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TOTEM engine for Combined Heat and Power (CHP).

What is a Micro CHP engine? And How Does CHP work?

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Onsite cogeneration of electricity with heat reclaim by Combined Heat and Power, or CHP units, is one of the most effective ways of reducing costs by simultaneously powering and heating a building from a single gas-powered engine.

As gas supply remains on a par with or slightly cheaper than grid-supplied electricity, and because Combined Heat and Power units secure ‘free / waste heat’ as part of that power generation process less gas overall is required for the heating of the building. So there are two opportunities to reduce operational costs.

The micro-CHP form factor that we deploy in the TOTEM series of CHP units was originally conceived and brought to market in the late 1970s. Subsequently, the design has evolved and improved, incorporating the latest engineering practices and expertise from the automotive industry to ensure the design is optimised to meet the real-world needs of a building project.

The TOTEM m-CHP internal combustion engine is a product of the automotive expertise of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ (FCA). The continuous development over 50 years, gives the current gas-driven 1.4L Fiat Fire engine an astounding reliability rate of 99.6% over 100,000 units per year.

The Engine Control Unit (ECU), high-efficiency catalytic converter and fine-tuning for the engine’s stationary parameters is provided by Magneti Marelli, a name which will be familiar to fans of Formula One racing. It is the ECU and catalytic converter that which deliver TOTEM’s ultra-low NOₓ and CO emissions. This is particularly important for urban building projects where NOₓ (a combination of NO and NO2) is seen increasingly as a major factor in air pollution which can be extremely harmful to people. As Combined Heat and Power localises energy production, it is critical that the use of the technology addresses and significantly reduces NOₓ generation. NOₓ emissions from a TOTEM unit are less than 40 mg/kWh of electricity output, but once you take the heat output into account, which is considered a waste product, TOTEM becomes effectively NOₓ free.

TOTEM achieves ultra-low emissions rates –  that are less than 10% of most micro-cogeneration units available on the market –  through the close manufacturing relationships, of Fiat, Magneti Marelli, Asja and Adveco which has driven the adoption of micro-CHP in the UK through unique technology and service support. For this work, Adveco has been recently awarded a Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation Leadership Award for developing commercial micro-CHP in Europe.

TOTEM stands out with its complete, highly compact system in a box configuration, a design-driven by the decision to directly couple the engine to the generator, which is capable of delivering electrical outputs from 10 to 50 kW, and then closely integrate the other components, especially the condensing heat exchangers.

A building’s central heating water is heated directly in two stainless steel shell and tube heat exchangers and a water to water stainless steel plate heat exchanger transferring heat from the engine coolant (used to cool the engine, oil, and generator water jacket) and from the first stage exhaust. By reclaiming heat from every available source, TOTEM micro CHP units achieve a thermal efficiency of 65% or higher depending on the return water temperature. The TOTEM will condensate when the return water temperature is less than 50°C without the need for an additional flue heat exchanger.

Based on today’s fuel costs electricity output from the co-generator will be at a similar cost to electricity from the grid, however for each kWh of electricity generated approximately 2.5 kWh of free, high-grade heat will be recovered. With ultra-low emissions, micro CHP offers a real option, especially when combined in an application that blends renewables to provide a cost-effective and future-proof method for providing the power and heating needs for commercial projects.

Adveco packaged plant room.

Packaged Plant Rooms – A New Paradigm for Site Safety

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Adveco discusses how off-site construction techniques for commercial heating and hot water can alleviate pressures of cost and timescale on construction sites whilst also helping improve Covid-19 safety precautions…

There is no doubt that we are going to face long term changes in the way construction projects operate during and in the wake of the current Covid-19 pandemic. Worksites are already having to adhere to stricter policy on where and when workers can traverse and engage on-site, and, in accordance with Government recommendations, the responsibility for their safety lies squarely on the shoulders of the host – not only for incumbent staff but also for any visiting contractors or customers. Ultimately this is all to ensure anyone on site does not become compromised. This means further stretching the usually difficult, and therefore costly, co-ordination of equipment and controls installations required for a building. Such complexity is typical, for instance, when creating and installing modern heating and hot water applications.

