Prefabrication – the key to accelerating decarbonisation?
Decarbonising the UK’s school estate will be essential to keep us on track with our net zero commitment.
Developing pre-engineered, prefabricated heating solutions could provide the answer, says Stephen Hart, Director of Integrated Solutions at Baxi.
With the educational estate accounting for 36% of total UK public sector building emissions, supporting the decarbonisation of existing schools will be vital for meeting our 2050 net zero target. Heating is usually the largest and most expensive energy user in schools, making this service a natural target for energy, carbon and cost savings. But the scale of retrofit required nationally, the limited window of time to carry out works, and the associated costs can make decarbonisation feel daunting for school estates managers. One approach that could help overcome these challenges is prefabrication.
The background
England alone is home to more than 24,000 schools (excluding nurseries) , most of which are heated by gas-fired boilers or, in older schools not connected to the gas grid, by oil or even coal-fired boilers. Improving the efficiency of the heating system will simultaneously reduce energy demand within the school building, make it more environmentally sustainable and help schools to stretch their tight budgets.
However, upgrading the heating system is often considered only to be feasible when the site doesn’t require a continuous hot water or heating supply for an extended period. This currently means that any major refurbishment projects are typically squeezed into the school summer shutdown period.
An added concern is that decarbonisation can sometimes be perceived as risky, expensive and funding dependent.
In short, schools need a rapid, risk free, more affordable solution to facilitate decarbonisation. So, what role can prefabricated heating solutions play?
Pre-engineering
Prefabricated heating systems are rising in popularity due to their ability to meet the more rigorous performance targets for heating and hot water provision more efficiently, effectively and predictably. To date, off-site heating solutions manufactured by specialists such as Baxi Packaged Solutions have proved particularly effective at resolving design and installation challenges in individual school buildings. However, this is to ignore a central benefit of prefabrication: standardisation.
Through the prefabrication process, we have the ability to pre-engineer heating solutions that can be produced and installed faster through standardisation and customised to meet the output requirement of the building.
