Simon Moses, St Mungo’s Housing Assoc
Ecodan CAHV monobloc air source heat pump boilers from Mitsubishi Electric
Spring Gardens, Lewisham
Simon Moses, asset manager, St Mungo’s Housing Association
We’d received funding from the Homes and Community Agency to go forward with the development of 24 flats at Spring Gardens, next to our existing hostel. The HCA stipulates a certain standard of sustainability, and we also have a focus on energy efficiency in our new-build and refurbishment schemes anyway. So we were driven by our funding requirements but internally there’s a drive for it as well: we’re affected by cuts and service charges, so it’s important for residents to see that their energy bills are reducing and being controlled.
At Spring Gardens we also have solar panels, and at other schemes we have biomass boilers. We’re trying our best, within budget constraints, to move away from fossil fuels.
Spring Gardens was a design and build project by Quinn London, with M&E consultant Waterstone Design hired to interpret our requirements as clients, and bring on board alternative sustainable solutions. It came up with a number of choices, so ground source heat-pumps, biomass boilers, air source heat pumps and solar thermal were all considered.
But in terms of cost — that is, pence per kWh to give the required heat load to maintain temperatures within the flats — air source heat pumps offered the best option. We have a central BMS system controlling the three units, and the residents have thermostats and thermostatic valves on the radiators.
As for maintenance: we’ve negotiated a two-year contract from Quinn to maintain the units, with the actual servicing done by Mitsubishi. At the end of the two years, we’ll have to arrange a service agreement with Mitsubishi ourselves. But I was impressed with the build quality of the units. They do need to be maintained, but I don’t think the risk [of malfunction] is any greater than with a gas appliance.
The first residents moved in late last year, and the flats are now almost fully occupied. So far so good — the units have had no faults.
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