New world, new approach

Adopting offsite pre-fabrication as part of your project is therefore highly advantageous, reducing time on site required of specialist contractors, which is both more cost-effective and safer for all involved.

Adveco combines deep engineering understanding with a wide prod­uct offering and experience in full system design to provide a single source of supply for the delivery of complete packaged plant rooms containing heating and hot water systems tailored precisely to fit the specific needs of a project.

All work is carried out in a controlled, purpose-made environment. This means should there be any forced downtime on-site due to a local lockdown, the assembly work at Adveco will continue as planned. With no distractions from other typical construction site activities or issue we can ensure your plant room work is more rapidly progressed and, with a controlled factory environment, optimal manufacturing conditions are provided for quality control. Unlike the general conditions found on a construction site.

Locating all production work offsite also means the plant room element of a project can also efficiently progress at the same time as other groundworks or site installations. As the plant room arrives with all appliances, controls and ancillaries pre-fitted and connected – using stainless steel (heating) or copper (DHW) crimp pipework – as standard, there is no need for extended plumbing and electrical installation. This helps drastically reduce on-site labour demands and allows for more rapid progression of project timescales, despite social distancing requirements.

To achieve the best results, you will need to finalise facets of decision-making relating to hot water, heating or cogeneration of power early on in the project to allow for increased lead-in times. Once production commences it becomes more difficult to accommodate changes to a bespoke pre-fabricated system. This is why Adveco’s expert design engineers will work closely from the start with your project team to accurately size and design a system that meets the exact needs of the project on day of delivery.  All that is required is for flues, external pipework and final electrical connections to be completed on-site.

Adveco has broad experience of developing small to very large packaged plant rooms, embracing a wide range of cost-effective to operate and renewable technologies, from high-efficiency gas and electric boilers and water heaters to heat recovery units, micro CHP, solar thermal and Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs). These are all brought together to deliver a wide range of bespoke applications that can transform the operational nature of a commercial property, reducing emissions and improving the efficiency of hot water and heating for lower ongoing costs. The fact that these systems can also be delivered in a manner that is also much safer for all involved on-site shows the tremendous advantages to be gained from this approach.

Discover more about Adveco’s Packaged Plant Rooms

Berry Court care home plant room installation.

The Cogeneration Gap – Part 3 Caring for the Environment

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We have considered the reasons for implementing m-CHP in new builds and upgrading care homes. In this third and final blog in the series, we consider one last deciding factor, the environmental impact of local cogeneration…

The carbon savings have long been an advantage of Combined Heat and Power (CHP), and can still be achieved, but that is changing because grid-supplied electricity is getting much cleaner. There has been a strong downward trend in emissions from electricity production since 2014, due to the increases in wind and solar power and the closure of coal-fired power stations. But on average, CHP provides a carbon benefit over the year, though the actual intensity fluctuates both seasonally and daily. On most days where carbon intensity is more than 188g/kWh CHP will provide a benefit. CHP will be carbon advantageous at some times of the day and not at others, but looking at the average carbon intensity of electricity generation from 2013-2017 even in the summer months when demand falls, the carbon intensity never fell below 200g/kWh, so CHP was always beneficial in this period in terms of carbon savings. Carbon intensity of the grid is higher when it is dark and cold, and CHP requires a thermal load to operate so naturally aligns itself with the higher carbon intensity when it provides greatest impact and savings.

In the future smart controls will adapt CHP run times to ensure it operates when it is most carbon advantageous.  For a CHP that runs for 14 hours per day, for example, the smart controls will ensure that the 10 hours when it does not operate align with the clean grid periods and not when the carbon intensity is the highest.

Even so, we recognise that the value of carbon savings with CHP will continue to reduce in comparison to previous years. Instead, attention is now turning to Nitrogen Oxides (NOX) savings. A by-product of the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels, NOX are a major contributing factor to poor air quality, the most toxicologically significant being a combination of nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). It can cause lung irritation and respiratory infections as well as being linked to cancer, asthma, strokes, and heart disease. The Royal College of Physicians believes it directly leads to as many as 40,000 deaths each year. This has led to widespread recognition that more needs to be done to address NOX emissions and the care sector needs to be seen to be addressing emissions that are a by-product of its activities.

