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With over 100 years experience of manufacturing heating products,
Hoval not only offers a wide range of conventional and renewable heat
sources, it also has an in-depth understanding of how various heat
sources can work together to achieve optimum performance
Established since 1897, for most of its long history Hoval has been supplying
gas, oil and solid fuel boilers to applications as diverse as Buckingham Palace
and the Bank of England through to the Emirates Stadium, Swiss Re Tower
and many more. During the last couple of decades, though, the company has
diversified its product offering to include biomass boilers, solar thermal
systems and heat pumps.
Hoval is also heavily involved in the establishment of a training centre for
customers, dedicated to low carbon heating systems (see box).
“There are now many opportunities to include renewable energy sources for
heating and hot water in all sorts of projects, but in most cases they will not be
operating in isolation,” observes Hoval’s Ian Dagley. “There may be a mixture
of low carbon technologies - such as solar heating, biomass boilers, heat
pumps etc. – and these may be combined with conventional gas or oil fired
boilers.
“As a result, the challenges for the designer and installer go beyond choosing
which renewables are most appropriate to encompass how to get them to
work together. So the key is to decide which will work well together in a
controllable fashion and which overall solution gives the best results for that
project,” he adds.
Solar heating is a case in point, as solar irradiation levels vary so much
through the year that all such installations must be backed up by 100%
auxiliary heating. Of course, this auxiliary heating could be biomass boilers,
which will enhance the renewable element of the project.
In fact, biomass boilers have proved very popular in recent years and Hoval is
working closely with UK suppliers of biomass fuels to ensure that such
projects are served with the most appropriate and cost-effective biomass fuel
with the minimum carbon footprint. It is also able to advise on associated
issues such as storage space, access for deliveries and delivery schedules.
In other circumstances, heat pumps may be an option for a project and the
choice will be to use air source or ground source heat pumps. Again, it’s
important to consider every aspect of the project and call on expert help when
needed. For example, while ground source heat pumps may offer higher
COPs than air source heat pumps, they significantly increase the capital
element of the project. However, by exploiting heat recovered from other
sources in the building, it may be possible to boost the COP of an air source
heat pump while taking advantage of the lower cost.
Understanding all of these issues is the key to getting the most from a project;
integrating and controlling different heat sources to ensure each operates at
optimum efficiency to give maximum performance. With its depth of
experience and breadth of products Hoval is ideally placed to offer installers
the assistance they need to achieve the best solutions for their customers.
BOX OUT
Low carbon training
The newly constructed Centre of Renewable Energy (CORE) in
Nottinghamshire represents a joint investment by Hoval and biomass fuel
supplier Strawsons Energy, aided by a grant from the East Midlands
Development Agency.
Fitted with a range of Hoval low carbon products – including biomass boilers,
solar panels and heat pumps - CORE will both demonstrate how these
technologies work and provide an advanced facility for training in both
installation and maintenance for installers. As well as the heating products,
the building incorporates photovoltaics and a wind turbine and aims to
produce surplus heating, cooling and power that can be used in the wider
community. |
