A North East business centre is seeing its electricity costs slashed by three quarters after switching to a state-of-the-art renewable energy system.
Jörd Energy, which specialises in ground source heat pumps, has completed the first of a four-stage installation of the highly-efficient and environmentally-friendly technology, at Wansbeck Work Space, on Ashington’s Wansbeck Business Park.
Initial data taken by the Jörd Energy team has revealed a massive 75 per cent saving in energy costs, which will help cut annual overheads by tens-of-thousands-of-pounds.
The building is owned by Arch, which was set up by Northumberland County Council in 2012 as an arms-length investment and asset-based business, which reinvested its profits back into supporting economic and social development across the county.
Ground source heat pump system uses the same principals as a refrigerator, but in reverse! The pump extracts heat from the ground and absorbs it at low temperatures into a fluid inside a loop of pipe buried underground.
This liquid then passes through a compressor that raises it to a higher temperature, which in turn is used to heat water for heating systems.
Before work started within the building at the end of last year, Jörd Energy sunk 44 boreholes, to a depth of 100m, from where the underground heat is extracted.
Jörd Energy joint managing director Ian Goodwin said: “Arch will make significant savings in its energy bills at Wansbeck Business Space through to investing in renewable energy.
“And by installing a ground source heat pump within this office suite, it will not only benefit the environment, but also those small businesses who are based in it, as a reduction in overheads will lead to cheaper rents.
“Ground source heat pumps provide the lowest running cost of any heating system, and this is clearly demonstrated by the data we have captured over the last 12 weeks.
“We completed the install in one of the building’s four ‘spurs’ before winter set in, and now that the coldest months are behind us, we have been able to analyse the system’s performance.
“I’m delighted to say it has exceeded the client’s expectations. On the strength of this, Arch has now commissioned us to press with the project within the building’s remaining three other spurs.
“To encourage the installation of green energy solutions, the government provides financial support for seven years to the owners of renewable heating system through its Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI).
“This makes schemes such as Wansbeck Business Space’s much more attractive and viable to commercial and domestic property owners.”
Mr Goodwin added: “Like Wansbeck Work Space, we too are located on the Wansbeck Business Park, which is on the site of the former Ashington Colliery.
“And, like those before us, we are continuing the tradition of harvesting the energy reservoir in the ground beneath our feet. However, in our case, we are not extracting carbon in the form of coal, simply heat from the ground.”
