Sustainable & Cost-Effective Hot Water For Healthcare
Around 40% of UK greenhouse gas emissions are accounted for by lighting cooling, ventilating and critically, provision of hot water and heating for the built environment. To help achieve climate-neutral building stock by 2050 health organisations need expert support when it comes to implementing immediate and practical measures.
The impetus is to reduce construction impacts with whole life carbon assessments, and critically, reduce operational energy use, prioritising reduction in energy demand and consumption over all other measures. Addressing in-use energy consumption should reduce bills and save carbon by driving an increase in renewable energy supply and prioritising on-site renewable energy sources.
The Path To Lower Carbon Hot Water
The design of applications for commercial hot water systems has remained remarkably consistent and if a building is more than ten years old it is going to be built around either a condensing gas water heater or an indirect water heater and boiler. Gas-based hot water systems were specified because this was the most cost-effective and cleanest way of producing high-temperature hot water.
In the past decade though we have seen a seismic shift in thinking driven by the wide acceptance of the harmful effects of global warming and a need to address its root causes. With the closure of coal-fired power stations and increasing dependence on wind and solar, the carbon intensity of grid electricity has reduced in line with gas, which has, in turn, remained relatively static since the 1990s.
Adveco for a practical, measured approach
Proudly independent, Adveco brings a unique mix of application design and technology supply that embraces modern gas-fired appliances through to an ever-broadening range of renewables, offsite prefabrication and manufacturer grade servicing. That brings a consistency to bespoke hot water and heating systems, ensuring they are optimised to control initial investment and reduce operational costs for the lifetime of the system.
Far too often, healthcare hot water systems suffer from poor application design leaving them oversized and demanding more appliances, ancillaries, space and complex installation than necessary. Inefficient and less environmentally friendly, such systems will prove more costly to build and operate for their entire lifespan.
For new buildings that are serviced by electricity only, the deployment of air source heat pumps (ASHP) as a method of pre-heating water represent a clear opportunity to introduce low carbon technology to meet sustainability goals.
Ten years ago, it was very difficult to argue for introducing solar thermal because the capital costs of installation and maintenance versus the operational savings meant many early projects failed to recoup their investment, even with the support from the non-domestic renewable heat incentive (which closed new applications in March of 2021). Today we are in a very different situation, and if electrical costs can be offset, then the numbers really start to look favourable for adopting solar thermal which remains a proven and extremely reliable technology offering a clear path to reducing CO₂ emissions.
Correctly designed and sized to the application, such as a care hone, solar thermal systems can generate a considerable proportion of the hot water requirements for buildings that are already on-gas with relatively short payback periods on the initial capital expenditure, while leveraging lower-cost gas to meet peak demands.
