VIDEO: school heating system harnesses heat from thermal spring
Kensa has shared a video showing how a primary school and bowls pavilion in a South Wales village have switched to clean, renewable heating using a thermal spring.
Ffynnon Taf Primary School and the Pavilion at Taff’s Well Bowling Club in Taff’s Well, Wales, have had a new heating system installed by Kensa, that uses naturally occurring heat from the only thermal spring in Wales – the Taff’s Well Spring.
Using the innovative clean heating method instead of gas is expected to cut the school and pavilion’s carbon emissions linked to heating by close to 80%. It also demonstrated a way of using Kensa’s ground source heat pumps without drilling vertical boreholes to access heat energy stored in the ground.
WATCH:
How the system works:
- Kensa’s ground source heat pumps, found in thousands of UK properties, are usually set up to source energy from the ground to provide heating and hot water.
- The one-of-a-kind installation at Taff’s Well pumps warm water from the spring and passes it through a nearby heat exchanger, which is connected to Kensa’s ground source heat pumps housed inside the school and pavilion.
- Heat energy stored in the warm spring water is absorbed and converted by the heat pumps into usable energy for the school and pavilion’s heating and hot water systems.
- While in the system, the water is confined to its own pipework, mostly hidden under the ground and out of sight, and doesn’t encounter any other substances to ensure there’s no issue of contamination or pollution.
- To keep the connecting pipework hidden and to avoid above-ground damage, Kensa horizontally drilled hundreds of meters between the Well, the school, and the pavilion.
- After passing through the system, the clean water is emptied back into the Well’s overflow, feeding into the River Taff.
- This is the only system installed by Cornwall-based Kensa that uses a natural thermal spring as a heat source.
Dr Stuart Gadsden, Kensa Contracting Commercial Director, said:
This is an incredibly unique system and really demonstrates how versatile Kensa’s ground source heat pumps are. It was great to show the pupils how their exciting new heating system works and how it will reduce their carbon footprint.
Kensa has a proven track record of delivering the high efficiencies of ground source heat pump technology for numerous UK schools and local authorities, providing them with a futureproofed low-carbon heating system.
Using the historic Taff’s Well thermal spring as a renewable heat source is a brilliant example of how bold ideas can lead to something that benefits future generations. It’s something the whole community can be proud of, and we were pleased to play our part in making it happen.
