Bellway - District Heating System

The Project

Bellway, one of the UK’s largest house builders, required a series of District Heating Systems (DHS) to provide communal heating and hot water for a range of sustainable, new build developments of social housing, owner occupied apartments and retail outlets. The award winning Barking Riverside development stretches 2km along the Thames and is one of the biggest regeneration schemes in East London.

The client wanted to set new standards with the Barking Riverside development, offering residents the comfort of a well designed communal heating system, the economical and environmental advantages of heat pump technology and the efficiency of a fully automated energy management system.  Most significantly the client wanted the system to be owned and operated by the contractor.

The Solution

Barking Phase 1 – design and installation of a 142kW air source heat pump to supply 47 apartments. The Dimplex heat pump supplies district heating and hot water to all apartments.

Barking Phase 3 – design and installation of a ground source heat pump, using an open loop system with two bore holes drilled to a 113m depth. The Dimplex 200kW heat pump supplies heat and hot water to 79 apartments.

Barking Phase 4 – design and installation of an air source heat pump using a cascade system of four x 90 kW Hidros pumps.  The 360kW system supplies heat and hot water to 12 houses and 71 apartments, as well as heating, hot water and cooling to five retail units.

The team installed an innovative energy management scheme with a heat meter in every unit measuring the heat used, which enables the tenants to be individually billed. A dedicated TGE Group department monitors the system and remotely reads the heat meters in order to bill the tenants and react to any alarms or temperature changes.

“We are not aware of any other District Heating System in the UK offering a similar level of service and efficiency with a centralised, automated control of heat and hot water.  The system is highly responsive with alarms alerting us to any problems. We run two daytime slots for recharging the hot water cylinders and constantly monitor heating temperatures going into the apartments. Tenants only pay for what they use and the energy rate that is charged is comparable to gas.” explains Matthew Evans, Heat Director, TGE Group.

Energy Saving

With between 280-350% efficiency between all three schemes, the building management control with weather compensation and off peak electricity/PV peak hot water cycle means reduced costs for the consumer and the operator.