Organic Energy Case Studies
The Dogs Trust Shrewsbury
Rachel Wright, assistant manager at the Dogs Trust Shrewsbury with Andy Boroughs, managing director, Organic Energy
The Okofen Energy Box which houses the Pellematic Boiler system
The Dogs Trust is the UK's largest dog-care charity. Its centre at Roden, between Shrewsbury and Telford in Shropshire, is 40 years old and re-homes about 1,000 dogs every year – all needing accommodation fit for a human being. Dogs Trust has 18 centres across the UK and was spending about £500,000 a year on heating and lighting. The charity recognised that its energy bills were only going to rise as oil and gas prices increased. It has begun a programme to create 'green' homes for its dogs, taking a strategic decision to invest in sustainable buildings and bring in renewable energy solutions which will significantly cut utility bills.
Dog's Trust invested £5 million in its innovative eco-building programme at Dogs Trust Shrewsbury and wished to include, amongst other sustainable building methods, renewable energy solutions, super wall insulation, triple glazing, rainwater harvesting and recycling, solar PV panels and a biomass boiler. The Roden centre has been consuming energy at an annualised rate of about 400kWh per square metre, comparable with a luxury office development. Following the project's completion, the target is to cut energy consumption to less than 150 kWh per square metre – 62 per cent less than a conventional building.
Organic Energy has provided a ÖkoFEN Energy Box for the Roden site to provide the heating and hot water for the centre. The Energy Box is a complete heating system for any building or home, delivered ready for installation and connected to the heating system within a matter of hours.
The Energy Box, which is lowered onto a concrete base, is a complete plant room designed and pre-fabricated by ÖkoFEN which represents the very latest in renewable, sustainable heating technology, low in carbon dioxide emissions and extremely cost-effective.
The installation at Roden is a bespoke Energy Box D which includes a 56 kW ÖkoFEN Pellematic Wood Pellet Boiler, with automatic fuel supply, ash compression system, boiler 'back end' protection and fully automated digital heating controls. The Energy Box is constructed using durable timber and also incorporates a 15 tonne fuel store and plant room. The dust proof FleXILO PLUS fuel store would only need to be replenished between two and three times a year.
Although the main aim of the brief was to provide a renewable heating solution which would complement an innovative sustainable building design and ethos, the Organic Energy installation could also provide some income to the charity. Under the Government's Renewable Heat Incentive and the Feed-in-Tariff, small-scale generators will be entitled to a payment for each unit of green energy they produce.
