Oulton House Farm is a 500 acre dairy farm located on the Staffordshire/Shropshire border. In addition to its dairy herd, the farm has diversified into tourism, converting its traditional barns into seven high quality holiday cottages.
Owner, Arthur Palmer, planned to replace the existing oil fired heating with a renewable energy system to reduce energy costs and take advantage of the Renewable Heat Incentive. After a detailed site survey, local renewable energy experts, ESP Energy, proposed a new Biomass heating system based around a Twin Heat M-CS 80 kW boiler.
The system heats the cottages plus the main farm house from the centralised Biomass boiler. Key to its success was the installation of Bowman heat exchangers to act as an interface between the old heating circuit and the new Biomass boiler.
Mike Collison, MD of ESP Energy explains, ‘’Even after deep cleaning of the existing pipework and radiators, we always install a Bowman Plate Type heat exchanger to protect the new boiler from silt debris contamination.
“Over the years we’ve found the Bowman units not only provide efficient heat energy transfer between the new boiler and the heating circuit, but also give vital protection for the new boiler, helping to extend service life, reducing unplanned downtime for maintenance.”
The system comprises the Biomass boiler, a 2.5 Rotag automated fuel feeder, plus the flue system and pipework. ESP Energy also laid insulated pipes to the farmhouse and the cottages, linking each one to the Biomass system via seven individual heat meters, each with its own Bowman heat exchanger.
The new system has been running extremely efficiently, heating all properties as required whilst significantly reducing energy costs.
Bowman stainless steel plate heat exchangers provide a simple, but highly efficient method of transferring heat from one independent, low pressure water circuit to another. Their unique water flow arrangement provides efficient heat transfer and easy in-line installation that fits simply and neatly into either existing or new pipework. This unique flow method, plus the unit’s compact design can also provide substantial space and cost savings for new installations.
