Winton Estate

Area of expertise: sustainable development

Camco Advisory Services Ltd (CAS) worked with Winton Estate, East Lothian, to review its 250kW biomass community heating system and make recommendations for its improvement and possible extension. Three options were developed to show how costs vary depending on the scale of development and the variety of heating systems used.

Option 1

Option 1 retained the existing system in Winton Estate, which supplies heat to Winton House and several nearby estate cottages with an extension to supply three other homes near the boiler house.
 

Option 2 

This option provided a partially de-centralised district heating system, heated by biomass boilers and backed-up by the school’s gas boilers. The existing Winton Estate system would be retained as in Option 1. A separate biomass district heating system would be built for the new council housing estate, with distribution to Pencaitland Primary School and the church.

Option 3

The existing Winton Estate system would be upgraded and connected to the new boilers. A separate district heating pipe would run through Winton Estate, supplying heat to the outlying estate houses, before feeding a large thermal store at the new council housing estate. The pipe would then connect to the primary school and the church. The gas boilers in the school would be used to provide peak-load and back-up heat to the entire system; whenever insufficient heat is available from the biomass boilers. The system would be designed to avoid the use of gas as much as possible.

Localised thermal storage was recommended as a means of reducing the maximum size of the distribution network and individual biomass boilers, by providing local storage of heating water for peak loads. Sequenced charging of the thermal stores around the system reduced the size of the central biomass boilers.

CAS has also advised Winton Estate on the aspects of wood-fuel management, including forestry and chipping methods.

Statistic:

• 250kW biomass community heating system

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