Although all CHP with a catalytic converter is cleaner than the grid, taking in to account electrical efficiency, the wider CHP industry, as an average, has the same NOx emissions as large scale power generation. The downside for CHP has been that carbon-based power generation historically was located outside of major urban areas, but the drive for low carbon buildings is bringing even more potential emissions into our cities. Most CHP are likely to have a slight positive impact on air quality nationwide, but because those installations will typically be in urban/residential areas that CHP will have a negative impact.

Therefore, localised NOX emissions from ‘dirty’ cogeneration is becoming a concern. Where CHP is used to offset condensing boiler run hours, if the CHP is dirtier than the condensing boiler then the local emissions are worsened. Despite air pollution and NOX mainly arising from road traffic – half of current NO­X pollution in major urban areas is attributed to vehicles – emissions from decentralised energy production are now being seen as a contributing factor. It is therefore of great importance that the NOX emissions from new CHP units are lower than condensing boilers if they are to have a positive effect.

Our own assessment of cited NO­X emissions from CHP manufacturers shows wildly fluctuating numbers, ranging from 64 mg/kWh to a highly concerning 596 mg/kwh, and older units were far worse. Consider the 2018 EcoDesign limit for CHP is 240mg/kWh! And I would argue that this number is now far too high given the changing attitude to, and awareness of the dangers of NO­X emissions.

Despite heat recovered by the CHP being considered NOX neutral, it is vitally important to recognise that there is a considerable difference between ‘dirty’ CHP and the latest generation of low-NO X CHP. One such class of low-NO X appliance are the micro or m-CHP units, where we can cite emissions levels as low as 11mg/kWh. For a unit of 20kW electrical output, with a gas input of 70kW, in a situation with an average annual run time of 6,500 hours for a standard application such as a care home, the yearly NOX emission from a ’dirty’ CHP will be 109.2kg/year, compared to 4.55kg/year for the latest generation of m-CHP. And remember, this option is also improving local air quality because the m-CHP is used to offset the run hours of a condensing boiler which at emissions over 30 mg/kWh is dirty compared to the CHP.

Conclusion

Comparing CHP with other local energy generation technologies, today we can still show that it has lower running costs than a heat pump, plus has both higher savings and an easier install than PV. Without doubt, a CHP can provide useful energy cost savings for a building, so it always makes sense to run existing CHP, and makes sense to purchase for the right type of building.

Mid to high occupancy residential care homes are particularly apt and upgrading to CHP in these facilities will provide a good payback period and be a solid investment over the decade, so long as a guaranteed maintenance schedule is put in place.

Finally, selecting the right CHP can provide carbon savings and more importantly, as we look to the future, can help improve local air quality for a building.

At the end of the day, the building and its use should drive the decision making, but for the care home, perhaps the greatest advantage of all is the assurance that residents will have a continuity of comfort through the provision of heating and hot water. It is in this role that m-CHP delivers a business-critical need in the care home environment.

TOTEM T20 CHP unit (Combined Heat and Power unti) in a residential care home.

The Cogeneration Gap – Part 2 Embracing CHP

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In the first part of this short blog series on the application of micro-CHP within residential care homes Adveco explained why CHP (Combined Heat and Power) is often chosen for new builds. In this second part, we turn our attention to why you would upgrade existing facilities to m-CHP…

The cost of deploying CHP within care homes is, without doubt, the deciding factor for the majority of managers. When calculating the operational cost savings, we need to take the cost of the offset electricity and thermal energy, and deduct the costs of the energy coming in, in other words, the price of the gas, and the maintenance costs. The other key input is the number of run hours per year that the CHP appliance will operate.

A CHP is very different to a boiler, which other than an annual service you would typically tend to forget about. Inside the CHP casing is a gas-powered automobile engine, with high stressed moving parts that will require necessary repairs over time that could reduce savings. So, you need to be aware of the ongoing investment needed when operating CHP to support regular pay as you go maintenance and repair. Once the cost of maintenance is factored in, the operating costs can be determined based on electricity and gas prices.

