introduction
Metropolitan is part of the Inexus Group, the UK's leading sustainable utility and energy provider. We have been supporting Metropolitan with low carbon design and advisory services for the last two years.
Our work strengthens Metropolitan's bids by demonstrating their sustainability and carbon saving credentials. They find that using an independent company which specialises in this area adds credibility to their proposals.
challenge
Metropolitan believed their low-carbon solution, where a centralised energy plant feeds heat into a district heating scheme and generates electricity to feed into a local distribution network, could achieve 100% reduction in the carbon dioxide emissions regulated by Building Regulations (Part L). If this could be proved using Part L1 SAP calculation software then they could market their solution as a cost effective way to achieve the energy benchmark for Code for Sustainable Homes Level 5. They had attempted to get an answer on this matter from other companies but had been unsuccessful.
solution
At the outset it was not even clear if Metropolitan's district heating solution could be modelled in the Part L SAP software. We had to have discussions with the software provider to establish how the district heating solution could be modelled. Once this was established we ran the model for a typical house. This reported a 100% reduction in carbon emissions showing that Metropolitan's solution achieved Code for Sustainable Homes Level 5.
outcome
As a result of our calculations and report Metropolitan has been able to market their solution as achieving the Code Level 5 energy benchmark. This is much more cost effective and straightforward for a contractor than the common alternative of installing solar photovoltaic (PV) panels.
Solar PV panels have the disadvantage that they need to be modelled for every dwelling as different orientations and roof sizes mean the size of the PV array required will vary. There is also no guarantee that the size of roof area will be sufficient particularly for blocks of flats where the roof area per dwelling is small. This is not a problem for a district heating system. Metropolitan was very pleased with the work we did and we look forward to the next challenge they will set us.
" Excellent piece of work and very well presented, delighted with the service from Sustain and I look forward to coming to you again in the very near future. I will definitely recommend Sustain to peers and other organisations that we work with."
Rob Clarke, Technical Director, Metropolitan
