Decarbonising Commercial Buildings’ Central Heating and Hot Water

25 January 2023

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3 min read

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A critical brake on decarbonising New Zealand’s commercial buildings is the lack of knowledge and confidence to specify biomass boilers for central heating and hot water systems. Biomass boilers burn wood pellets or chips from wood processing residues and provide 99% reductions in carbon dioxide emissions compared to fossil fuels such as natural gas, diesel and coal.

In response to this demand, Apricus Eco have evolved to be a single point of contact for project specification and delivery for small to medium scale biomass projects for commercial and government clients. This has resulted in the successful delivery of key projects around the country.

Apricus Eco are a preferred supplier for school boiler replacements around the country for the Ministry of Education. The company is described by the Ministry of Education project managers as “top of the list” in terms of working relationship and quality of work delivered.

So far seventeen schools have ӦkoFEN pellet boilers that will be providing low carbon, high efficiency heating. This is for central heating of classrooms, other learning spaces and offices. Many of these schools have very small boiler rooms that are wedged in the middle of the school, the design and flexibility of ӦkoFEN pellet boilers is very suitable to these difficult spaces.

To date Apricus Eco have delivered over a quarter of the School Coal Boiler Replacement Programme. The total budget allocation for this programme is $65 million, it will remove all coal boilers from New Zealand schools and is planned to extend to the replacement of school diesel boilers. This is a significant part of the delivery of the Carbon Neutral New Zealand Government Programme.

The first biomass boiler installation for the new national health organisation Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand is being installed by Apricus Eco using ӦkoFEN boilers. This project is at Taihape Hospital and represents an important step in the decarbonisation of the extensive Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand estate, required to be carbon neutral by 2025. Apricus Eco are working with a number of the former DHBs to decarbonise health sites around the country.

Auckland Council have partnered with Apricus Eco and contractors Tubman Heating to install Auckland Council’s first biomass boiler in the newly refurbished and earthquake strengthened Winter Gardens. An ӦkoFEN pellet boiler system will heat the high-profile Winter Gardens attraction in central Auckland as part of a multi-million-dollar refurbishment that will reopen in March this year. The ӦkoFEN pellet boilers replaced existing gas boilers for a completely sustainable heating system for the glass houses. This is just the start of Auckland Council’s city-wide decarbonisation drive to replace fossil fuel heating systems.

EECA, the New Zealand government agency responsible for energy efficiency and conservation, co-funded a best practice demonstration project with Waikato University for central heating and domestic hot water. Apricus Eco have installed a pellet boiler for central heating and CO2 hot water heat pumps for domestic hot water in the Student Village, Hamilton.

By installing ӦkoFEN pellet boilers to replace the use of fossil fuels, all of these recent projects deliver 99% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of the heating systems at each site. Apricus Eco are designers, suppliers and project managers to implement environmentally friendly, high efficiency central heating and hot water technology throughout New Zealand. The diversity of products offered enables us to communicate and transact with a very wide range of companies and organisations. Get in touch to see how we can help with your new project or existing building.

Discover more about Apricus Eco's low-carbon hot water and central heating solutions.

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