A golf club has
increased its green credentials having installed a Windhager
biomass boiler to provide heating for the club facilities and the
adjacent Manor House Hotel. The Manor House Golf Club is situated
in the Cotswold countryside overlooking the Castle Combe valley
and provides 5 star accommodation as part of The Exclusive Hotels
Group.
As part of a green initiative the company
replaced its existing oil heating with a Windhager BioWIN wood
pellet boiler system. The club will not only significantly reduce
its carbon footprint but is set to save 52% a year on fuel bills
and generate an annual £14,000 from RHI (Renewable Heat
Incentive).
The
Manor House Golf Club found, like many other businesses, that its
current oil heating system was inefficient and proving extremely
costly as fuel prices steadily rise and maintenance becomes a more
regular necessity. The Exclusive Hotels Group has its own
environmental agenda called "˜Exclusively Green' with which they
aim to reduce the impact the business has on the environment. This
initiative has already seen the Manor House Hotel and Golf Club
purchase all electricity from 100% renewable sources such as wind
farms. This desire to improve energy consumption instigated research
into alternative heating options of which biomass was deemed the most
attractive for the golf club.
The
oil heating system was costing on average £13,000 a year in fuel
alone, using 20,000 litres of oil to heat the whole building, which
includes accommodation, restaurant, bars and changing facilities. In
contrast, the biomass boiler system installed will save around £6,500
in fuel a year for the club while increasing boiler efficiency to
92%. Combined with the significant payback the business will receive
through the government's RHI scheme, moving to the greener
alternative was an easy choice to make.
Managing
director of the group, Danny Pecorelli commented, "We've made
many decisions across the business to spend more on certain items
which fit our green criteria. The green agenda is our number one
priority, but having said that, in this case biomass has also helped
us to reduce our overall utilities' costs."
The
installation comprised two 60 kW Windhager BioWIN Excel wood pellet
boilers in a cascade system, suitable for situations where a large
and varying output is required. The BioWin Excel boilers feature wide
modulating output ranges to consistently provide maximum efficiency
and the cascade operating system controls the boiler output and
demand. The 6mm wood pellets are specially supplied from sustainable
sources and are all UK manufactured.
Maintenance
requirements are significantly reduced with the BioWIN Excel's
automated pellet feeding system and stainless steel combustion burner
bowl that has a patented cleaning mechanism, removing much of the
necessity for manual upkeep. Its compact design enables the BioWIN
Excel to be installed in the smallest of boiler rooms while the
pellet storage areas flexible requirements allows a variety of
buildings to be adopted.
Wessex
Biomass was the chosen installer to undertake the project and they
did not hesitate in specifying Windhager as the ideal boiler
manufacturer for the job. Peregrine Nicholls, managing director of
Wessex Biomass, cited Windhager's good reputation for quality
engineering as a key factor in using them saying, " We'd worked
with them on eight projects of varying sizes before this one and on
every job we've never had to deal with the client once the job was
completed- testament to the high quality of their products and
technology. Their central control system is great, as is the MES
weather compensating control technology. For installers, you want to
work with a trusted manufacturer that provides reliable products;
Windhager has never disappointed."
