A care home provider is reaping the benefits of renewable energy and savings on its energy bills after specifying heat pumps from Danfoss for six of its Ideal Care Homes across the North and Midlands.
LNT Group, Ideal Care Homes' parent company, appointed renewable energy installer Q-Gen to install Danfoss’ DHP-R Opti Pro ground source heat pumps for the care homes as part of a plan to generate 20% of its energy from renewable sources. The move came about after Lawrence Tomlinson, the chairman of LNT Group, challenged his construction company to use renewable energy in order to provide a more affordable, sustainable source of energy for the care homes they build.
We chose ground source heat pumps because we recognised the efficiency they offered, which gave us a much greater energy output over other renewable energy sources
Two units were specified for each of the six homes, with energy sourced from a number of 100m deep bore holes sunk in the ground surrounding the buildings in Merseyside, Newark, Castleford, Leicester, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Wigan.
Christine Cooper, managing director of LNT Construction, said: “We are really proud that we are running sustainable and energy-efficient heating systems in our homes. Although this has involved a major capital investment, it will be paid back within eight years, which makes good commercial sense for the LNT Group as well as helping us towards becoming carbon neutral in the longer term.”
She added: “We chose ground source heat pumps because we recognised the efficiency they offered, which gave us a much greater energy output over other renewable energy sources. We are always reviewing ideas and new technologies to ensure we deliver the most efficient and cost-effective build to our customers.”
All six homes also feature solar thermal technology, which uses the sun’s energy to generate hot water during the daytime, and have underfloor heating, rather than radiators.
Ideal Care Homes estimates it will save 40% on its annual energy bills as a result of the installation of the heat pumps alone.
Chris Dale, director of Danfoss, said: “By investing in ground source heat pumps, Ideal Care Homes has chosen a highly energy-efficient method of providing heating and back-up hot water to its new residential care homes. This will help to minimise the carbon footprint of each building, as well as protecting the company against the rising cost of conventional fuels.”
This will help to minimise the carbon footprint of each building, as well as protecting the company against the rising cost of conventional fuels
The pump has a large capacity, compact design and a wide range of functions. This means it fits within a smaller footprint in the plant room and requires just one electric feed. Another benefit is that the brine is integrated within the unit, whereas with some other systems it involves a separate unit, making installation easier.
Not only are heat pumps energy efficient, there will also be cost advantages. LNT Construction has been able to take advantage of the Commercial RHI (Renewable Heat Incentive), which provides a tariff payment for every kW of energy produced by the heat pump and the solar thermal system.