Heat Recovery Business Breakfast
Bright and early on Tuesday 1st October 2019, The Future Economy Network co-ordinated another great business breakfast networking event, this time on the subject of Heat Recovery. Subscribers, Ashfords kindly hosted us at their central-Bristol offices and also provided a delicious sustainably-sourced breakfast!
With reference to the Energy Trilemma, David Broom, Commercial Director at Kensa Contracting explained the theory behind heat recovery technology as a low carbon means of heating buildings. He discussed the difference between traditional district heating and its issues around losses and metering, and contrasted this with Kensa’s shared ground loop arrays. With a shared ground loop array, losses are mitigated as they run at lower temperatures to the building and are then upgrading via individual heat pumps. David highlighted that their systems are also ideal for providing cooling, with passive cooling being the preferred option but active cooling also being an option if needed, which still works out as a much more sustainable option than using air conditioning units. David finished by discussing the potential to recover heat from data centre cooling, waste heat recovery and containerised battery cooling.
Next up, we welcomed Andy Bennett from Thermal Energy. Andy spoke about the Flu Ace Flue Gas Condensing Economisers. He explained the heat losses incurred within chimneys and the ways in which such losses can be prevented via either a conventional economiser (2-4% savings) or a condensing economiser (12-18% savings). The condensing economiser can be attached to industrial and institutional boilers such as the one at St Michael’s Hospital which provides all of the hospital’s hot water needs! Andy also gave examples of Salisbury NHS Trust, where FluAce was added to a CHP system, ensuring 511 tonnes of CO2 per year savings and a 38 month payback period and St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust where Thermal Energy’s GEM Venturi Steam Trap ensured over 10% energy savings and a 12-24 month payback period.
We then heard from Neel Mehta, Partner at Ashfords. Neel took us through the legal aspects of creating a heat network. He explained the 5 key steps to be taken into consideration; Feasibility, Commercialisation, Delivery, Operation and Expansion and Interconnection. The forms of contracts required both for the installation phase and the services stage were then discussed as well as the parties who may be involved in the development of Heat Networks. Neel discussed the associated common delivery models, tax implications and insurance.
The seminars finished off with some fantastic in-depth questions from the audience, followed by a lively 60 second pitch session from attendees. The event concluded with some valuable networking and finishing up the delicious sustainable breakfast.
The Future Economy Network would like to offer sincere thanks to the speakers, and to Ashfords for their support. Also, a huge thank you to all attendees – we hope you found it an interesting and insightful event.