The Thorpe estate near Telford in Staffordshire comprises a large medieval manor house, a number of office buildings both new and old plus some residential accommodation. The managing agents for the estate, Fisher German appointed MCA Consulting Engineers to investigate the possibility of serving the heating and hot water requirements for all buildings from a central biomass boiler. After an initial feasibility study confirmed that this was practical and cost effective, the design work was commissioned and the scheme was eventually commissioned in early 2010.
The new boiler was located within a converted barn, modified to house the boiler plant and fuel store. The boiler selected was a Hertz Bio-control 400 wood chip boiler rated at 350kW with a 10,000 litre buffer tank. Heating to each of the buildings concerned buildings was taken through a network of pre-insulated buried mains with interface units or plate heat exchangers acting as a demarcation between the new installation and existing heating systems.