Yorkshire-based Norcroft Energy has completed a heat pump installation at a Barnsley pig unit to provide underfloor heating in the pig sheds using renewable energy.
“We did a cost comparison looking at the annual running costs and ongoing maintenance costs for several heating systems,” Norcroft Energy managing director Philip Mosley said. “Installing 21 250W lamps was the cheapest to install, but would cost £5,000/year to run. The more economical option was to install three 5kW heat pumps with an annual running cost of less than £2,400. This is an annual saving of over £2,500 and has an return on investment of 5-6 years. You never see a return on investment with electricity.”
Norcroft Energy installed three air source heat pumps, which are connected to an underfloor heating system, to the pig farrowing buildings. The heat pumps extract heat from the air or ground and boost it through an evaporation and condensation cycle to a temperature selected for use to warm the floor where the pigs lay.
“This was a rather unusual job for us as not many heat pump installations have been completed in pig sheds,” Mr Mosley said. “The biggest challenge was getting the floor temperature correct.”
The heat pumps require electricity to operate, but for every unit of electricity they use, they can create the equivalent of three to four times that in heat energy.
For further information visit: www.norcroftenergy.co.uk.
