French village switches to biomass heating

Additional savings through replacement of heat emitters

Our work for the village council in Rittershoffen, France, commenced with an energy study for a number of public buildings in 2006. Two months later, we were asked to plan a biomass district heating system for eight public buildings: the town hall, two schools, the fire station, two churches and two rectories. As part of our work, we produced all tender documents and managed the system construction. We obtained part-funding for the heating renovation (60% of total costs) on behalf of our client.

A biomass boiler (280kW), gas boiler (400kW) and buffer tank were installed into the existing boiler room of one of the churches. All buildings were connected to the district heating network and suitable control instrumentation installed. The forced-air heating systems of both churches were replaced in order to reduce energy costs. One of the churches was equipped with radiant bench-heating panels, which not only reduce energy consumption, but also increase comfort.

The entire heating system was completed within three months, in time for Christmas 2006. Total costs were kept nearly 10% below budget.

In November 2007, the first report on the new system was commissioned by the leader of the village council. This confirmed that actual construction and running costs were in excellent agreement with those predicted in our initial energy study.

• More heating case studies