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Wigan Primary School goes 'Green' with help from a Baxi Dachs Mini CHP unit

A DACHS mini-Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit supplied and commissioned by Baxi Technologies UK, part of the Baxi Commercial Heating Division, has been installed at a newly constructed replacement primary school in Wigan. The new Hindley Primary School, constructed by Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council, NPS North West and Eric Wright Construction through a Partnered Project. This school has been designed to be highly sustainable and environmentally friendly, incorporating other ‘green’ initiatives in addition to CHP including rainwater harvesting and natural ventilation.

Hindley Primary School is a 1,963m2 infant and junior school and accommodates 231 pupils and staff. The building comprises a reception class, six classrooms, a school hall, an ITC centre/library, three resource rooms, three group rooms, a therapist room, home economics facilities and a hydrotherapy pool.

The UK Government’s Energy White Paper emphasised that local authorities have a fundamental role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions – in particular carbon dioxide, which is thought to be the principal cause of climate change. Therefore many local authorities are investing in alternative, low carbon technologies such as mini-CHP as a means to achieving their emission reduction targets.

CHP is an extremely efficient way of generating electricity and producing heat simultaneously at the point of use from a single fuel. This fuel could be natural gas, LPG, oil or some form of bio-fuel. CHP offers an economic and environmentally friendly alternative for meeting thermal and electrical demands in many applications.

Providing 12.5kWth of heat output and 5.5kWe of three-phase electricity, the natural gas fuelled DACHS delivers an overall fuel efficiency of around 79 per cent (Gross Calorific Value), which can be increased in certain applications to approximately 92 per cent through the use of an exhaust condenser.

The key to the economic and environmental benefits is the electricity generated by the CHP unit - it is the higher value commodity when compared with gas and has a higher carbon emission factor. When operating for approximately 6,000 hours per year the natural gas fuelled DACHS can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by around five tonnes per annum.

This equates to around a 20 per cent reduction in emissions when compared with the current mix of centralised power generation in the UK and gas fired heat only boiler plant. To maximise the annual running hours of the DACHS unit, and thereby maximising the economic and environmental benefit of the CHP installation, there must be an all year round requirement for heat sufficient to support the thermal output – the DACHS (as with all engine based CHP technologies) is a heat lead device and the return water from the property is used to cool internal components of the unit. The inclusion of a hydrotherapy pool at Hindley Primary School increases the base thermal load of the building and offers
an ideal use for the heat output of the DACHS unit.

NPS North West was the building services design consultant engineer for the Hindley Primary School project. Barry Fairclough, Director of Building Services Design, said: “As a company we are committed to the design of sustainable and energy efficient building services for all projects, promoting sustainable development through our environmental policy.

“We calculated that the thermal and electrical profiles for Hindley Primary School’s hydrotherapy pool were perfect for CHP, so we were keen to include this technology in addition to rainwater harvesting and natural ventilation. However, when we started to investigate CHP products currently on the market, we found that many were actually too large in terms of their output to be suitable for the size of the pool. Fortunately, the DACHS mini-CHP unit from Baxi Technologies UK, with its relatively low outputs, was ideal. The company assisted with our designs, and provided guidance to ensure optimum integration of the DACHS.

“Hindley Primary School is an excellent example of how CHP can be used effectively in the education sector. During the design phase, we were interviewed by the Department for Education and Skills and the Building Research Establishment (BRE) – and Hindley primary is actually one of the first pilot projects for the new BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) for schools.”

Yan Evans, National Sales and Marketing Manager for Baxi Technologies UK, said: “We have found that the public sector is particularly focused on alternative solutions, whether these are renewable or low carbon technologies. This may be a result of the introduction of new building regulations and carbon reduction initiatives – such as Local Agenda 21, Kyoto Protocol or corporate environmental policy.

“The majority of DACHS units installed in the UK are operating in multi-tenanted properties such as residential care homes, social housing developments, sheltered accommodation and extra care schemes. However we are encouraged by the fact applications have now extended to other public sector buildings including Hindley Primary School, a police station, a fire station and two community resource centres – displaying the sector’s commitment to environmental sustainability through the use of low carbon technologies.”

The DACHS was developed by Baxi Group company, SenerTec GmbH – Europe’s leading exponent of the use of internal combustion engine technology for CHP applications. There have now over 12,000 units installed within Europe – predominantly in Germany – working as stand-alone heating and electricity generating solutions, as well as in tandem with existing and/or new hot water boilers, making DACHS the most successful CHP product in Europe.

Email: yan.evans@baxitech.co.uk