Knightsbridge Site Progress #3

The team recently visited one of our ongoing projects in Knightsbridge to see progress on the boreholes for the building’s ground source heat pump (GSHP) system. We had previously visited the site for its strip out stage, and during the demolition and installation of temporary works. On completion, these boreholes will provide all of the heating and hot water required for the 7 apartments in the development.

Following calls for buildings to have more sustainable operating systems, the Future Home Standard recently announced that gas boilers will be banned from 2025. Ground source heat pumps are a sustainable heating and cooling technology that harness the earth’s natural energy to provide efficient and environmentally friendly thermal comfort. They utilize the stable temperature of the ground as a heat source in winter and a heat sink in summer, making them highly energy-efficient and sustainable.

A key aspect of GSHPs’ sustainability is their low carbon footprint. Compared to conventional heating and cooling systems, GSHPs can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by utilizing renewable energy sources. By transferring heat from the ground to buildings, GSHPs reduce reliance on fossil fuels and decrease the buildings overall energy usage, which translates into lower CO2 emissions and contributes to mitigating climate change.

GSHPs are extremely energy efficient and can achieve an impressive coefficient of performance (COP) of up to 4 or more, meaning they produce four units of heat for every unit of electricity consumed. By maximizing energy efficiency, GSHPs reduce overall energy consumption, thus resulting in lower energy bills and less strain on the electrical grid. This form of low carbon heating enables the building to be future proofed as new legislation is brought in to ban gas boilers from 2025.

On completion there will be 8 boreholes, each being 230m deep, with a total of 3.7km of pipework. Each borehole takes around 1 week to complete. For this project, the sustainability benefits of the Ground Source Heat Pump system combined with other energy efficiency measures are estimated to be:

• – An on-site CO2 reduction of 61.6% beyond Building Regulations
• – An improvement of 50.3% CO2 through renewable technologies ‘Be Green’ stage
• – A predicted Annual Energy Saving of 38,500 KWh