Prestigious cathedral benefits from going green
One year on from the installation of a state-of-the-art biomass boiler, the second largest Catholic Cathedral in the UK is already reaping the benefits being delivered by the Hamworthy Heating solution.
Three years ago, extensive flooding of St John’s Catholic Cathedral in Norwich disabled two existing 300kW gas-fired warm air units. With half of the iconic landmark’s heating system immobilised, Reverend Patrick Limacher, Deacon of the Cathedral, instigated the move to consider renewable heating technologies to replace the redundant plant.
A Grade 1 listed building, St John’s Catholic Cathedral was deemed unsuitable for technologies including solar photovoltaic panels or geothermal power due to the guidelines protecting the historic building and the limited size and access to the plant room.
Working in partnership with Hamworthy Heating and the E-Tech Group, a 350kW output BioMatic boiler was selected for the project, as it best suited the restrictions of the Cathedral while meeting the demands of the heating system.
Installed in October 2010, the high efficiency biomass boiler, according to Rev. Limacher, has already delivered huge benefits, predominantly halving the energy previously required by the old inefficient system to heat the Cathedral. He said: “Not only has the biomass boiler reduced the amount of energy needed to heat the building, but the sustainable plant now also supplements heating in other areas of the Cathedral, reducing our carbon footprint substantially.”
Rev. Limacher continued: “As far as I’m aware, never before has an entire heating system been overhauled in a building of this type. We previously only ever turned the heating on at weekends when the Cathedral was in greater demand. Over the last year however, due to the efficiencies of the biomass boiler the system is used 24 hours a day, seven days a week, providing a constant supply of gentle heat while all the time costing us no more than the previous plant.”
The biomass boiler at St John’s Catholic Cathedral is fuelled by wood pellets. From a pellet store located in the basement of the Cathedral, the fuel feed to the boiler is fully automated using a mechanical auger and intermediate hopper system with infra-red fuel level sensors, which reduces cycling of the feed auger, limiting wear and tear and saving energy. Safety features include three-stage burn-back protection, with pressure and temperature sensors interlocked to the boiler control.
Unlike many biomass boilers which require continuous burning and trickle fuel feed to stay alight, the BioMatic boiler features fully automatic ignition with self-extinguish and auto-restart during periods of no demand, saving fuel and reducing carbon emissions.
For more information on biomass boiler solutions, talk to Hamworthy.