To understand what these operational costs look like, I am going to cite current figures based on the installation of a TOTEM T25 micro-CHP unit. From our experience, these are typically the size of a unit a larger care home will install. Firstly, being gas-powered, the CHP is a far better option when the cost of gas is less than electric, which has been the trend since 2015. Currently, based on medium non-domestic rates, a T25 will save £1.50 per hour that it runs. Let’s consider the expectation on run hours per year, many CHP units that have gone in will run relatively short hours per year just to increase the efficiency of the building to meet carbon requirements. Looking at the demands of the London Plan, for example, 2,500 run hours may be sufficient to meet the additional carbon savings demanded. At that lower run rate, the CHP is still going to save £3,750 savings per year.

This may not be enough to provide a true payback, but are interesting savings in an inherited, new building, where the cost of the CHP is part of the cost of the building and does not have to be proven to pay back. The decision is only to run it and save £3,750, or not and save nothing.

Upgrading to CHP

But what if you want to upgrade your plant room, when is right to Include CHP? The technology offers a number of advantages, the micro-CHP is especially easier to install, passing through a standard 60cm doorframe and able to be installed internally, avoiding the need for external space or rooftop placement which would be needed for say solar photovoltaics (PV) which is another common choice for onsite energy generation. CHP also offers better payback than Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP) and with inclusion in the Government’s new SEG payments, you can profit from additional energy generated by selling it back to the grid from your CHP at a guaranteed tariff. There is also the bonus of increased resiliency for your DHW and then there are the running cost savings.

The cost of a T25 is £50,000, with savings per hour (including maintenance) of £1.50, so it requires 33,333 run hours to achieve payback. Saving just £3,750 per year means the only driver is carbon savings and that would not alone warrant the investment in an existing building.

If the building is right for CHP, then it is worth considering as an upgrade. CHP saves money when it runs, it’s the opposite of a boiler which costs money when it runs so we want that to be off and the CHP on.  The ideal applications are ones with large DHW loads where people are residing. With a large care home, the expectation would be to run a CHP 24 hours per day during the heating season, dropping to 12-14 hours per day outside heating season. This gives us an average running of 18 hours per day throughout the year or 6,700 run hours per year. That equates to a five-year payback, and with 10-year  operating plan in place the potential savings will be £50,000 if your building is suited to the technology.

Alexandra House, operated by Care South, is a two-storey, 58-room residential care and nursing home in Poole, it has a T20 CHP working in conjunction with a custom-built 2500-litre buffer vessel, as well as a cascade of two AO Smith Upsilon 110 boilers and two AO Smith IT500 indirect calorifiers. This is all supplied as a complete package, alongside ancillaries and backup heating components via electric immersion elements. The design of the hot water and heating system at Alexandra House is projected to achieve more than 7,100 CHP run hours per year, resulting in annual carbon reductions in excess of 44.5 tonnes and providing expected energy savings, inclusive of CHP maintenance costs, of £7,500.

In the third, and final part, we will take a look at the environmental impact of m-CHP and explain how it can deliver energy and heat whilst reducing a care home’s emissions…

Bromsgrove Leisure Centre.

Sustainable Energy For The Leisure Industry – Part 2

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In part 1 we discussed the importance of understanding how hot water, heating and power demands can be cost-effectively brought into balance, and why hybrid systems are key to achieving long-term sustainability…

As well as being able to be cost-effectively controlled, a hybrid system can also be optimised for CO₂ emissions by selecting the optimal (ecological) heat generator whenever possible via an energy management system incorporating smart metering. Should the building envelope subsequently be renovated, the required heating load will decrease further, and the existing gas boiler can take on less of the annual heating work and eventually could even be retired.

Depending on a building’s demand, we can also make a strong case for combined heat and power (CHP) where the CHP generates onsite electricity from a gas-powered engine, efficiently recovering heat from the process. Such an approach will still offer some carbon savings, definitely cost savings and, if that CHP is a low nitrogen oxides (NOₓ) micro appliance (m-CHP) when compared to the boiler, then we also have NOₓ saving. At worst, such a system is going to be carbon neutral but crucially low NOₓ which is increasingly a requirement for consultants and specifiers to pass building planning.

m-CHP also benefits from inclusion in the new SEG legislation so excess generated electricity can be sold to offset the CAPEX. The addition of m-CHP does require a certain level of oversight, so it is important to factor in the costs of regularly monitoring, managing and maintaining the system to ensure long term guaranteed efficiencies and relatively rapid ROI. As a result, compact micro-CHP systems have proven to be an extremely popular option across the leisure industry.

