BBC-featured biomass project removes 170 tonnes of CO2 from oil-reliant historic estate
Key project achievements
- CO2 emissions reduced from 178 tonnes per year to 8 tonnes per year with a 199kW woodchip boiler
- System designed to fulfil the client’s ambition to use locally-sourced woodchip as fuel
- £15,000 per year cost savings achieved from a building-integrated renewable heating system
- Reheat also helped Minsteracres access Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) income of £28,000 per year
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Minsteracres House dates back to 1758, when George Silvertop, a wealthy coal baron, created one of the finest country houses in the North East of England. Repeatedly extended in subsequent years, the extensive Minsteracres site is a listed building, and now home to a residential retreat centre with a small permanent community and 80 guest beds.
As a complex building with substantial heat and insulation challenges, Reheat provided a biomass system design and installation that also delivered on the client’s ambition to use locally-sourced woodchip as fuel.
The process began by assessing the total fossil fuel use at Minsteracres, which - with oil costs rising substantially – had reached £29,000 per year. The retreat centre had reduced oil use to attempt cost savings, but this led to residents and visitors feeling increasingly cold in the poorly insulated Grade II listed building, with lack of heat meaning damp and moisture causing serious problems.
Reheat’s response was to re-use the vast boiler room, which was originally home to two manually fed coal boilers. This presented a particular challenge to the project team, who they were able to come up with a solution sensitive to the needs of a listed building that satisfied council conservation planners.
Avoiding the need for new buildings or long runs of expensive underground heating mains means the capital costs were kept low, the planning process was smooth, and the Minsteracres building remains virtually unaltered from its original external appearance, and now has a building-integrated renewable heating system.
The BBC also covered Minsteracres as a case study for biomass heating.
