News

BAXI RELEASES NEW GUIDE ADDRESSING HEAT DECARBONISATION IN SCHOOLS

Baxi Commercial Solutions has released a new guide entitled Schools and the Heat Decarbonisation Challenge with the aim of supporting schools in setting achievable pathways to more sustainable heat.

The report assesses the different heating technologies, solutions and approaches that will need to be available to schools to reduce heatassociated energy usage and emissions in their buildings while prioritising performance and practicality.

Baxi’s new guide:

• explores the currently available options to achieve more sustainable heating in older primary and secondary school buildings

• outlines the value of planning phased refurbishment programmes to achieve optimal outcomes and long-term goals

• illustrates the achievable carbon and energy savings from a stepwise approach.

Heating is one of the UK’s primary sources of emissions, accounting for around a third of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Decarbonising heat in buildings is therefore key to achieving the UK’s ambitious 2050 net zero target. But it’s a huge challenge and one that can be particularly problematic in existing school buildings.

Andy Green, Director at Baxi Commercial Solutions said: “As heat experts, we understand the issues that schools are up against when tackling heat decarbonisation in their buildings, particularly with the energy crisis squeezing already tight budgets.

“Ultimately, the goal is to transition to low carbon heating technology such as heat pumps. But school buildings are often complex projects for refurbishment. Estates and facilities managers, consultant engineers, M&E contractors and installers can face an array of issues, with time, budget, available power and physical space just some of the typical limitations.”

As full decarbonisation is unlikely to be achieved overnight in older or poorly insulated school buildings with high thermal demand, plotting an achievable pathway to improved sustainability can

be vital to deliver successful outcomes. Using smart simulation software, the Baxi guide analyses the achievable energy and carbon savings from a phased refurbishment programme in theoretical secondary and primary schools. The simulated stages include initial measures to improve energy efficiency, the installation of a more efficient, future-ready system, and a multivalent approach involving air source heat pumps to decarbonise a large portion of the annual heat demand.

“The heat decarbonisation challenge is far from new,” Andy continued. “But the energy and climate crises make it clear that we in the heating industry need to act now to help UK schools progress towards more sustainable, affordable heat.

Ensuring robust design practice is key. By working together, heating manufacturers and professionals can help schools get the most from their heating budget while ensuring best practice for heat decarbonisation.

“Even with the support outlined by the new Prime Minister, it’s essential that schools understand all the available options to drive down heat-related energy consumption in their buildings. Full decarbonisation may not necessarily happen overnight, but, as our report shows, there is considerable value to be gained from taking even the first few steps on their pathway.”

Schools and the Heat Decarbonisation Challenge is available now for free download at: www.baxi.co.uk/landing/knowledgecentre/schools-decarbonisation

Schools could achieve net zero with a new community business model

Green Fox Community Energy Cooperative worked with clean tech innovation hub Energy Systems Catapult, Attenborough Learning Trust, Loughborough University’s Centre For Renewable Energy Systems Technology, and Leicester City Council to come up with a replicable model that schools can adopt to decarbonise their energy.

Supported by the Next Generation programme and funded by Power to Change, the initiative looks to create a community-focused Energy Services Company (ESCo) to manage the risk and complexity of raising finance and introducing carbon-saving measures.

In the proposed model, finance for capital investment in a school is raised through a public share offer to locals, ensuring energy assets are owned and held for the benefit of the community – with a return on investment and involvement in decision-making part of the offer.

The ESCo’s responsibilities also include finding the right low carbon solutions for the school, and managing bills and energy savings on its behalf. The co-operative is not-for-profit, so any additional revenue raised would be passed on through further bill savings to the school.

Designed and validated by energy innovation experts at Energy Systems Catapult and Loughborough University, the business model involves two stages – a ‘base model’ and a ‘base model plus’.

The base model uses proven low carbon technology – for example solar PV

panels and efficiency measures – which reduces the overall cost of energy, and can generate income. It uses the capital generated through the share offer to start the decarbonisation process and lay a sound financial foundation for the overall business model.

The base model plus requires further capital investment, but enables full decarbonisation of the schools’ energy by installing air source heat pumps and generating extra value through emerging energy markets – including through renewable tariffs, flexibility services and exporting surplus energy back to the grid.

Green Fox and its partners teamed up with Attenborough Learning Trust, a multiacademy trust with four primary schools in the heart of Leicester, to develop both stages of the business model by harnessing real-time energy data from the schools.

Overall, it was estimated the schools would save 42% on their combined energy bill, and would reduce their emissions by a combined total of 88 tonnes CO 2 per year.

Ben Dodd, executive director of Green Fox Community Energy Co-operative, said: “Community energy organisations are at the forefront of energy innovation as we move to a new net zero economy. We have the ability to engage with local communities so bring about practical and meaningful ways in which to tackle climate change, allowing the environmental, social and financial benefits to stay within the local economy. “This model brings together energy efficiency, renewable energy and emerging energy markets to provide a fully costed pathway to our net zero goals. It allows schools to reduce their energy bills and put sustainability back at the core of the curriculum.”

Simon Briggs, practice manager for business model innovation at Energy Systems Catapult, said: “As natural focal points of communities, schools have huge potential to help drive decarbonisation efforts at a local level. Many schools may not know where to start to improve their energy efficiency and become zero carbon, and that’s where this model can help. It gives schools a blueprint to work with that could reduce the financial risk and actively involve the community – not least the younger generations for whom we need to keep our planet healthy.”

Philip Leicester, researcher at Loughborough University, said: “Detailed energy system modelling can simulate the economic and carbon impacts of energy efficiency and generation technologies over a whole year and multi-year lifecycle and can help to deliver essential due diligence for project viability before more detailed investment decisions are taken.”

The report from the project – Delivering Zero Carbon Schools: A practical and innovative business model for the community energy sector – is available online. https://es.catapult.org.uk/casestudy/green-fox-community-energydelivering-zero-carbon-schools/ https://greenfoxcommunityenergy.coop/

Whitecroft Lighting Recognised for Covid Hospital Efficiencies

Commercial lighting manufacturer Whitecroft Lighting Ltd has been recognised for its work on ten of the emergency Covid-19 Nightingale Centres.

The NHS ProCure 22 (P22) framework has highlighted the speed and cost at which it supplied critical specialist healthcare lighting as part of the NHS’s rapid response to Covid-19.

Whitecroft not only met the exceptionally short deadlines dictated by the potential rapid spread and impact of the virus, but did so within the Framework’s usual capital and operational budgets.

The Nightingale Centres were emergency large-scale healthcare facilities constructed inside existing buildings, such as Manchester Central and the Excel Conference Centre in London, as well as emergency wards set up in existing hospitals.

A number of the Nightingale venues were large, cavernous spaces never intended for clinical use, which created a new set of challenges for Whitecroft.

But as a UK manufacturer, Whitecroft holds lighting inventory in stock, and was able to quickly review what was available, and draw on its long experience of lighting healthcare to select and adapt products accordingly.

Three lighting solutions that incorporated wall fixed up-lighting, as opposed to the usual hospital ceiling down-lighting, were adapted, giving the NHS and its contractors some flexibility for each Nightingale environment. Some of these adaptations included customising lighting brackets and bodies to aid access for disinfecting for infection control, and LED’s with a high Ra number for truer colour, which assists in the diagnosis and assessment of patients as it presents a truer more natural skin tone.

In total 5,000 bespoke bedhead luminaires were designed, approved, released into volume manufacture and installed on site, within just five days of the initial enquiry. www.whitecroftlighting.com