The 26 year old boilers at Sandcastle Water Park posed a number of risks to the day to day operation of the business. Energy costs had risen to over 40% of operating overheads in the last 5 years. The management needed to reduce energy consumption without limiting customer experience. Also, the facility was approaching the limit of available mains power, thus impeding future growth.
The problems
• On busy days boilers could not produce enough hot water to meet the demand
• A boiler breakdown reduced air and water temperatures so much, that in the winter it could take up to 48 hours to recover
• A boiler breakdown during the holiday periods would shut the water park resulting in significant loss of revenue.
Recommendations
A recommendation was made to replace the boiler plant and add a CHP unit to help reduce these risks.
The solution
Preston Lee Chambers, working as the client’s consultant, chose the shentongroup 200kWe Natural Gas Cento Indoor Acoustic CHP unit. The thermal demand was carefully modelled to ensure heat output could be utilised.
Including the initial cost and maintenance, the return on investment is expected to be less than 3 years.
The installation had to be complete before the summer season, therefore the programme required works to be carried out during winter shutdown, in order to limit the impact on the Waterpark’s clientele.
The job was completed and the CHP unit is now providing a large proportion of the total site demand per year, to offset grid electrical and thermal energy.
Read the full case study here or the article ‘CHP design fundamentals’ at www.shentongroup.co.uk