Residential Conservation

New Road, Solihull

Building type:

Residential Conservation Area

Requirement:

Heating and hot water

Technology used:

3 x geoTHERM 38kW

2 x 1,000 litre buffer cylinders

1 x twin headed brine pump

Installer:

J Tomlinson

Client:

Bromford

Overview

When social housing provider, Bromford, needed to replace old, inefficient storage heaters, they turned to Vaillant and J Tomlinson to find a solution.

New Road is situated in a conservation area where there are strict rules on how the exterior of the properties must look, which ruled out the use of gas boilers because of the visible flues.

Ground Source heat pumps were chosen as the best solution for the properties because they are discreet; all pipework is underground and the heat pumps themselves are indoor units. The risers could also be disguised with special cladding in keeping with the building’s aesthetic.

In conjunction with its installation partner, J Tomlinson Ltd, Vaillant devised a creative solution to construct an energy centre inside an insulated shipping container containing three 38kW geoTHERM ground source heat pumps, two 1,000 litre buffer cylinders, a twin headed brine pump and custom, weather compensated controls with integrated heat generator meters for individualised tenant billing.

The energy centre was assembled off-site and delivered by a specialist haulage company, reducing disruption to tenants to just one day – a drastic improvement on the several months of disruption anticipated if the project had been on site