Adveco recently supplied Travelodge’s flagship 395-room London City hotel with a system that features an Adveco TOTEM T25 m-CHP unit. With continual background electrical power use and large domestic hot water (DHW) demand, Travelodge committed to a system based on micro-combined heat and power (m-CHP) which, when compared to conventional hot water solutions, attains substantial improvements in energy efficiency and reduced emissions.

Beautifully designed and fitted boiler room with mCHP, calorifiers etc.

The m-CHP pre-heats the system water via an MSS buffer vessel, which feeds six stainless steel calorifiers supported by a 572 kW A.O. Smith Upsilon boiler cascade. These plant components, all supplied by Adveco were installed into a rooftop plant room and commissioned by Adveco’s in-house team of engineers. m-CHP proved the most practical and cost-effective method for Travelodge to satisfy Part L of the Building Regulations, aiding its demand for sustainable and energy-efficient building design. And, with Totem’s NOₓ emissions at less than 10 mg/kWh, Travelodge is able to significantly reduce the building’s emissions of NOₓ, a potentially deadly polluting gas that is increasingly driving decision making for consultants dealing with projects located in highly urbanised areas.

Recently highlighted for its sustainability in industry awards, Adveco’s m-CHP application was also used by Bromsgrove Sport and Leisure Centre. Operated by Everyone Active, this was part of a large new build project designed to meet strict building and environmental standards. The new £10.3m facility providing a range of services to the local community including two swimming pools, sports hall and climbing wall, a 100-station gym, a fully-featured spa, and a café. With the pools and associated year-round heat demand, the leisure centre required a high-performance heating system.

To achieve the high level of energy efficiency to serve the building’s heating system required a 25kWe, 57kWTh TOTEM T25 -CHP appliance, as well as a bespoke 3000-litre buffer vessel, controls and ancillaries. Adveco additionally supplied two A.O. Smith BFC120 condensing water heaters to serve the domestic hot water supply to the leisure centre.

Since commissioning in early 2018, the TOTEM T25 at Bromsgrove Leisure Centre achieves 7,000 operational hours a year for an annual saving of as much as £10,000.  By producing both electricity and heat from the same supply of input fuel, the associated net reduction in carbon emissions has been more than 65,000 kg per year.

For leisure projects, high-efficiency condensing boilers and gas-powered m-CHP continue to offer considerable economic advantages in terms of operational costs for built assets. They also remain a realistic and effective means of meeting the demands for improved sustainability, which can be greatly enhanced by combining these technologies with other renewables. Whilst a gas/hybrid approach may be perceived as more conservative, it offers a route to a more sustainable future without removing potentially necessary and therefore valuable energy infrastructure which would be needed to support the introduction of green gas with its lower carbon footprint. Critically, a hybrid approach helps to plan for the future without being prohibitively costly.

Read more about the project at Bromsgrove Leisure Centre

Watch our video on the advantages of micro CHP for commercial buildings 

Micro-CHP and The Urban Balancing Act.

Micro-CHP and The Urban Balancing Act

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Adveco expert Bill Sinclair, Technical DirectorAdveco’s Technical Director, Bill Sinclair, discusses balancing concerns over the cost to health from NOX emissions with the advantages of using micro-CHP in urban commercial building projects.

A by-product of the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels, Nitrogen Oxides (NOX) are a major contributing factor to poor air quality, the most toxicologically significant being a combination of nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). It can cause lung irritation and respiratory infections as well as being linked to cancer, asthma, strokes, and heart disease. The Royal College of Physicians believes it directly leads to as many as 40,000 deaths each year with an estimated cost of £20 billion to the country in healthcare and lost working days. This has led to widespread recognition that more needs to be done to address NOX emissions with attention more than ever-shifting to encompass the production of emissions from the built environment.

