Patients at Chestnut Court Care Home in Dagenham are enjoying the benefits of renewable energy provided by heat pumps supplied and installed by Danfoss Heat Pumps, formerly ECO Heat Pumps.

The newly built 61 person care home has been designed to provide nursing, residential and dementia care for elderly residents. Chestnut Court has been beautifully decorated and furnished to a very high standard in order to replicate a high quality luxury ‘home from home’ feel. Each bedroom has ensuite facilities and all heating and hot water is provided by five air source heat pumps.

Heat pumps were chosen as they enabled the care home to save on its energy bills and reduce its carbon footprint. The new development by Healthcare Development Services has been installed with an underfloor heating system capable of holding 900 litres of water and providing comfortable and affordable warmth to the residents.

Air source heat pumps were chosen as they require no groundworks and can be installed quickly and easily in any location.

Phil Moore, Managing Director of Danfoss Heat Pumps, said: “Heat pumps are a really effective way of heating any type of building, whatever the size, mainly because they provide affordable and comfortable heating all year round. As the care home, residents are likely to be less mobile and more likely to feel the cold therefore it made sense to choose a heating system which can be left on all day without costing the earth. With the rising energy bills, it is becoming ever more important that owners of public and private buildings consider heat pumps as a long term option that delivers huge benefits in terms of sustainability and economics.”

The purpose of a heat pump is to absorb heat in one place and then transport it to another location, where it can be used for space or water heating. Heat pumps work on the principle that hot moves to cold and can be used to heat the inside of a building during winter or, by reversing the process to provide a cooling action in summer. They are effective all year round, day and night by extracting low grade heat from the air, ground or water source and transferring it through a mix of water and antifreeze in the buried pipes into the building’s heating circuit and hot water tank.

The heat pump system supplied to the care home is designed to achieve a Coefficiency of Performance (COP) of 4:1. This means for every unit of electricity used, the heat pump will delivery four times that in heat energy output, bringing the new building well within the carbon emission regulations.

It is possible to save up to 75 per cent on running costs compared to conventional systems, which means a heat pump typically pays for itself in five to seven years. Grants are available for public buildings through the low carbon buildings programme.

Email: sara.bernard@danfoss.com