
Consisting of two,
three and four bedroom detached and semi-detached family homes, let at rates to
meet local needs, each house at Llanymynech has its own British manufactured
Kensa Shoebox ground source heat pump installed in under stairs cupboards.
Each heat pump is
connected to a single district ground array in the centre of the development
which consists of four boreholes drilled to depths of 122 meters.
The district nature
of the ground array means the scheme qualifies for 20 years of income via the
Non-Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive, forecast to return £63k against the
investment of £56k, whilst saving residents 15-20% compared to oil or LPG
alternatives.
However, the nature
of the small development brought disproportionate challenges, as Ian
Richardson, Shropshire Rural Housing Association Chief Executive comments:
“Llanymynech presented a number of challenges: the brownfield site was tightly
confined and in a conservation area, bordered by other residential properties
and a church, and immediately abutting another building project.
"To compound
the difficulties of this site, a right of access for vehicles and pedestrians
needed to be maintained at all times. Working closely with our main contractor,
Pickstock Homes, Kensa Heat Pumps and their drilling sub-contractor completed the
work in exemplary fashion.”
Nick Scott, Managing
Director of Pickstock Homes, comments: “We found working with Kensa to be an
excellent, positive experience, from the initial design stages through
installation, commissioning and completion. Although the site was quite
constrained, with limited space available on site, Kensa’s installation team
arrived on schedule and completed the installation, working with our site
manager to minimise any disruption and delay to our construction programme.”
Rural Shropshire is
largely off the gas grid, demanding a more considered heating approach to
reduce carbon emissions and resident energy bills. In just three years
Shropshire Rural Housing Association and Kensa Heat Pumps have completed three
new build schemes and one retrofit scheme all featuring Kensa ground source
heat pumps, equating to over 50% of all of Shropshire Rural Housing
Association’s stock.
David Broom,
Technical Sales Manager for Kensa comments: “Changes to the Non Domestic
Renewable Heat Incentive tariffs have created opportunities in the social
housing sector for district ground source heat pump systems.
"Shropshire
Rural are one of our longest standing customers, and they are early pioneers,
very quickly realising that such systems are technically robust and can be
delivered at lower capital cost when compared to ‘stand alone’ single property
installations, ideal for clusters of rural properties such as those in
Shropshire Rural’s portfolio.
“Furthermore, the
long term financial returns are compelling; GSHP-based systems deliver the
lowest running costs to the tenant and the lowest lifetime ownership costs for
the landlord; and of course, both retrofit and new build projects will benefit
from the RHI income.”
