House Builders & Housing Complexes

Orchid Homes, Winchester Rd, Shirley, Southampton.

58 x 1 & 2 bedroom apartments.

Solar thermal hot water systems

Collector : Multiple arrays of IRC 2.1 roof integration

Gross Collector area: 118.9 M2

Solar storage Tank in each Apartment: 210 unvented solar twin coil

Solar objective: Domestic Hot Water to supply multiple apartment units to achieve Code Level 3.

Orchid Homes needed a solution to provide solar thermal hot water in each apartment to achieve code level 3 building regulation, multiple manufactures were sought to provide the scheme but SOLFEX energy systems were selected due to the technical ability of large collector arrays to be seamlessly integrated into the roof fabric with a market leading 20 year collector warranty.

Detailed planning with the client and installer partner was overcome and the development was a major success with up to 60% annually of domestic hot water being provided purely by the solar thermal array with a guaranteed energy yield of 39.79Mwh.

Property Type: Luxury high rise apartments

Property Location: Imperial wharf/Chelsea Harbour 

Collector Type: SOLFEX energy systems CPC OEM Vacuum Tube Collector

Gross Collector Area 9.20

Estimated yield in KWh 3000

Solar Storage type & Volume 300litre with secondary circulation

Solar Thermal system objective: Hot Water 

Installing Company: Evo-Energy  

Installation details: Located in one of the most sought after locations on the north bank of the River Thames, adjacent to Chelsea Harbour, Imperial Wharf is London's premier riverside address.

The solar thermal installation was installed in the new office complex for the main developer, St George, and supplies their hot water for showering/washing facilities; the developer is committed to the creation of sustainable energy efficient communities & building practices.

The installation itself was a challenge due to an 85 meter pipe run in between the collector field and storage vessel so an increased collector area was added to overcome the heat loss within the pipe work and the correct high efficiency pump was selected within the pump group to overcome increased pressure loss across the pipe work system. Due to the height of the building increased ballast was also used to prevent against wind loads. The installation was completed within two days by the Professional Evo-Energy Team who are part of the SOLFEX energy systems Installer Partner Program.