Delivering 100% heat decarbonisation for the historic National Trust property, Hardwick Hall.
With nearly a decade of delivering renewable and low carbon heat projects for the National Trust, Reheat again provided historical building heat decarbonisation expertise for a project at the stunning and historic Hardwick Hall, located in Derbyshire.
In addition to the extensive grounds and gardens, Hardwick Hall is home to a variety of properties including an architecturally significant Grade I listed 16th century Mansion and a range of Elizabethan properties including holiday homes, restaurant, shops, offices and staff accommodation. It is also home to incredible furnishings, artefacts and tapestries, preserved by successive generations of the Devonshire family who were incredibly proud of Hardwick.
Although Hardwick Hall had experience of renewable heating, using a biomass pellet boiler to provide heat to the restaurant, the National Trust saw the opportunity to replace this boiler and extend the district heating scheme to incorporate many other properties. There was also an opportunity to completely remove fossil fuel heating from the site, and the National Trust turned to Reheat to scope, design and deliver this major programme of works.
Reheat’s solution was to install a 400kW biomass system comprising two wood pellet boilers into a newly renovated plant room, along with a large fuel store. To connect the properties to the new biomass system, over 600m of underground heat mains was installed, providing a highly efficient method of distributing the hot water around the site.
Getting the control of this heat network was incredibly important to the success of the project, as with low-but-critical summer loads in the Hall, heat losses relative to use had the potential to be very high. With advanced network controls, Reheat was able to optimise performance and keep losses to a minimum as another method for decarbonising the properties.
With the new wood fired system in place, Hardwick Hall is now run entirely on renewable heat. As a result, Reheat also completed the removal of all oil boilers and tanks from the grounds. At a site with such historic and cultural significance, removing heating oil from the site eliminated the risk of leakages and any associated damage that could be caused by an oil spill, thereby protecting the site from any environmental damage.
A late addition the the network was the greenhouse used by the team who look after Hardwick’s grounds and gardens. Reheat worked with the gardeners to understand their specific requirements and sourced a special type of radiator to warm the soil in the greenhouse, rather than the air, thereby delivering renewable heat to where it was needed, reducing running costs and eliminating the use ofheating oil at the last remaining point on site.
Since the installation, Reheat has supported the National Trust and Hardwick Hall with additional services, including access to the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), as well as providing service and maintenance for the biomass system.
