Wed 3 Jan 2007

Going underground to give homes estate of art heating

GEMMA FRASER (gfraser@edinburghnews.com)

AN eco-friendly underground system will be used to heat an entire housing estate in a pioneering new development in East Lothian.

The ground source heat pumps will cut heating and water bills for the residents of the 54 new homes at West Windygoul in Tranent.

The heating systems are commonplace in homes in Switzerland, Norway and the Netherlands, but still a new concept in the UK, where only a small number of pumps have been installed.

It is understood that this is the first time the heating system will be used on such a large scale in the Lothians.

East Lothian Housing Association is behind the £6.4 million housing development, due for completion next June.

The underground heating initiative has been backed by numerous energy watchdogs because of its efficiency in reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Martin Pollhammer, chief executive of ELHA, said: "This is cutting-edge stuff because it reduces fuel bills and also cuts CO2 emissions by 30 per cent.

"We are trying to make our homes as energy efficient as possible. It's something that has been used in Scotland before, but this is very much one of the first times.

"This is quite a flagship development for us."

The system works by extracting heat from the ground and pumping it into a building to provide heating and pre-heat hot water. In summer months, this process can also be reversed to cool a building. Water is pumped through pipes in boreholes at the side of each home, where the ground temperature heats it to 11C.

A compressor boosts the temperature to 45 degrees before the heat is transferred to the underfloor heating system and hot water tank, where it is further boosted to 60Cs.

Each kilowatt of energy used in the system will normally produce three to four times the energy delivered, leading to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of 30 to 35 per cent. The system can also save householders up to £600 per year on heating bills.

But the savings and environmental benefits come at a cost - the heat pumps cost between £8000 and £12,000 to install.

The multi-million-pound development is backed by grant funding of £4.5 million from Communities Scotland, with East Lothian Council contributing towards the cost of the ground source heat pumps. The Energy Savings Trust and Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative have both supported the project and financed feasibility work.

EST development manager Kirk Archibald said: "This is the kind of project we want to see.

"We have done a lot of work with this technology and we certainly recommend that new builds are in the best position to consider and adopt it because it lends itself to sites where there is no existing gas connection."

Alastair Dee, Communities Scotland's investment manager in Lothians, Borders and Fife, added: "We are keen to measure the impact of these measures at West Windygoul."

This article: http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=12492007

Last updated: 03-Jan-07 12:28 GMT