Ground Source Heat Pump Case Studies

Attenborough Visitor Centre

Attenborough Nature Reserve is situated in the Trent Valley on the south-western edge of Nottingham and consists of 240 acres of flooded gravel pits with associated marginal vegetation on a site of approximately 360 acres.

The Visitor Centre houses facilities including meeting rooms, education facilities, interactive display, a nature shop and a cafe. A key strategy was to build using renewable energy resources sufficient to meet its annual energy needs, thus achieving zero net greenhouse gas emissions.

The 400m2 visitor centre is heated by a 12kW heat pump and draws heat from the surrounding lake using 400m of heat collector loops.

Azure Cafe Northumberland

Azure provides a wide range of services to people with disabilities throughout the North East of England. Their mission is “Improving the lives of people with disability. Their businesses provide employment to people with various disabilities in a variety of capacities as well as offering an excellent training environment which can assist their employees in their development and progression.

The Azure Garden Centre is one of the charity businesses. They are extending the cafe/restaurant facilities by opening the new Cafe© Azure.

Two 8kW ground source heat pumps using a horizontal ground collector provides the cafe with underfloor heating, passive cooling and hot water.