Regency House

The existing site consisted of offices connected to a large warehouse. The project scope was to convert the warehouse into offices to connect to the existing three storeys of office accommodation. We were employed to design the mechanical and electrical services for the new and, for some services, the existing offices. Carbon Plan Engineering:

• Surveyed existing building and plant

• Calculatedheating and coolingloads

• Liaised with utility companies for gas disconnection, and an increased electrical connection and new substation

• Completed a tender specification including full design, and full CAD drawings

The services were chosen to complement the existing offices.

A new VRV system was selected to provide the existing and new offices with simultaneous heating and cooling. The system enables each office tenant to be sub-metered on their energy use for heating and cooling.

A major challenge was getting the ventilation ductwork around and through the steelwork, especially the existing steelwork around the perimeter of the existing offices.

The fresh air from the AHU is ducted throughout the building to the rear of Fan Coil Units (FCUs) which distribute the conditioned air into the occupiedspaces. The coffee shop on the first floor is served byseparate Heat Recovery Units.

MOD District Heating

The existing barracks site consisted of 55 buildings served from an old large central gas fired district heating system; Each building having an MTHW connection serving hot water and heating systems. The MOD had experienced many leaks on the existing district heating system and had made numerous repairs to the network.

There was little existing information on MTHW flowrates and system controls and so Carbon PlanEngineering:

• Surveyed all existing buildings and plant

• Calculated heat loads for each building

• Calculated gas loads for entire site

• Used survey data to generate a site wide plan of gas and distribution infrastructure

The design was then evolved to provide a gas network around the site and provide localised heating stations serving small clusters of buildings. A loop system was designed to ensure service provision should any one location fail in the future.

The gas services were pressure reduced to low pressure prior to each heat station.

The new boiler plant could not be accommodated within existing building project and so a packaged plant solution was developed. Carbon PlanEngineering provided a tender package detailing:

• Modular boiler plant incorporating plate heat exchangers in containerised plant rooms

• Localised LTHW connections

• Localised controls and heat metering

Harris Boys Academy, London

Client: Galliford Try

Value: £18m

Harris Boys Academy was completed by Galliford Try in 2009 and boasts a number of sustainable features to achieve 20% carbon reduction criteria through a combination of renewable energy technologies.

The project included a large ground source heat pump array which delivers heating and cooling simultaneously from 26 boreholes, along side a solar thermal hot water system, photovoltaic array and nine roof-mounted microgeneration turbines delivering a CO₂ reduction for the finished building of over 60 tonnes per year. All of these systems are used by the science department as part of the learning experience for all of the pupils

We carried out the detailed GSHP design work and developed the tender specifications for GallifordTry to contract with a specialist supplier for the installation works. This involved rationalisation of the clients’ initial design proposals to allow the borehole arrays to fit on the site and align with theconstruction programme.

This also had the benefits of reducing the capital costs for installation and increases in the efficiencyof the system overall. We Plan went on to support Galliford Try–the main contractor–in delivering presentations to staff and students on sustainability and the way that their building works