heating system for university chapel

Heating system for university chapel

Advice on best heating strategy

Vollmer Engineering was contracted to advise on a new heating system for a university chapel in the south west of England. In order to ensure that the heating system would be the correct solution into the future, a study was first undertaken comparing different heating strategies for the university campus (centralised vs. decentralised, fossil fuel vs. biomass). Taking into account likely developments in fuel prices, a biomass solution with a centralised boiler was shown to offer advantages in the near future. The university takes its environmental credentials very seriously and was very open to this scheme.

Moving on from the question of heating fuel and boiler types, we also considered the choice of heat emitters within the chapel. While both radiant panels and hot-air heating are significantly more energy efficient than the existing radiators, their installation is very difficult to justify on the grounds of capital costs.