Healthcare

One of the very first commercially installed ground source heat pump systems in the UK was for a new healthcare centre on the Isles of Scilly in 1997. Whilst only a small system (25kW) by today’s standards, this heat pump has now delivered ½ GWh of heat energy and is still operating as efficiently as when it was first installed.

The largest closed loop ground source heat pump system installed in the UK to date is at the new Churchill Hospital in Oxford. The system comprises eight large heat pumps coupled to 240 boreholes into the Oxford Clay. Mimer Energy’s Chief Technical Officer, Robin Curtis provided technical support to the building services contractor to understand the thermal behaviour of the ground and model the performance of the system. This level of expertise is crucial to a project of this nature to ensure it achieves its operational parameters.

The Mimer Energy approach to projects, providing a fully managed heating and/or cooling service is ideally suited to the healthcare sector enabling hospitals to focus on the provision of medical care rather than building services. Deferring the capital cost of the system over an agreed period can give cash flow certainty without the risk of utility tariff increases.