Kingston University - The Client’s ambition was to utilise ground source heating to provide the majority of the buildings cooling and heating.

This case study details the G-Core Limited team’s  involvement in the £20 million project to deliver a new building at the New Business School, Kingston University.  The Client’s ambition was to utilise ground source heating to provide the majority of the buildings cooling and heating.

The team designed and installed one of the UK’s deepest borehole Ground Energy Collector (GEC) consisting of 26 No. borehole heat exchangers, each to a nominal depth of 250m below ground level.

The GEC was coupled to a single Heat Pump, which provided high efficiency heating, cooling and simultaneous heating and cooling.

The design of the GSHP system design was based on the Employer’s requirement to comply with local planning requirements, achieve a BREEAM rating of ‘excellent’ and to utilise the free cooling capability of a simultaneous GSHP system.  The design took into account the geological and hydro-geological conditions underlying the site, the heat extraction and dissipation capacity of the ground and annual heating, cooling and simultaneous load profile of the proposed building.  Available space for the GEC was minimal due to significant ecological constraints (rare grass and badger sets) and the surrounding University site remained operational throughout the works.

The GEC design was validated using a Thermal Response Test, which was completed on the first Borehole Heat Exchanger (BHE).  This ensured the final GEC model and design was correct to provide longevity of GEC over the 50 year lifetime of the GSHP system.

Once the installation of the BHEs were completed, the arrays were connected to the field manifold and then via two 120m long header pipes to complete the GEC.

The GEC was coupled to a single Climaveneta NECS WQ1004 simultaneous heat pump to provide peak heat output of 246kW (B0/W45), 378kW peak cooling (B20/W14) and 355kW simultaneous heating and cooling.

The system is designed to work at maximum efficiency whilst meeting the buildings heating and cooling demands throughout its design life of at least 50  years.

Finance

CO₂ savings