Lochinvar CIBSE – Wall Mounted Commercial Solar Water Heating

Neale-Wade Academy is a secondary school and sixth form with academy status in the market town of March, Cambridgeshire, England. As with many state schools, the current school was the product of a merger of a grammar school and a comprehensive school. The college can trace its history back to 1696 when William Neale left an estate, the income of which was to help educate 8 poor boys. In 1717, Henry Wade left £20 per annum to pay for a schoolmaster to teach 20 poor children of the Parish. These two bequests were the origin of what eventually became March Grammar School.  The School premises were built on Station Road in 1876 and the school stayed there until a new site was opened on Wimblington Road in 1964.

In recent years there have been many changes to the school. One such change was a heating system upgrade, driven by energy efficiency measures. The UK’s leading commercial heating specialist Lochinvar, established over 100 years ago, providing hot water solutions since 1939. The UK operation is based in Banbury, Oxfordshire were invited to supply the energy efficiency measures.  Lochinvar supplied  (x8) LSP20+ Premium Solar Water Heating Panels together with a 1000 L single coil pre-heat tank. The solar water heating panels are specially designed and built to ensure they do not Overheat. The temperature of the panels will not exceed 190°C.  Using a specialist glycol antifreeze solution it means the panels can operate in temperature range of -32°C to +230°C.

The pre-heat solar tank feeds an existing single coil domestic hot water (DHW )vessel fed by the boilers. The DHW feeds the shower block in the existing sports facility at the school. The drive behind the installation was the need to reduce the carbon foorprint of the building together with reducing the overhall water heating costs for the school.