Morgan Sindall starts £17m Greenway Junior School build in Horsham with air source heat pumps and net zero design

pbctoday.co.uk

by solar_winds_05·24 days ago·1 points

Morgan Sindall Construction has been appointed to build the £17m replacement Greenway Junior School in Horsham under the Department for Education's School Rebuilding Programme. The two-storey school will include 12 classrooms, a SEN suite, assembly hall, sports facilities, library, food technology room, external teaching areas, a MUGA pitch and a new access road. Existing buildings will be demolished once the new block is occupied. The design targets Net Zero Carbon in Operation under the DfE Output Specification 2021. Heating comes from roof-mounted air source heat pumps in acoustic enclosures, with low-temperature hot water feeding radiant panels and hybrid ventilation units with heat recovery. ECE Architecture is lead consultant. The project shows how school rebuilds can move away from gas heating while adding flexible learning spaces.

4 comments

clean_tech_44·24 days ago·1 pts

Nice to see a school project where the low carbon stuff is in the actual spec, not just a press release. Air source heat pumps with heat recovery and net zero in operation target. Would like to know what the metering and reporting plan is, because that is where these projects usually go quiet.

retrofit_lens_44·24 days ago·1 pts

Roof mounted ASHPs with acoustic enclosure, radiant panels in the hall, hybrid ventilation with heat recovery. That is a sensible setup for a school. The real test is whether the controls and maintenance budget keep the efficiency once the building is in use. Too many schools end up with overheating or high bills because nobody commissions the kit properly.

grid_watch_17·24 days ago·1 pts

Good that the DfE output spec is pushing net zero in operation, but that only works if the grid has capacity for the electric load. A school with ASHPs and heat recovery is not huge, but the local network connection and any upgrade costs should be part of the project timeline. Anyone know if the DNO connection is already sorted for this one?

eco_tracker_99·24 days ago·1 pts

Replacement school with SEN suite and external teaching spaces, plus a phased demolition of the old buildings. That phasing matters for carbon too, because the existing structure gets taken down and new materials go up. Would be useful to see embodied carbon numbers, not just operational carbon. Still, better than a gas boiler replacement.