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Sunwarm Solar Hot Water Heating and Ventilation System Saves Solar Court Solar Court is a small development in Larkhall, South Lanarkshire, Scotland comprising of 12 bungalow type dwellings. Originally designed in the early 1970's, primarily for occupation by elderly residents, due to the age and condition of the existing installations they required all redundant solar water heating collectors to be replaced. Funding was identified by the Local Authority (South Lanarkshire Council) within its Housing Investment Programme, and to initiate a retrofit solution they turned to Nuaire and its solar hot water/heating and ventilation system called SUNWARM.Nine of the properties owned by the Council originally had 20 square metres of redundant solar water heating collectors mounted on the sloping southerly roofs. Their presence on the roof of these single storey semi-detached, one-bedroomed homes was causing physical damage and illustrated visible signs of decay. After hearing about the SUNWARM System from their Nuaire representative, South Lanarkshire Council invited the technical team up to Scotland to access the suitability of an installation. After examining the properties and working out the estimated return on investment, it was established that this technology would be ideally suited to the project. SUNWARM from Nuaire is a single system that provides home heating/cooling, ventilation and hot water, by harnessing the sun's energy. At the heart of the system there is a ventilation network and a set of solar panels. At Solar Court two solar panels were mounted on the roof of each of the properties where the heat generated from the the sun is captured and then circulated around the house using a ventilation system. When this heating is not needed in the home, it is diverted automatically to the hot water system storage tank, in order to fully utilise the free solar energy, whilst simultaneously ventilating and cooling the home with air taken directly from outside. The solar panels capture the sun's energy 365 days of the year. At night when there is no solar energy generated SUNWARM can still utilise the warm loft air (which during the heating season is an average 2/3 degrees higher than the outside temperature). The ventilating air is therefore always warmer than outside air temperature. Even on a cold winter day, when the sun is at its lowest the air temperature can be raised from an average outside air temperature of 6°C to 30°C plus. The specialist technical team at SUNWARM International, part of Nuaire, worked closely with South Lanarkshire Council to design, manufacture and install the complete system. In order to track the effectiveness of the SUNWARM system, South Lanarkshire Council also purchased the recently launched monitoring package. This will enable them to monitor energy generation and the status of the system over the 2 year period of the monitoring study, and beyond, without having to enter the property. Achieving fuel savings was also an important criteria. SUNWARM's potential to save up to 50% of the energy used to heat a home and its hot water to significantly reduce heating bills further, convinced South Lanarkshire Council to specify the nine SUNWARM systems. Jim Moffat, Technical Services Design Engineer for South Lanarkshire Council comments: "Our residents at Solar Court are all elderly, a group which is susceptible to fuel poverty. This Council wishes to ensure its tenants benefit by paying smaller bills, therefore reducing energy use is high up on our regeneration agenda." South Lanarkshire Council also incorporated various other energy saving measures into the houses, including top-up loft insulation, the provision of low energy light bulbs, pipe insulation and a hot water tank jacket. Graham Campbell, Property Services Manager, said "Solar Court clearly demonstrates South Lanarkshire Council's commitment to renewable energy, and I anticipate this project will also prove to be successful on a number of fronts through delivering a viable, sustainable and economic solar heating solution for our tenants." The SUNWARM system usually costs around £2,500 and achieves return on investment in 6-8 years. The availability of government-funded grants further reduces the costs. In Scotland Grants from the SCHRI (Scottish Community Householder Renewables Initiative) can be up to 100% of the entire project and in England and Wales up to 50% is available through the Clear Skies Initiative. In this case, the SCHRI assisted in this project by providing £40,000 worth of grant aid. [ Back to Index ] |