CHP powers £5m health centre
28.09.09
Hulley & Kirkwood have delivered low carbon strategy for the new £5 million Southport Centre for Health and Wellbeing.
Two mini-CHP units are providing heat and power to the new centre, with each unit producing 12.5kW of heating and 5.5kW of electricity, supplemented by a 750-litre buffer vessel and two exhaust flue gas condensers to boost their heating output by 3kW each giving a total output of 31kW of heat and 11kW of electricity.
The system is also coupled with two gas condensing boilers which, in conjunction with the CHP units, feed a condensing plate heat exchanger to produce domestic hot water.
Hulley & Kirkwood originally considered installing a single larger unit, but this would have been less cost effective and unable to fit into the plant room. However, the mini CHP units offer high heat and power outputs in a small footprint.
Space was the major challenge on this project along with noise levels and minimising the carbon intensity of the building. H&K thermally modelled the building and designed it in such a way that we didn’t need to employ renewables.
The 15-month building project was completed on time and to budget under the Local Improvement Finance Trust scheme (LIFT), a vehicle run by Liverpool and Sefton Health Partnership to improve and develop frontline primary and community care facilities in the area. The m&e element of the project was worth around £900,000.
The NHS LIFT scheme is a Government initiative designed to stimulate investment in local primary and social care facilities. To date 96 new centres have been delivered nationally across England under the initiative.
The Southport Centre provides dental, wound and disease management services and diabetes / cholesterol screening, as well as sexual health and blood testing. It was highly commended in last year’s Liverpool Daily Post Regional Property Awards.
