Client: Carmelite Monastery
Location: Liverpool
Project: Ground Source Heat Pump replacement
Project Manager: Mike Jebb
The Carmelite Monastery in Maryton Grange, Liverpool is a contemplative religious community of nuns, who live a life of prayer and contemplation, following the example of St. Teresa of Avila, with a long history, tracing back to hermits on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land.
The Monastery building utilises a ground source heat pump and a vacuum tube solar water heating system as part of its sustainable design. This contributes to the monastery’s energy efficiency and allows it to function as a sustainable community. Originally designed by architects Austin-Smith:Lord, it was designed from the ground up to incorporate these eco-friendly heating and ventilation solutions.
The monastery’s sustainable design aligns with the broader Carmelite tradition of seeking harmony with nature and minimising environmental impact.
With a ground source heat pump (GSHP) there are two sides to the system. The heat pump itself and the coils that are underground. Rather than exchange heat with the outside air via a fan system like an ASHP does, a GSHP uses the heat differential in the water that is circulated in the underground coils, via a Plate Heat Exchanger (PHE).
The heat pump in this case is designed to deliver 90kw of heating and around 80kw of cooling power. As such, the underground pipework would be around 4,500 metres in length, which is why it’s often described as a slinky, because it’s made up of a long twisted length of pipework buried up to 2m under the ground. GSHP offers a huge advantage over ASHP (Air Sourced) as it is able to draw on a consistent temperature all year round of around 8-12 degrees. This means it works every bit as well in winter as in the more moderate shoulder months.
In this case, the GSHP was installed in 2011 and the heat pump itself had failed and needed replacement.
The underground coils are still going strong and have many years of service ahead of them yet.
The replacement unit is a Mitsubishi NX-WN Water source Heat pump. This will not only improve the CoP due to higher efficiency, but will also reduce running costs over the system it is replacing.
Mike Jebb is the Kimpton Project Manager for the Carmelite GSHP Project and said “This was a very advanced system in its day and I’d say it’s done well to last over 14 years. However, the time has come to replace and upgrade it and I’m sure it will serve the residents at the Carmelite Monastery very well for many years to come.”
Carmelite Monastery Image copyright Austin-Smith-Lord
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