CASE STUDY | PENRITH LEISURE CENTRE Its all going swimmingly! A leisure complex in Penrith is reaping the benefits of CHP thanks to good design, sizing, integration and maintenance, plus effective collaboration with end users says Remehas Mark Gibbons Your trusted HVAC partner. Now fully stocked with three day delivery available. T otal primary energy usage at Penrith Leisure Centre, in Eden, has fallen by 35% since it installed a combined heat and power (CHP) and boiler solution. When the leisure complexs existing plant began to fail, its owner Eden District Council (EDC) wanted a high-efciency solution that would improve the sites energy performance without affecting comfort levels or visitor satisfaction. Increasing operational efciency was another consideration for the managers of the site, GLL. Leisure centres are, typically, intensive energy users, with associated costs often amounting to as much as 30% of the total operating expense. In complexes with swimming pools, the heating and hot water provision alone can account for as much as 65% of energy consumption. Electricity use is also high, especially in centres that use it extensively for air conditioning, ventilation, lighting, fans, pumps and more. To meet the requirements at Penrith Leisure Centre, M&E engineers Thomas Armstrong recommended replacing the old plant with a Remeha 20/44kW condensing CHP unit, operating in conjunction with three Remeha gas highefciency condensing boilers. Best-practice design UDSA Gas Fired Unit Heater - High efficiency - Reduced energy bills - Advanced burner technology 01384 489250 reznorsales@nortek.com Reznor is a registered trademark of Nortek Global HVAC, LLC www.reznor.eu CHP generates electricity and heat simultaneously on site, in one highly-efcient process. As such, it is capable of delivering a 30 reduction in primary energy use compared with traditional generation. To generate maximum returns, however, a CHP unit needs to operate for as many hours of the year as possible. Penrith Leisure Centre has a 25m swimming pool and 13m studio pool, as well as a gym, studios, sports hall and changing rooms. It is open almost every day of the year, so has high, constant demand for heat and power, making it well suited to using CHP. In fact, it had previously been heated by a turbine CHP, boilers and water heaters. Unfortunately, this unit was oversized and failed to achieve the anticipated performance levels, energy savings benets and life expectancy. Thomas Armstrong sized the new condensing CHP on base load, to ensure maximum run hours and prevent cycling, with the boilers meeting peak demand. Good design Pairing CHP with high-efciency condensing boilers is an effective way of ensuring the system performs to its full 16 October 2019 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE Oct19 pp16-17 Remeha Supp.indd 16 20/09/2019 13:49