Case study
St Audries Bay Holiday Club
130 kW Wood Chip Heating System
The owner of St Audries Bay Holiday Club decided to install a woodchip system to replace an aging and inefficient oil-fired boiler that serviced the main communal buildings at the site. At the same time, it was decided to extend the system to provide hot water to 12 chalets and heating to the indoor swimming pool. The existing gas fired boilers were retained as a back-up for the swimming pool, with smaller oil-fired boilers installed for the remainder. These were used briefly when an experiment with a different fuel type proved unsuccessful, but otherwise have not been required.
Fuel supply and wood chip handling
Dunster designed and implemented the conversion of an existing outbuilding in order to house the boiler and accumulator tank. Dunster sourced a second-hand grain silo and potato handler for the loading system and woodchip store. The mechanism was adapted to make deliveries by using a standard tipping trailer. This has been a great success. There is no requirement for extra equipment or any woodchip handling by St Audries staff.
System design and installation
The system was designed with a base load woodchip boiler that provides 90%+ of heat and hot water, this is combined with oil and gas boilers to deal with peak loads. Thus far, the 3,000 litre primary thermal store and 2,ooo litre satellite thermal store have had sufficient reserve to mean that the back-up boilers have not been required.
Benefits
In addition to the major financial benefit of becoming independent of oil and gas prices, the installation has further enhanced St Audries’ environmental credentials.
Download St Audries case study
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