Multi-utility infrastructure group Last Mile is to install a water-source ambient heat network at the mixed-use Welborne Garden Village development in Hampshire, England.
The first phase of the project, delivered by Buckland Development, will see up to 700 homes, a primary school and a village centre comprising shops, pubs and cafes, connected to Last Mile’s new ambient heat network.
The network will draw draws stable temperature water from Portsmouth Water’s nearby underground Hoads Hill Reservoir and feed it to an energy centre where a heat exchanger transfers energy from the water into an ambient heat network. Individual heat pumps at each property will convert the energy into space heating and hot water.
The heat network serving the properties is a closed loop system, separate from the water network that circulates water from the reservoir to the energy centre, to ensure there is no risk to drinking water quality or supply.
The reservoir acts as a heat sink for cooling in warmer months and facilitates building-to-building heat transfer, transforming excess heat produced by cooling in one building into heat and hot water for other buildings.
Robin Abram, Associate Director, Last Mile Heat said: “Ambient heat networks – whether using water or ground sources of heat – offer substantial emissions savings, and by adopting and managing the completed network we save developers significant operational expenditure. In many instances we can fund the build of the network too, reducing their upfront cost. As developers across the UK are under pressure to meet emissions reduction targets, Welborne Garden Village is a blueprint for success that many can follow.”
Last Mile Heat, a Heat Trust registered supplier, owns and operates the network.