Care in the community

The Ash View Extra Care facility in Huddersfield comprises 50 one-bedroom and two-bedroom modern, fully accessible flats. Developed for Kirklees Council, the self-contained flats are designed to enable self-care and independent living for its residents.

Living in Extra Care housing gives residents security, privacy and peace of mind – there is 24-hour access to onsite emergency support if needed. Care is provided by Community Integrated Care, a national social care charity, with support tailored to each person’s needs, whether that’s help with age-related conditions, disabilities or mental health. There are a range of facilities on site, including a hair salon, activity room, communal lounge and secure gardens.

“Ash View is exactly the kind of forward-thinking support that people in Kirklees deserve: modern, adaptable and at the heart of the community,” says Councillor Moses Crook, deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for transport and housing.

“We’re proud to have partnered with Community Integrated Care to bring this scheme to life. It marks another key step in our commitment to expanding our available housing to meet demand and our role in giving Kirklees residents the independence everyone deserves.”

System design

Keeping the residents comfortable and warm was a top priority for the council. Following a consultation with Ideal Heating, the council chose a communal heat network to provide heating and hot water to flats and communal areas. Multiple smaller boilers work together as a single, cohesive unit, enabling them to share the load and respond dynamically to energy demand.

“Heat networks aren’t new,” points out Chris Caton, commercial product director at Ideal Heating. “Many apartment blocks were fitted with them in the 1970s but in recent years installation has taken off, thanks, in part, to the government setting a target to supply heat to 20% of homes through heat networks by 2050.”

The heat network consists of three main elements: the energy centre, which generates heat for the primary water that is distributed around the system; the pipework, which distributes the primary water to end users; and Heat Interface Units (HIUs), which transfer heat from the primary distribution network to the end user’s heating system or generate instant hot water.

“At Ash View, we wanted a heating system that would be reliable, energy-efficient and safe for residents,” says Crook. “Installing a communal heat network allows us to supply heating and hot water through a shared system that can be carefully managed for efficiency and maintenance. It also removes the need for individual gas boilers in each flat, which improves safety and helps us meet our carbon reduction goals."

Easy install

V&T (Plumbing & Heating Services) were contracted to install the heating system at Ash View via Equans, the principal contractor. The company researched heat networks and provided Kirklees Council with a design and specification for an efficient heat network that would meet its needs.

“We looked at the commercial range of HIUs and boilers offered by Ideal Heating Commercial and decided to go with the POD and Evomax 2, as they both met our criteria,” explains Tom Crawford, the design engineer at V&T. “It also made sense for us to stick with one manufacturer.”

To create the energy centre, V&T installed four 100kW wall-mounted boilers in a cascade, set up on a standard height frame and header kit. This included 50 POD HIUs with first-fix kits and factory-fitted, hard-wired M-Bus heat meters. The boilers were piped up to a buffer, with connections laid out in line with Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) CP1 guidance.

These boilers are highly efficient, with up to 99.6% full-load efficiency and up to 110% part-load efficiency, can operate at up to 30° ΔT and boast a high turndown of 5:1. The cascade can turn down to accurately match any load from 400-20kW (20:1). In order to meet the changing demands placed upon the network, this method increases the proportion of time where the boilers are modulating at part load instead of cycling on and off.

Each flat at Ash View has a POD with an i305 HIU that connects to the heat network. Two highly efficient stainless steel brazed plate heat exchangers transfer thermal energy from the distribution network, providing separation between the heat network for heating and hot water.

These units, which look like regular gas boilers, have a small footprint, so they can easily fit into a kitchen, airing cupboard or utility area. They don’t require flue routes or gas connections, making them simple to install.

“Our engineers had no issues installing the POD HIUs and found them very similar to domestic combi boilers,” explains Crawford.

“POD HIUs have been designed for hassle-free installation and a first-fix kit can be delivered and installed ahead of the POD unit so all services can be piped up, filled, flushed and tested in advance. The engineers also found it easy to install the mounting frames and header arrangement, which was fitted in a matter of hours.

“Designing a system always leads to some apprehension at the commissioning stage but once operational tests commenced we were suitably impressed with the PODs’ heating and hot water performance to each apartment,” adds Crawford. “The boilers get the system to temperature relatively quickly and I was surprised how quiet they were in operation, even when all four were running in full-load conditions during their commission.”

Heat networks: Code of Practice

CP1 Heat networks: Code of Practice for the UK is a voluntary document published by CIBSE that establishes minimum technical standards for the design, operation and management of heat networks.

A new free edition is scheduled for publication in 2025, the result of a collaboration between CIBSE and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

According to CIBSE, the previous edition has been “highly successful in establishing minimum standards to improve the quality of district heating projects from concept through to operation; it has also had a strong influence on the procurement of heat networks, and underpins much of the Heat Networks Delivery Unit and Heat Networks Investment Project work done by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.”

• For more information, visit: www.cibse.org/knowledge-resear...