With a greater emphasis on renewables to make our cities more self-sufficient and resilient in terms of meeting energy needs, low carbon electricity’s share of generation has currently risen to a record 50.1% across the UK with (33.4% of which is generated by renewables). But, as old power plants go offline and are replaced by unpredictable supplies like solar and wind, combined heat and power (CHP) becomes increasingly advantageous. Able to reduce a building’s reliance on the grid, yet when demand is high such as when it is cold and dark, provide a more reliable power source, CHP also has the added benefit of providing high-grade heat at lower cost in conditions where a heat pump coefficient of performance falls and the energy cost increases beyond that of gas.

Although all CHP with a catalytic converter is cleaner than the grid, localised NOX emissions from ‘dirty’ cogeneration should be a concern. Where CHP is used to offset condensing boiler run hours, if the CHP is dirtier than the condensing boiler then the local emissions are worsened. Despite air pollution and NOX mainly arising from road traffic – half of the current NO­X pollution in London is attributed to vehicles – emissions from decentralised energy production are now being seen as a contributing factor. It is therefore of great importance that the NOX emissions from new CHP units within built-up areas are lower than condensing boilers if they are to have a positive effect.

Setting a new threshold for emissions

Micro-CHP (Combined Heat and Power) in urban commercial building projects.The 2018 EcoDesign directive sets a NOX emission limit for CHP units at 240mg/kWh. This threshold, despite being approximately equal to emissions that would result from producing heat from a boiler and consuming electricity from conventional power plants, is too lenient. Air quality has been a critical driver in the revisions within the London Plan which now treats CHP with a lot less enthusiasm – although still accepting that there remains a strategic case for CHP systems as long as the NOx emissions are equivalent or lower than those of ultra-low NOx gas boilers.

The cogeneration industry has not been sitting on its laurels, and a new generation of ‘clean’ CHP brings all the advantages of onsite, on-demand cogeneration, and exceeds the London Plan’s expectations of ‘very low levels’ of NOX, meeting Euro 6 standards for emissions. More compact and much cleaner, micro-CHP units (in accordance with EU standards at 50kW or less rated electrical power) are available with far lower emission rates. This is the case for the TOTEM m-CHP, for example, which is independently certified at just 10mg/kWh.

If we compare a CHP meeting the 2018 EcoDesign limit of 240mg/kWh to that of a TOTEM m-CHP, we can demonstrate the real difference in the latest generation of CHP. Using a unit of 20kW electrical output, a gas input of 70kW, in a situation with an average annual run time of 6,500 hours for a standard application such as a hotel or apartment block, the yearly NOX emission from a ’dirty’ CHP will be 109.2kg/year, compared to 4.55kg/year for Adveco’s TOTEM. And remember, this option is also improving local air quality because the m-CHP is used to offset the run hours of a condensing boiler which at emissions over 30 mg/kWh is dirty compared to the CHP.

Hybrid futures

There will always be projects where in certain circumstances m-CHP will have a place and other renewables are closed out due to limitations of either the site or the technology. By the same token, we would never advocate m-CHP for every building. As is so often the case in the commercial world, each project will have its specific requirements, requiring a more bespoke approach to the provision of hot water, heating and power generation.

Increasingly we hear from consultants who are struggling to pass any kind of gas or gas CHP based heating system because of the issues around NOₓ emissions, despite the advantage of the high-grade heat necessary to meet the needs of commercial projects. Simply opting for heat pumps, providing a lower grade of heat, isn’t a practical alternative. One answer then is to use a combination of two or three technologies to provide a high heat, low cost, low NOₓ system.

This is particularly relevant to large buildings where a heat pump alone is simply not suitable. These projects need an additional, high-grade source of heat. Now, that essentially takes you to gas, but if the building is big enough, after the heat pump, but before the gas, can sit m-CHP to provide low NOₓ and very low running costs.

We can also make a case for using Combined Heat and Power in existing buildings which already have gas boilers and do not have the electrical supply needed to utilise a heat pump. Again, it does not make sense to fit just a heat pump. But we do not want to use CHP to offset low-temperature heat pumps, it has to sit after a heat pump, offsetting the gas heater. Such an approach will still offer some carbon savings, definitely cost savings and, if that CHP is a low NOₓ appliance when compared to the boiler, then we also have NOₓ saving. At worst such a system is going to be carbon neutral, but cost and NOₓ effective.

