Engineering news
The UK's largest marine source heat pump has been installed at a 300-year-old country mansion off the North Wales coast.
The National Trust has installed the technology at its Plas Newydd mansion, which sits on the shores of the Menai Strait looking across the mountains of Snowdonia. The 18th century stately home was the Trust's biggest oil consumer, using about 1,500 litres of oil on some winter days.
The £600,000 marine source heat pump will use sea water pumped to a heat exchanger onshore to create the heat needed to warm the entire house.
The 300kW marine source heat pump, one of the first such systems in the UK, is expected to save the charity £40,000 a year.
Adam Ellis-Jones, assistant director for operations in Wales at the National Trust, said: "With the Irish Sea right on the doorstep of Plas Newydd, a marine source heat pump is the best option for us.
"However, being a pioneer is never easy. There are very few marine source heat pumps and none of this size in the UK, so it has been a challenging project but an exciting one."
The Trust worked closely with coastal and marine experts and conservationists to get the best from the technology while protecting the fragile environment and archaeology of the site, he added.
It is the first of five schemes being completed in a £5.3 million pilot phase of the Trust's renewable energy investment programme.
If the pilots are successful, the National Trust plans to invest in 43 renewables projects at the places it looks after, as part of commitments to reduce energy use by a fifth, halve fossil fuel consumption and generate 50% of its energy from renewables.
The other pilot schemes being developed by the National Trust are a biomass at Croft Castle, Herefordshire, a woodchip boiler for Ickworth in Suffolk and hydro-electric projects at Hafod y Porth in Snowdonia, and Stickle Ghyll in the Lake District.
The renewable investment programme has been launched in partnership with renewable energy supplier Good Energy.