Refurbishment of Social Housing Apartments

Tenants on the Hickman estate in Wolverhampton are benefiting from a £12 million investment as part of the Wolverhampton Homes Decent Homes programme. The two high rise blocks on the estate, Wodensfield Tower and William Bentley Court, are currently being completely refurbished and will benefit from the installation of an Evinox communal heating system in each block, which is more energy efficient than individual boilers.

Integrated Communal Heating
The Evinox communal heating systems include ModuSat heat interface units providing accurate metering of energy consumption for each tenant and a billing facility. The Modusat units are powered by central boiler plant equipment located in plant rooms sited adjacent to the high rise blocks.

The motivation behind Wolverhampton Homes choosing Evinox for this project was the invaluable M&E support and design input that has been provided. Evinox engineers have completely designed the system from sizing the heating and hot water outputs required for each apartment, the pipework system and routing, pumps and flow rates required to circulate the primary energy and the power required in the plant room to drive the system. This has reduced cost and ensures that the correct heating systems have been specified for each block.

Central Energy
Another key consideration was the ability to source the central plant equipment from the same supplier as part of an integrated package. Two Evinox ADI CD packaged boiler skids were chosen for each building, which due to their compact design and the ease and speed of installation removed the need and cost of a temporary boiler house.

The pre-packaged skids contain 400kW Evinox ADI CD boilers which provide excellent seasonal efficiency performance and extremely ecological combustion with impressive class 5 NOx figures of < 10ppm and CO around 47 ppm, the skids are also fitted with Pressosmart pressurisation sets and AnoPro corrosion protection.

Improved Safety with Removal of High Rise Gas Infrastructure 
By installing communal heating at Wodensfield Tower and William Bentley Court, it removes the requirement for high rise gas infrastructure throughout each building and the associated risks that come with this. There is also no requirement for individual boilers in each apartment, which reduces the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning and the need for annual gas inspections. The removal of the boiler flues also improves the aesthetics of the buildings.

Energy Metering & Billing
The Modusat heat interface units in each apartment include an integrated energy meter, which accurately records the energy consumption in each dwelling, and ensures that residents only pay for the proportion of energy that they use.

Wolverhampton Homes have decided the Evinox PaySmart™ metering solution is perfectly suited for their residents at Wodensfield Tower and William Bentley Court. The PaySmart™ system enables residents to be in control of their own energy bills by paying for the energy as they need it and therefore removing any burden of building up unpaid bills or debt. This solution also takes away the collection of money by the Housing Association.

Lesley Roberts, Chief Executive of Wolverhampton Homes, said: “With our partners Bullock Construction, we are delighted to be delivering this much-needed investment to the Hickman high rise blocks. The show flats are a huge improvement on the previous accommodation and it will make a big difference to the tenants”