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Sudbury School
Choose Daikin Altherma Flex Type
Sudbury Primary School in Wembley, North London, has undergone a 7 million expansion and refurbishment programme to help meet increasing demand for school places in the London Borough of Brent. Overview
As part of the redevelopment, planning requirements stipulated that the new build part of the redevelopment must meet a BREEAM rating of Excellent whilst the refurbished areas were required to achieve a Very Good score. However, the Borough, the School and the Design team wanted to achieve an Excellent rating throughout and so renewable technologies were stipulated from the outset. These included the use of heat pumps for the heating system as well as sedum roofs, photovoltaic cells to feed electricity into the grid, plus sun and wind catchers to provide natural light and ventilation. Additionally, water and energy saving devices have been introduced throughout the building. The project included the use of Daikin Altherma Flex Type heat pumps to provide highly efficient low carbon heating for the school, which would help meet the BREEAM Excellent standard. Letchworth-based JCA Engineering, which has an excellent reputation for managing and engineering complex solutions on live-sites such as this, was chosen to carry out the installation of services.

The project
Sudbury Primary School is a highly regarded primary school in the London Borough of Brent, providing education for more than 800 pupils up to the age of 11, as well as nursery education for 90 three and four-year-olds. In September 2010 the Borough embarked on a 7 million year-long expansion and refurbishment programme, in order to provide an extra class in each year group and to bring aging buildings up to current standards. The new-build aspect of the project included a two-storey extension accommodate a new hall, changing rooms, learning spaces for ICT, science, art therapy, meeting rooms and offices and a striking circular building housing eight classrooms with an open learning area in the centre. In remodelling the existing buildings, clearly defined space has been created for a library which can function as a central point for the school. The refurbishment programme also includes Year 1 areas, reception, staff/administrative and nursery areas, plus other classrooms and drama facilities. The new school also provides a range of services and resources for the wider community including community education provision. The construction project needed to be completed in

one academic year, with the school continuing to operate on the site during the building works.

The solution
JCA Engineering, a Daikin D1+ customer, chose the world first Daikin Altherma Flex Type air-to-water heat pump to provide heating for the hard to heat refurbished areas of the school. It replaces a traditional single pipe gas-fired boiler that previously provided the schools heating. As a high temperature heat pump, Daikin Altherma Flex Type is a highly efficient and versatile hot water and heating solution delivering high water flow temperatures of up to 80C, with two thirds of the heat generated from renewable energy. This high temperature system was ideal to be retrofitted into the existing buildings as, by reducing the total primary energy use, Daikin Altherma Flex Type can help to improve the energy performance of buildings, reduce running costs and cut carbon emissions. It is a modular system connected by refrigerant pipework to multiple indoor hydrobox units. At Sudbury Primary School, eight 45kW outdoor units have been placed on the first floor roof of the building connected to twenty four 14kW hydroboxes located centrally in the basement. With a low noise* inverter compressor the indoor units produce less noise than standard household appliances such as washing machines, so there is no noise disturbance in the school buildings. The installation was completed with new heating system pipework and new high temperature radiators to meet the heat high loads and to ensure a thermally responsive building. Daikin Altherma Flex Type heat pumps can be configured in either a centralised or decentralised arrangement. This results in the ability to integrate air-to-water heat pump technology in higher heat load buildings on a much greater scale than is typically feasible using an individual heat pump system. It also makes the system suitable for a wide range of large domestic and light commercial applications, as the centralised

indoor units offer modular system with higher capacity to meet the heating demand of the overall building. At Sudbury Primary School, JCA Engineering configured the heat pumps in a centralised arrangement in an existing plant room in the basement of the building. The high temperature Daikin Altherma Flex Type heat pump was completed with more than 200 Jaga Low H2O radiators to provide a responsive system. These Jaga radiators contain less than 1/10th of the water of a conventional radiator, giving quick response times due to its low thermal mass, and providing substantial, proven, energy savings over conventional radiators. Many of the radiators are Low Surface Temperature radiators, which are ideal for the school as they can be installed with systems running high water flow temperatures with total public safety assured, as the maximum casing temperature will remain safe at all times. In addition to the refurbished building, a separate system in the schools new building extension uses four Daikin Altherma Low Temperature Split heat pumps, with a combined capacity of 50kW to provide flow temperatures of 50C to supply a new underfloor heating system. The project at Sudbury Primary School was a complex one, requiring JCA to install the new system while still keeping the school warm, during one of the coldest winters on record, so that it could operate with minimum disruption to staff and pupils. Work was carried out on a phased basis, with each phase requiring the relocation of classrooms. David Craik, Director at JCA Engineering, explains: At JCA we are experienced in working and operating on a live site, whether it be a school, data centre or anything in between. At Sudbury Primary School, our role was to engineer and manage the installation of services, including everything from heating, ventilation and intelligent lighting to data systems and fire and intruder alarms. The trickiest aspect of the heating installation was to ensure that the existing buildings remained warm enough for the children while we replaced the old gas boiler with the new heat pumps. This meant that the schedule of works had to be designed to ensure that work in the existing buildings took place in the school holidays. The simple installation process of the Daikin Altherma Flex Type heat pumps meant this could happen with minimal disruption to the operation of the school. * nominal sound pressure level of 14kW indoor unit at full capacity is 53 dBA

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