The move towards all-electric in smaller buildings also reopens the door for solar thermal with better payback case and better carbon savings. Used in conjunction with low-temperature ASHPs in an arrangement to ensure that it offsets the high-grade source, it offers an alternate hybrid approach that does not require CHP. But we believe gas-fired m-CHP will continue to play a necessary role as part of many hybrid systems, achieving effective water temperatures for commercial applications whilst balancing running costs and savings.

As with any project, design what is best for the building. We would never advocate ignoring the risk of increasing air pollution locally with ‘dirty’ CHP systems, so if Combined Heat and Power is the best fit for your project’s needs then it is vital to choose the lowest NOX emitting equipment available. Right now, the Mayor of London is supporting the city’s Cleaner Heat Cashback scheme for SMEs, proposing scrapping of old gas boilers and replacing them with a variety of options including new efficient gas boilers. If we can demonstrate that m-CHP, either standalone or in a hybrid system, can offset condensing boiler run hours and make emissions cleaner then there is surely a place for the technology, even in the centre of our busiest cities.

Discover more about TOTEM m-CHP 

Download the TOTEM m-CHP brochure

Adveco 2020 Product Overview Now Available

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The 2020 Adveco Product Range brochure serves as a quick reference document covering a wide range of products and services provided by Adveco and A.O. Smith. The current range incorporates commercial hot water and heating equipment including: condensing gas water heaters; storage tanks, oil & electric water heaters; solar thermal; boiler cascade systems; stainless steel cylinders, thermal storage tanks, carbon steel buffers, combined heat & power (CHP); Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP). These technologies are the building blocks for Adveco’s bespoke packaged plant rooms and system offerings. All supported by our applications and field engineers who provide expert commission services, warranty maintenance and training.

If you are seeking support in the design, supply, commissioning or servicing of business-critical hot water, heating and power then this brochure is a useful tool to have to hand.

You can download the brochure now.

Packaged plant room being installed (Prefabricated plant room).

Adopting a Streamlined Approach for Commercial Building Projects

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As we fast approach the deadline for Brexit, the industry supporting the built environment, from construction to maintenance is braced for change. One key concern will be a widening skills gap, with the potential loss of skilled workers. Some have cited as many as one in five roles within construction alone will likely remain unfilled in the near to mid-term. In an industry that is already facing an engineering skills shortfall and interest in STEM subjects at schools struggling to gain the necessary traction to deliver enough apprentices and graduates to fulfil the industry’s future needs, practical responses are needed now to overcome threatened shortages of expert staff.

The other key post Brexit concern is undoubtedly the belief that costs will rise, at least initially, under new import tariff structures. Given that almost a quarter of parts and fixings used across built environment projects are currently sourced from the EU, there is bound to be an impact on a project’s bottom line.

So, the question is how can you mitigate costs on a project when faced with a loss of skilled onsite labour? One answer, and one that the Government supports, is the further development of offsite manufacture to streamline and modernise processes.

Offsite construction, or pre-fabrication, is a tried and tested way of bringing mechanical and electrical systems to a live construction site, countering the challenges of complexity, limited space, limited time and the need to work around other contractors. Under the post-Brexit scenario, offsite represents a practical way to address rising costs as well as a shortfall of experience on site.

Adveco has for many years specialised in the creation of bespoke systems and applications for the commercial built environment. It will size, design, and manufacture to order Packaged Plant Room enclosures suitable for placement beside or on top of buildings with a flat roof space. The plant room contains a variety of environmental systems for generating, managing and recovering energy for heating and domestic hot water (DHW) systems. With the increasing expectations on the built environment to be sustainable and show active efforts to reduce emissions during both construction and throughout the operational life of the building, offsite construction of low carbon power systems can be a particularly attractive response.

Manufacturing hot water, heating and low carbon systems away from the job in our purpose-built facility ensures improved production with optimal conditions provided for quality control and a reduction in wastage that can be found on a typical construction site.

Packaged plant room being lifted into position (Prefabricated plant room).Offsite construction, of course, makes things once on site much easier. When delivered to the project location, the plant room module can be easily sited, requiring just external pipework and final electrical connections to be completed. Those with the expertise to manage the final install are able to do so quickly and move onto other tasks more rapidly. Optimising the time of skilled workers accelerates project timelines which in turn can help offset other increasing costs that a project may now face.

