Cascade Heat Pump System at Itchen Abbas and Avington Village Hall
In January 2024, we installed an open loop system at a Village Hall in Winchester. The site benefits from its proximity to the River Itchen and also from the fact the river is a chalk stream and ideally suited to this technology. Visually there is virtually nothing to see, just a couple of manhole covers on the ground. The water comes in from the ground at 11 degrees centigrade.
The application process was supported by grant funding. They did not get BUS (Boiler Upgrade Scheme) even though it seemed they would be eligible. But they did benefit from the change in VAT rules for charities (VAT at 0% from February 2024). When we took on this project, we had provisionally quoted for one 13kW single phase Kensa heat pump, however upon receiving more information from our client and further heat loss calculations, we decided this would not be sufficient for the hot water and heating demand. Calculations showed that a cascade system would be most suitable for this building. This meant we would need to install two 13kW single phase heat pumps. Having received this information we were able to provide a ‘firm quote’ which also included for the cost of a water supply borehole. Overall, this was an interesting project for us being the first ‘cascade’ system we have installed in this kind of set up. As a result of this project, we won third place for National Heat Project of the year at the National Energy Efficiency Awards 2024.
‘Our Village Hall needed to replace its aged gas boilers with heating that would take advantage of our new solar panels and would also lower our carbon footprint and so utilise the climate change grants available.
We used HD Services to install an Open-Loop Ground Source Heat Pump. We are very pleased with them. This is not a common type of installation, but the estimate was detailed and explanatory setting out exactly what we could expect. The borehole drilling and heat pump installation was undertaken by their own staff in a neat, tidy and safe manner and they were very accommodating to our hirers of the hall. We were given a full guide to operating the heat, there were some minor teething issues, but they were attended to promptly.
The GSHP will safeguard our energy costs against rises in the price of carbon-based fuels and enable us to keep our hire charges affordable for the local community.
In all we felt the work was carried out very professionally and we would use HD Services again.
N.B. I am a retired Chartered Survey with a career supervising contracting works for clients. Whilst I have never supervised a ground source heat pump installation, I would classify HD Services as first class contractors.’
Mr C Langford, Chairman
