By Apricus Eco Hot Water & Heating
Turaki Primary School in Taumaranui has 16 teaching spaces, a library, a kitchen, and administration rooms. Most of the school had radiators that were heated with a coal boiler that has now failed. There are some classrooms that do not currently have radiators that needed to have them added. The current plant room for the coal failed boiler had many issues including an electricity distribution board that did not meet current electrical safety standards and plant room linings that were in poor condition and are unlikely to meet modern fire safety standards without significant remediation. There was some asbestos contamination with asbestos fibres detected in the pipe insulation and with the electrical distribution board suspected of containing asbestos.
Due to the fact that the plant room was small and there was time-consuming demolition and remediation work required it was decided that in order to get heating in place before winter an external solution would be required. While the plant room was too small to contain an adequately sized pellet boiler and fuel store for the school heating needs, there was adequate and appropriate space outside the plant room to house an ÖkoFEN Energy Box containerised pellet boiler system. This meant that a solution could be put in place on a tighter deadline and the kids would not go cold this winter. The school is in a relatively cold region of New Zealand with winter temperatures frequently falling to minus 2°C.
Apricus delivered and installed a 128kW OkoFEN Energy Box, in a prefabricated, containerised plant room and 7-tonne pellet store, close to the existing plant room beside the existing coal delivery driveway. The pellet boiler will be connected to the existing heating distribution pipework via external, insulated, clad pipework from the Energy Box to the plant room.
The school heating pipework in the plant room was modernised and upgraded with the following:
Apricus specialises in sustainable hot water and central heating systems for residential and commercial buildings. We work with architects, specifiers, facility managers and homeowners to bring solutions that reduce their environmental impact and meet their hot water and central heating needs.
Apricus brings the latest renewable hot water technologies into the New Zealand market, leading with innovative solar hot water collectors, CO2 hot water heat pumps and pellet biomass boilers. We aim to offer the most reliable eco alternatives to burning fossil fuels like gas, oil and coal.
Our products include:
Our pellet biomass boilers are produced by one of Europe's leading manufacturers, ÖkoFEN, a specialist in pellet boilers and a supplier of space-saving, cost-effective, simple solutions for storing pellets. Offering storage tanks suitable for all space and pellet requirements. The pellet boilers can provide enough hot water for even the most extensive home heating needs, using radiators, underfloor pipework, or a combination. The wood pellets burned are made in New Zealand from waste sawdust and wood shavings, providing 100% renewable heating, whatever the temperature outside.
Our range of hot water heat pumps use some of the most environmentally friendly refrigerants while offering outstanding performance. The very low global warming potential makes these systems the perfect electric alternative to gas hot water systems. Households can now reduce their energy costs and improve the sustainability of their home with ease.
The Apricus solar systems have robust frames, easy-to-use controllers and high-efficiency pumps. The high-performance, reliable designs can withstand New Zealand’s extreme environmental conditions. This is combined with a careful focus on quality and continual improvement by the team at Apricus International.
All complete system packages are individually designed for maximum savings, and on-shore technical support and global experience ensure quality and precision for every installation.