Trawsdir Caravan Park

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01 Dec 2014

Trawsdir is a 5* family-run and maintained Touring & Caravan Park located in Snowdonia National Park in an area of outstanding natural beauty overlooking both Cardigan Bay and the impressive Lleyn Peninsula.

During recent refurbishment work at the Park, local renewable energy installers ArizonEnergy, were asked to review options for renewable energy technology, including solar thermal and solar PV.

Initial analysis highlighted that the demand for hot water within the shower block was consuming a considerable proportion of the overall energy usage of the Park. Arizon approached CDP to help design a system to provide a reliable source of year-round hot water for the block that could also cope with the heavy seasonal loading placed upon it during peak periods.

CDP’s specialist design and engineering team designed a dual-purpose solar thermal system that not only heated the domestic potable water for the showers and basins within the block; the excess energy it generated also supplied additional hot water to an underfloor heating system to help dry the shower floors and prevent damp and mould developing.

In total, 10 Thermomax Heat Pipe solar thermal collectors were specified covering 28,000m2, to be placed West/East on each side of the shower block. The Thermomax collectors fed heated Glycol to two x 500l Manco stainless steel cylinders and one x 500l Manco stainless steel buffer to the underfloor heating.

During the winter months, while there is less solar energy and reduced demand for domestic hot water in the Park, the solar thermal system has been designed to continue to feed warmed water into the underfloor heating as a defence against frozen and burst pipes and to continue to resist the build-up of mould.

A year on from the original installation and it is clear that the system is out-performing every expectation. Results collated by Arizon have showed enormous energy savings, far outstripping the initial T*SOL predictions.

The system has generated 14,994kWh of heat which equates to annual commercial RHI income in excess of £1,300. The annual saving in LPG gas usage for their hot water only of 13,000 litres, equates to more than £770 in cost savings; add to that the further savings from the solar heated underfloor heating system savings in LPG equate to £1882 pa. In total, therefore, the system is boosting the income generated by the Park by around £3,000 per annum.

Chris Shenton who co-owns Trawsdir Touring Caravan & Camping with Rob Williams says: “The system that was installed two seasons ago has met and exceeded our and the installers’ expectations. The savings in gas alone speak for themselves; having the added benefit of the RHI makes the payback of the system even sooner. With the cost of fossil fuels rising annually we are hoping to be saving well into the future, making us a greener site and reducing our carbon footprint. We would recommend that all sites like ourselves, large or small, benefit from renewable energy.

For more information on CDP's sustainable design services, contact us at info@coates-design.co.uk.

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Call us on +44 01924 234598 / 0345 872 4500 or email info@coates-design.co.uk