Heating can account for a significant annual cost with the ongoing issues of maintenance and potential breakdowns. Guy Ransom, commercial director for Finn Geotherm, explains the benefits of renewable heating and why it needn’t be such a challenge
Care homes require heating and hot water 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Any breakdowns or disruptions to the service may leave vulnerable residents at risk, so it is vital to ensure the system is reliable. At the same time, facilities managers are required to manage the ever increasing cost of fossil fuel heating alongside environmental obligations.
The demand put on conventional oil, gas and LPG boiler systems to maintain a constant temperature in some properties can be crippling, particularly with the fierce winters the UK has experienced in recent years. Some boilers are overworked and simply cannot keep up, so it is a constant battle to ensure every room is warm enough and in properties that are off the gas grid, enough fuel is ordered. However, there is a renewable energy alternative that is ideally suited to care homes and their operations in the form of heat pumps.
It is a common misconception that heat pumps are new technology. The first large scale heat pump was installed in Norwich in 1945. Shortly afterwards, The Spectator magazine reported that: “It seems incredible that a device such as the heat pump should have escaped the attention it deserves.
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