Awards

In 2009, we were delighted to be awarded Worcester Bosch's Environment 2020 Award for the month of October. As one of the 12 monthly winners we were automatically put forward for the Annual Award. We were thrilled to be Runner Up for 2009 and below is the project we were awarded for.

Torpenhow, Cumbria
We were approached by the customer after she had researched many different types of heat sources for her 16th Century farmhouse in Torpenhow, Cumbria. Following much discussion, we decided that a 9kw Air to Water Heat Pump was the best way forward. After calculating the square meterage and heat values of the property, we found that though this unit would be sufficient for hot water needs, it would not be able to heat the whole of the property. The solution we found for this was to install an Air to Air unit in the Lounge/Dining Room to heat this area, thus enabling the Air to Water Heat Pump to heat the radiators in the rest of the property and also a small area of underfloor heating in the Study.

The external fan unit of the Air to Water Heat Pump was located at the rear of the property so as minimize the visual impact of this period property. The external fan of the Air to Air Heat Pump was installed on the hidden return of the front wall of the property. To ensure total invisibility, we are in the process of building a mock beehive to cover the unit, complete with more than adequate vents. We felt that this unit could not be installed to the rear of the property as there are open wooden beams to all of the ground floor ceilings and to have pipework on show would not be in keeping with the age of the property. Trunking had already been installed internally to keep visible pipework to a minimum with this in mind.

The 2’ thick stone walls of this property proved to be rather a challenge! We sited the heat pump and the buffer vessel in the Utility Room as this gave us enough scope to take new pipework throughout the property, including two bathrooms and all radiators. It took nearly two days to knock through to allow for all the sleeving required for this pipework.

A new water main was installed to achieve best flow rate and pressure for the new system, the old one being too small and corroded.