Upgrading the heating and cooling solution in a £18.6m decarbonisation pilot programme for the DfE
Project background
Energy bills and carbon emissions in the public and higher education sectors show that schools and universities represent 36% of total UK public sector building emissions. Research found that in 2019, schools alone were spending around £630m per annum on energy – with today’s figure expected to be much higher.
We were tasked with delivering ground source heat pumps as the heating and cooling solution for The Department for Education across a range of schools in Northern England.
Seven schools in total have been selected to take part in the £18.6m innovative Decarbonisation Pilot, led by the Department for Education (DfE).
The specific projects Genius Energy Lab supported focused on retrofit scenarios where each individual array required careful concepting and design to achieve the upgrades some schools so badly needed. Updating facilities with the most efficient and low-carbon heating solutions. Two educational facilities still utilised highly inefficient and carbon-intensive coal-powered heat systems to warm the classrooms.
How we got involved
GEL was involved from the start of the project, providing a 360-degree service to deliver the heating and cooling solution for these schools: including concept, feasibility, design, implementation oversight, and witnessing on the projects.
The sooner our design engineers and consultants are involved in a project, the more we can facilitate ground source heat pumps being utilised to their optimal capacity - with the knock-on effects being significant cost savings and risk management and improved project outcomes.
Following the premise of the MacLeamy Curve, costs are easiest to control early in the process. Once a project is under construction, changes become exponentially more expensive than in the design stage.
Having an expert ground source heat pump system designer on hand early in a project is an effective risk mitigation strategy, especially critical to large-scale projects.
Learn more about the wrap-around services, from feasibility reports to providing concise and detailed design reports for your project - including exact borehole location, depth, drilling methodology and advice, header arrangement, heat pump selection, plant room considerations and distribution system requirements.
Richard Davis, Genius Energy Lab CEO, gives his thoughts on the project: