Baxi Technologies Geothermal Heating Cooling Mini CHP news 160106-2

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Condensing DACHS MINI-CHP Unit Delivers Even Greater Benefits

A DACHS combined heat and power (CHP) unit has recently been commissioned at Royal Court, a Bromford Housing Group care home in Cheltenham, by Baxi Technologies UK – part of the Baxi Commercial Heating Division and the Baxi Group company responsible for pioneering mini-CHP applications in the UK. Mini-CHP is a very efficient way of generating electricity and producing heat simultaneously at the point of use, but at Royal Court the unit will deliver even greater benefits through the inclusion of an exhaust condenser.

Royal Court is only the third DACHS installation of this kind in the UK. Royal Court comprises 41 individual retirement apartments, currently accommodating 48 elderly people, some with physical disabilities. The supported living accommodation was opened in 1985 and communal facilities include a laundry, residents’ lounge, hairdressing salon, kitchen, guest rooms and garden areas.

The natural gas fuelled DACHS mini-CHP unit was commissioned in June of this year and was installed as part of Royal Court’s boiler house refurbishment project. Producing 12.5kWth of heat and generating 5.5kWe of three-phase electricity, the DACHS reduces the amount of electricity imported from the grid, and displaces fuel used by other heating appliances at the property. In doing so a typical DACHS installation can reduce primaryenergy needs by around 30 per cent, providing energy cost savings and significant reductions in carbon dioxide emissions – the key drivers for the inclusion of mini-CHP at this site.

At Royal Court an exhaust condenser has been installed to maximise the unit’s thermal output and overall fuel efficiency, improving the economic and environmental benefits of the installation. DACHS has relatively low rated outputs compared with the CHP products that have historically been available in the UK, making it suitable for much smaller properties than was previously possible. This is particularly true with multi-occupancy accommodation where heating and hot water is provided from a centralised plant room.

Applications include properties such as sheltered housing, extra care schemes, residential care homes, nursing homes and social housing developments. As a guide, a single DACHS unit would satisfy the base load requirements of a sheltered housing scheme comprising around 20 to 30 flats, depending on the facilities at the property. However, Baxi Technologies UK has supplied DACHS units for schemes with as little as six flats right up to large social housing developments with up to 340 dwellings, using either a single DACHS or a multi-unit installation depending on the base loads of the property.

The owner of Royal Court, Bromford Housing Group, is a leading organisation in the provision of affordable housing and associated care and support services, and is keen to embrace and adopt emerging technologies. Bromford Housing Group’s mechanical services manager, Dave Bradley, has been progressively raising energy awareness within the organisation, and as a result its environmental policy now focuses on reducing carbon emissions through the use of low carbon, sustainable and renewable products.

The DACHS is the first CHP unit to be installed at a Bromford Housing Group property, but the technology is already being considered for six other sites. Dave Bradley said: “Since attending a CHP seminar and joining the Carbon Trust’s CHP Club, I have developed a real passion for this new technology. The DACHS unit will have a real, positive environmental impact at Royal Court, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by around 6.3 tonnes per annum – the equivalent of a 21 per cent reduction compared with centralised power generation and heat-only boiler plant.”

Yan Evans, national sales and marketing manager at Baxi Technologies UK, said: “A typical DACHS unit operating for approximately 6,000 hours per year can save around 5.2 tonnes of CO2. Royal Court benefits from improved performance because of the addition of the DACHS exhaust condenser, where the lower operating temperature of the water return circuit allows additional heat to be recovered from the engine.

Based on a water return temperature of 60°C, the heat output of the DACHS unit increases by around six per cent, resulting in an overall fuel efficiency of around 83 per cent – a four per cent improvement on a ‘conventional’ DACHS installation. “Adding an exhaust condenser can also reduce the installation costs on certain projects. Plastic flue materials can be used rather than single or twin-wall stainless steel, as the additional heat recovered from the exhaust via the condenser results in lower flue gas temperatures.”

DACHS units are now successfully operating in a large number of properties in the UK, displaying the industry’s drive for improved building efficiency and lower emissions through the use of alternative low carbon solutions. This could be as a result of an end user’s corporate environmental policy, Local Agenda 21 or other initiatives reflecting the government’s commitments to the Kyoto Protocol, or targets of achieving high BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) ratings on new build properties.

The opportunity to replicate the DACHS installation at Royal Court across other similar properties in the UK is significant. As such mini-CHP has an important role to play in contributing towards the
UK government’s carbon dioxide reduction targets. 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 been 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