Biomass Boiler

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Biomass Boiler

Using woodchip sourced locally, the biomass boiler produces heat and electricity and supplies the entire indoor leisure and dining complex including the pool, hot water for The Orchard toilets, 24 showers, and heat for the outdoor pool during the summer months.

The use of biomass in heating systems is beneficial because it has less impact on the environment than fossil fuels. It has little long term effect on the environment because the carbon in biomass is part of the natural carbon cycle and permanently adds carbon to the environment when burned for fuel.

Our biomass boiler runs constantly, charging a buffer vessel of 5000 litres of hot water storage to cope with demand.

Project facts and stats

3 x Lindner and Sommerauer SL-250T 6R wood chip boiler with 5m agitators.
Flue system, thermal store & distribution pipework including all internal connections to existing heating systems, heat exchangers and all aspects of district heating schemes.
Runs on wood chips.
CO2 output reduced by 750 tonnes.
Project price of £593,000.

“Cofton was after a green energy solution for our hot water needs. We worked with Treco to find the best solution, before designing and building the scheme from the beginning to the end. We chose Treco due not only to their locality, but also their vast knowledge demonstrated and their willingness to take our current biomass boiler and encompass it all into one district heating system for the park.” Mellony Kirby, Director.

Overview

Cofton Country Holiday Park is set within 80 acres of countryside and consists of a mixture of camping plots, caravan plots, static caravans and lodges. It is open all year round and hosts a wide range of amenities such as an outdoor pool, gym, sauna, fishing lakes, playgrounds and shopping facilities.

The multi award-winning holiday park near Dawlish, South Devon is surrounded by an amazing natural habitat, which theyve nurtured over the years resulting in numerous conservation awards including over 15 years of Gold Awards from the David Bellamy Conservation Award Scheme.

The Challenge

To connect all of the properties up to the biomass system, Treco was required to install over 1800m of underground pipe. The business had to remain open to the public, and so it was crucial that we worked with the client to ensure there was no impact to the operation of the business. Due to this, it was planned that the laying of the pipe and reinstatement would happen concurrently to ensure minimal disruption to customers.

Our works were also going on during key times of the year for holiday makers, such as bank holiday weekends. We had to ensure our works were planned around these times, and that all the shower blocks were available to use throughout the busy periods.

Our Custom Solution

Part of the site (main building, internal and external pools and a shower block) was being heated via a 199kW wood chip boiler, but the customer wanted the rest of the site to be heated by a renewable source.

Our solution was to install three additional boiler, the Lindner and Sommerauer SL-250T 6R, to the one they already had to add capacity to the site. In addition, we also installed back up LPG boilers within the shower blocks.

We moved the original boiler to a new, purpose-built building and installed it alongside the three new boilers. This solution alleviated current issues the customer was experiencing with fuel deliveries and provided one point of delivery for fuel.

As the central boiler house is located some distance from the holiday complex, the heating water is distributed through 1,300 meters of highly insulated underground pipe, linking the main leisure complex including indoor pool and restaurants, six cottages, four shower blocks and the laundrette.

While installing a biomass system is fairly straightforward, the linking of the numerous buildings, with various heat requirements and differing uses from pool heating to space heating, showers to launderette requires careful calculation, and it is very satisfying to see the system operate exactly as modelled!

The Incentive

Cofton Holiday Park has always been committed to making a difference and being driven to improve energy efficiency, reduce its carbon footprint as well as save costs on their ongoing fuel bills, they were decided on a renewable energy source to achieve those goals.

Saving around 40% on Coftons existing annual fuel bill the new boilers, which burn locally sourced wood chip, are set to not only cut CO₂ by at least 750 tonnes per year, but to provide pay back on the installation costs in under five years, aided in part by the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme. Benefitting from the RHI scheme will see the system generate approximately £84,870 in payments every year for the next 20 years (index linked).

The Big Reveal

Taking its green credentials to new heights, Cofton launched a state-of-the-art biomass hub that will provide heat and hot water to Coftons 4,800 sq ft leisure and dining complex, cottages, and shower blocks.

Officially opened by Anne Marie Morris, MP for Newton Abbot, Coftons biomass hub is the largest of its kind in Devon, and is expected to produce on average 1.9 million kWh of energy that will constantly charge four 5,000 litre thermal stores of hot water, heating its indoor pool, cottages, outdoor pools during the summer months, 24 showers and Coftons amenity blocks.

Funded by a half million pound loan from Natwest Bank, the four new biomass boilers and district heating solution mean that multiple locations across Cofton can be heated from the one hub.

We were delighted Cofton Holidays appointed us to oversee the biomass heating system. With reduction in carbon emissions becoming more and more important to businesses both large and small, it was a great opportunity to be involved in a local scheme of this scale.

The project centred around the replacement of a series of individual fossil fuel boilers, all of which were replaced with a central wood chip boiler system, which comprised three 250kW boilers, all housed in a state-of-the-art boiler house. The sites existing biomass boiler was relocated to this building, providing the site with one central biomass hub.

With CO₂ savings of over 750 tonnes annually, and fuel sourced locally from sustainable forestry, the scheme helps both national carbon reduction targets and supports local jobs.

It has been a pleasure to have the opportunity to work with a local business which places as much importance to conservation and the local environment as financial reward.