Large, Listed Country House

Date: Jul 2019
Location: Oxfordshire, England
Client: Private Sector
Contract: Pre-feasibility

The scope of this project was to screen a range of possible ground source and water source heat pump options for a large country house in Oxfordshire. The heating demand is primarily space heating for the house (seasonal) with a secondary year-round demand to meet swimming pool and hot water needs. The presence of a proven shallow aquifer in the area means that an open loop borehole system could be attractive for the primary space heating needs. Besides the need to confirm local aquifer thickness and productivity, there will be a need to engage with the Environment Agency. There is already considerable licenced abstraction, so if permission to abstract is given, it will likely be with the requirement to re-inject thermally-spent water.

The house is set within a park containing a number of lakes: these have sufficient area and volume to supply part of the heating load. Lake-based heat collectors loops / heat exchanger and heat pump may be a good match to the swimming pool heating needs, and the resulting cooling of the lake may be helpful in terms of reducing evaporative water losses in summer. Closed loop systems (boreholes, ground loops) were also studied. Decisions are pending regarding whether to proceed with one or more of the above options.