Finding The Balance In School Building Renovation, Funding and Decarbonisation

There are an estimated 64,000 school buildings in England alone, of which, according to the National Office of Statistics, only 31% were built since the year 2000, meaning the majority depend on building services that are coming to, or have already exceeded, end-of-life expectations. Water heating is a particular case in point, one that provides critical daily demands which impact the health and well-being of students and staff. It is also energy demanding, with both implications for running costs and, increasingly, decarbonisation goals.

The drive for decarbonisation is pushing a fabric-first agenda and a move toward electric systems, heat pumps and solar. Given the scale of the challenge, it's no surprise that the DfE has continued to lobby for greater funding, which still lags behind the amount it estimates it needs. Given that the lifespan of ageing school buildings can be extended with adequate maintenance, it is not surprising to see as much as 76% of available funding in recent years being directed to maintenance and repair, as opposed to carrying out major rebuilding and refurbishment projects.

Renovating water heating alone can provide some middle ground between ongoing, ultimately costly, maintenance of outdated systems and large-scale building refurbishment. But decarbonisation of water heating does not yet fully address this issue. Lower temperature heat pumps require increased storage, demanding extra space. This can be mitigated with high-temperature heat pumps, but this introduces other issues, such as shoring up the roof for these much larger and heavier units, and wider safety concerns over fire from the use of propane refrigerants when associated with solar PV installations. Resultant building works and fabric-first alterations can also reveal hidden issues, such as asbestos in older buildings. Increased electrical demands may also require new grid connections, requiring groundwork at such a high cost, especially in city locations, that we see fundamental shifts in, or complete cessation of, renovation work.

So how do you balance available funding and the need for critical services when the maths doesn’t stack up?  Working with local authorities, the decision they face is plain: update three schools to expensive low-carbon electric incorporating heat pumps or renovate 12 schools with existing gas water heating to new, high-efficiency gas appliances.  Adveco is an award-winning proponent of low-carbon electric water heating, heat pumps and solar thermal for water heating, but also recognises the reality that gas water heating still has a critical role to play in supporting existing school buildings on the path to net zero, certainly up until new installations are set to be curtailed in 2035.  Gas water heaters remain low-cost to purchase, require little change to the building fabric, and running costs are still considerably lower than electricity. However, the one stumbling block has been the variety of ageing appliances in schools, limiting the choice of replacement without using the same outdated technology.

This has now been addressed by the introduction of Adveco’s Astute® range of intelligent commercial gas water heaters. Developed exclusively for the UK, Astute features five water connections on the top, back, and front of the units, along with versatile flueing supporting universal retrofit of older systems, with low impact on the building fabric or change in space requirements, even if converting to high-efficiency gas

Providing up to 98% thermal efficiency, the 300 and 380-litre variants, available from 37 up to 111kW, provide additional capacity typically demanded by schools with greater hot water demands. Compact units from 22kW and 190 litre capacity are available to support smaller projects.

With built-in intelligence, easy installation, durability and a wide range of sizes and connection options, Astute provides a comprehensive choice for retrofit. Astute’s patented triple pass heat exchanger design, constructed of high-quality steel and advanced power anodes, minimises wear to extend the unit’s life, even in aggressive soft water areas, which have until now had to make do with limited, costly choices.

With onboard metering and the LeakSense® detection system, school estate managers and operators gain the ability to better manage energy demands as well as detect and deal with problems before they become critical, ensuring their school is not penalised with any downtime. In the long term, Leaksense will identify when the appliance approaches the end of life. This helps to plan for the school’s next system refurbishment, ensuring little to no downtime for continuity of service for business-critical hot water demands as the school moves towards a final low-carbon alternative, potentially in the mid to late 2040s.