Farmhouse & Equestrian Centre reap the rewards of twin Froling Cascade solution Blake Ecotec's intelligent and sophisticated Froling P4 system supplies Renewable heating and hot water to accommodation, swimming pool and equestrian stables.

Key Objectives

Provide heating and hot water to multiple buildings across the entire farm site.
Integrate a Cascade Boiler solution to ensure 100kW heat demand is always met.
Replace existing expensive and non eco-friendly oil/LPG heating system.
Design, integrate and install a fully automatic pellet fuel delivery system.

The Solution

Froling P4 160kW Pellet Boiler Cascade.
4,000 litre Galu Accumulator Tank.
Custom built 18 tonne Wood Pellet store.
Full Project Management including; design, installation, maintenance and RHI application.

Total Installation Cost
£105,000.

Non Domestic RHI Payments
£436,120 in government funded payments over the 20 year period.

Pay back Period
5-6 years.

Background
Located in Wick, near Bath in the Gloucestershire countryside and set amongst 117 acres of landscaped gardens, paddock and pastureland, Coldharbour Farm boasts a 570m2, 7 bedroom farmhouse and adjoining flat, cottage, outbuildings, stables, farm buildings and outdoor swimming pool. The site is also used as an Equestrian Riding Centre.

Heating across the entire site was provided by expensive and inefficient oil/LPG fired boilers.

The Requirement & Challenges
The farm's new owner, Mr. David Best, contacted our team of Renewable Heat Experts to enquire about replacing his costly oil/LPG system and to find out how a renewable heat solution could benefit him.

Mr. Best wanted an intelligent and sophisticated system to supply heating and hot water to his accommodation, swimming pool and equestrian stables.

Following a site survey to asses the requirements of the project we recommended that, with a site with a high heat demand in excess of 100 kW, a large biomass solution would be best suited and would reduce the carbon footprint, improve the property's EPC rating and produce a large annual income by qualifying for the Non-Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme.

Project Summary
A cascade solution of two 80kW Froling P4 pellet boilers (a total maximum heat output of 160kW), with an 18 tonne, custom built pellet store would ensure that during times of high heat demand the solution will work on the premise that one primary boiler has control of the heating system and as the heat demand increases it will call on the secondary slave boiler to make up the remainder.

Furthermore, in the unlikely event that the primary boiler suffers a fault and be forced offline, there is a remaining boiler to provide constant heat across the site.

An Efficient, Reliable and Secure Heating Solution
Our team designed the cascade solution, including full hydraulic diagrams and computer generated representations of the project, before beginning work on the 3 week installation in December 2014.

The boiler cascade solution, accompanying 200mm Nova twin walled chimney flues and 4,000 litre Galu accumulator tank were housed inside a stone barn, while the purpose built pellet store was constructed outside the barn and clad in stone to be in keeping with the rest of the farm's buildings.

The v-shaped pellet store included a suction system and two 3.5 metre augers running from the store into the barn to automatically feed fuel into both boilers.

The boiler system was connected to the main house, bungalow, cottage, stables and swimming pool via 50 metres of pre-insulated, 50mm underground pipe and integrated into the site's existing radiator system.

The Froling boiler is 94% efficient and allows for connection to the internet, for remote diagnostics and system adjustments if required.

The Renewable Heat Incentive, Fuel Savings and Carbon Footprint

The completed project will receive payments over a 20 year period through the Non-Domestic RHI scheme.
Payments of 7.72p per kWh, a total of £436,120 in RHI payments (RPI adjusted 3%).
The Froling boilers will burn approximately 55 tonnes of wood pellets per year, creating 210,240 kWh of heat for the site.
An estimated 68 tonnes of CO2 is expected to be saved in comparison to the oil/LPG system that was replaced.
The system delivers substantial fuel cost savings of approximately £230,000 across the 20 year scheme, when comparing the fuel price of the existing oil/LPG fired system (6.01p per kWh) to wood pellets (4.9p per kWh).
The 18 tonne capacity pellet store will save 20% on the cost of fuel due to the large volume being purchased.
The RHI payments and saving on fuel will see the initial outlay paid off in 5-6 years.

Customer Feedback
“From start to finish, Blake Ecotec have been some of the most professional people I have worked with. They delivered exactly what I needed, on time and on budget.”
– David Best.

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