Developing a first-of-its-kind renewable heating solution for new housing development in Eastleigh Borough
Image: One Horton Heath
Project background
Removing fossil fuels from residential homes is a central aim of Eastleigh Borough Council to achieve its carbon-neutrality goal.
In 2019, the council unanimously declared a climate and environmental emergency. It saw the creation of a Climate and Environment Emergency Strategy - and took the bold step to approve financing for the creation of a sustainable, distributed ambient loop ground source heat pump energy system - a significant step towards achieving the council's carbon-neutrality goal.
Once complete, One Horton Heath will be the largest distributed ambient loop 5th-generation heat network / ground source heat pump system globally, reducing carbon emissions and providing reliable and affordable heating, cooling and hot water to the new residents.
How we got involved
Genius Energy Lab is more than a ground source heat pump design house. We are a complete consultancy, ensuring you have GSHP experts on hand to advise at every stage of your project’s timeline.
Our team was involved right at the inception of this project, to consult on the feasibility of using networked GSHP to support new build houses. From the early discussions to getting into geology reports and full feasibility studies, our technical team brought together the insight to make the decision to invest in GSHP an informed and correct choice.
Beyond feasibility, the Genius team delivered a full RIBA stage 4 detailed design of the entire system to service 381 dwellings. This involved the calculation of borehole locations, depth, drilling approach, header arrangement and distribution system requirements. We also utilise Ground Loop Design Software (GLD) to develop the most efficient and cost effective drilling plan for what is a significant project.
Specifically for One Horton Heath, we split the first 381 new homes into 47 separate hydraulic arrays to ensure efficient header pipe sizing. In such a large housing project, naturally, some boreholes were in thermal contact, but not always hydraulically connected. This complexity was taken into account in the modelling of the borefield.
We delivered:
101m linked to the energy centre
•
233 boreholes
•
3.2 MW cooling
•
1.82MW heating
•
101m linked to the energy centre • 233 boreholes • 3.2 MW cooling • 1.82MW heating •
Genius Energy Lab’s thoughts on the project:
“We are proud of our involvement with this ambitious project to deliver secure, autonomous, clean and affordable energy to Eastleigh's residents.
We’re particularly impressed with the funding model the council is promoting where they cover the upfront and ongoing costs of installing and managing the private heating network on council land, which will then be repaid using income generated by charging the network users at One Horton Heath — a clean and win-win model for all, that removes the need for fossil fuels.
We’re looking forward to more of these projects in the future.”