Learn more about the advantages and the wide range of options available for creating a bespoke packaged plant room for your project in this helpful booklet (PDF).

Taking better care of heating and hot water

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Adveco considers how the healthcare sector can take better care of heating and hot water systems for a cleaner future. Read the article on Health Business

What can you do to protect your business from power outages?

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While it was a common experience throughout the 70s, this month’s National Grid failure and subsequent blackout caught many businesses by surprise. The simple fact is that we have become complacent, expecting a consistent energy supply, and the resultant disruption that was seen across the country reflected this.

The National Grid failure was a rarity, but it is important to realise that such an occurrence had been predicted by experts who have questioned the risk associated with the ‘energy trilemma’. So called, because of three key challenges that face the sector, the risks associated with the need to decarbonise power generation in the cheapest possible way while guaranteeing security of supply.

Last November, energy secretary Greg Clark triumphantly declared the ‘energy trilemma’ to be over in a speech to Parliament stating that: “by the mid-2020s green power will be the cheapest power.” As is clear, his statement glossed over the third and by far most important aspect, security of supply.  In response to the recent blackout, Lord Adonis, former chair of the government’s National Infrastructure Commission, said: “This is a big wake-up call for National Grid. Their resilience is below par.”

National Grid’s director of operations Duncan Burt acknowledged the “immense disruption” the blackout had caused, citing the near-simultaneous loss of two generators being more than the grid was routinely prepared for. Subsequent investigation now points to a lightning strike on the network near Cambridge, a common occurrence, and critically the almost instantaneous total loss of supply from the Hornsea wind farm, which is currently under construction off the coast of Yorkshire. It cut from 800MW of production to 0MW in under a second.

The increasing reliance on extremely high volatility renewable energy sources (RES) electricity, where there will inevitably be peaks in supply of electricity, remains a concern for many considering the future consistency, and therefore cost, of supply from the grid.

Colin Gibson, former director of National Grid, and grid engineer, Dr. Capell Aris,  suggest ministers should impose limits on the construction of new wind and solar farms to help avoid a nationwide blackout, while some existing turbines and solar panels may have to be disconnected, and new developments restricted, to “secure” the system in the aftermath of this month’s major power cuts.

So what options are available right now for businesses seeking to maintain 24/7 operations? Whilst Lord Adonis placed focus on the resilience of transport and health systems, the bottom line for any business is the critical nature of consistent power for operations.

Solar photovoltaics (solar PVs) have retained popularity amongst organisations looking to lower emissions and increase their environmental responsibility as well as saving significant costs on energy. It also offers extra security when it comes to your power supply. However, there will always be limitations in terms of installation space for panels and the process of designing and installing can be lengthy. CAPEX can also be relatively high meaning ROI is slower, even with the government’s new SEG legislation setting new tariffs for exporting excess energy to the grid. To protect business operations from service loss, PV is more of a long term response.

A more rapid and viable sustainable option for commercial operations of any size are micro-cogeneration or m-CHP systems, which use the existing gas supply to run a specially configured engine that generates electrical power onsite. In addition, the m-CHP will recover the normally wasted heat generated by this process, this can then be used to heat water for other applications including essentially ‘free’ space heating.

Adveco’s Totem M-CHP is capable of delivering electrical outputs from 10 to 50 kW with a total unit efficiency of up to 107.4%. This makes the TOTEM series of cogenerators among the most efficient combined heat and power units available today.

For businesses wanting to reduce running costs, reduce emissions from site and guarantee a cost-effective level of service supply M-CHP ticks all the boxes. New installations of m-CHP are also included in the SEG legislation, like PV systems this enables them to sell excess produced power back to the grid.

More importantly, TOTEM’s compact design requires less space (it is just under 2m in length and 80cms wide) and can be assembled onsite in a matter of days. Relative to other onsite technologies m-CHP provides a relatively rapid, deployable response to any concerns over the consistent provision of affordable energy.

m-CHPs from Adveco are in operation throughout the UK, from first responder sites to offices, hotels, universities and schools. Discover more about the advantages of m-CHP in this helpful booklet.