ABOUT HEAT UPPER HEYFORD
An economical, environmental heating project for the whole village
We have been considering the potential of a community heating scheme for the benefit of everyone in the village. With your support, we believe the objectives of such a scheme could be to –Provide the same temperature of hot water and central heating as your existing oil or gas boiler at less cost.Provide a sustainable and reliable supply of renewable heat energy for decades to come.Help to cut the carbon footprint of the village contributing towards the UK’s 2050 Carbon Neutral goals.Help to reduce or remove fuel poverty for those who struggle financially
HOW IT WORKS
The Village will have a heat centre. which will pump hot water through pipes in the village.Each house subscribed to the scheme will have it's own heat exchange unit which heats individual heating systems. The cooler water is taken back up to be re-heated in the heat centre.
PROJECT PHASES
One step at at time
EXPRESSION OF INTEREST:
To be eligible for the first stage of Government funding we need to prove that 60% of our village are interested in the scheme by early May 2021
Showing interest does not lead to any other obligation or commitment.
Thank you to all who have already registered interest. The responses have been tremendously positive.
This is only the beginning, of possibly a long process, but it is exciting.
PROJECT PHASES
A rough overview of each phase
PHASE 1 - COMPLETED JANUARY 2022
The detailed practicalities
In August 2021, with proven village interest and support, Heat Upper Heyford and Upper Heyford Parish Council successfully received a feasibility grant from RCEF and commissioned Avieco to undertake a detailed survey and extensive engineering plan and financial modelling for the scheme.
Hooray! Avieco found that the scheme is viable and recommended we apply for a detailed Phase 2 investigation and then to the development of a high temperature (72 degrees centigrade) heat network, supplied by either ground or air source heat pumps.
You can read Avieco's full feasibility report here
PHASE 2:
The Master Plan... Funding March February 2022
The latest news is that we have been successful in receiving approval for funding for the next stage of feasibility studies. It seems as though we’re the only village in the country with approval to move a heat network onto this stage, which is quite exciting!
The Phase 2 grant enables detailed specification of the scheme including individual household requirements and will require a test borehole
PHASE 3:
When dreams become reality
The build stage and, prior to this stage, individual households will have had all the information which they require to sign up for the scheme or not; Swaffham are finalising their Household Energy Contracts for signature now
Never before have we had such an awareness of what we are doing to the planet, and never before have we had the power to do something about that… The future of humanity and indeed, all life on earth, now depends on us.
Sir David Attenborough
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ENFIELD COUNCIL AND ENERGETIK
A video about community heating schemes
Although Heat Upper Heyford will be much smaller in scale this video explains the prinicples simply.
FAQS
How does it work?
There is the heart of the system, which is the heating source - then the veins and arteries are the pipes which that take the hot water round the village. These pipes take heat to the individual properties property’s Heat Transfer Unit and the cooler ‘used’, cooler water is transported back to be re-heated in the central heating system.
How will the water be heated in the heat centre?
Every village locality has it's own unique geographical, historical and physical challenges. Meticulous research and site-sensitive engineering plans will play a key role in the project development to ensure that the right renewable heating options are created for the village.
Feasible possibilities would be ground source heat pumps, air source heat pumps, and geo-thermal heating options. It is likely to be a combination of technologies. In addition, we hope all electricity required for the system (village-wide, and domestically) can be sourced from a renewable supplier. We will investigate the possibility of installing solar panels to generate electricity.
Are there any other villages in the UK with a scheme like this??
Yes! up Up the road, North Aston has a ground -source system with 14km of underground pipes creating heat in fields next to the village (with no further impact on the use of those fields for anything else), which is then sent to their heat centre, and onwards to heat 26 properties.
Heating Swaffham Prior – are well underway with their system and are supporting us with our bid.
“Everything that is done in the world is done by hope”
Martin Lurther King
Right now we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change. If we don't take action, the collapse of our civilization and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.
Sir David Attenborough
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“Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much”