Aurora Eccles School, ASHP, Quidenham Norfolk

Aurora Eccles School is a specialist and therapeutic educational setting in Norfolk for children who have special needs or experienced difficulties in mainstream settings. 

The school which is based in the original ‘White House’ grade 2 listed is based in Quidenham in Norfolk.

The original heating system

The heating system was very inefficient and had been in place circa 1945.

This was a commercial sized project for a large domestic setting, due to it being a school with different types of rooms, classrooms, therapy rooms, soft rooms etc.

The oil boiler which was heating the school was a World War II ships boiler, it had been in place circa 1945 and was put into position in  sections and sunken within the courtyard.

The school found the oil heating system to be very inefficient (working at approximately 50% efficiency) and they were keen to replace it with a renewable heating option. By installing a renewable heating system they were able to apply for funding for the school to make this improvement.

During the project the specification was changed to incorporate more rooms on the first floor. This increased the heat load above the capacity of four heat pumps which had been approved through planning. Planning would not allow additional heat pumps to be added to the system.

Our recommendation

To meet this full requirement, our recommendation was a hybrid system using four x Ariston Nimbus Pocket 150M-T Net R32 (3 Phase) air source heat pumps, two within an existing cage at ground level and two on a flat roof, with 800L Buffer Tank, Thision L Plus 70kW LPG boiler and heating controls to provide weather compensation and hybrid functionality. Along with 55 Jaga Maxi 2020 Low Surface Temperature radiators.

The back up boiler was an important aspect for the school, who wanted to make sure that a back up system was available to avoid any school closures caused by loss of heating.

The listed building consent officers restricted the positions of heat pumps and therefore we placed two on the roof and two in the courtyard in line with the permission granted. The roof needed to be strengthened to enable the placement of the two heat pumps on the roof.

The two heat pumps which are located on the roof had to be craned into position. These heat pumps are sited to ensure that visibility from the ground is minimal.

The work at the school had to be completed during the school holidays, we started initially in May half term 2025, where we removed some of the existing system, existing cast iron floor mounted radiators and pipework.  This enabled building contractors to assess the walls as there was a lot of making good and prep work which needed to be carried out before the installation could take place.

The school kept their existing hot water solution, of two electrically heated hot water cylinders, these were already in position with one located on the 1st floor above the kitchen and the second one was located on the ground floor near the toilets.

We worked in conjunction with other contractors and consultants including structural engineers, building & electrical contractors, and other specialist fire protection services and the school committee. During the installation process, there were fortnightly project meetings on site.

This was a very extensive job and took longer than the 6 weeks summer holiday.  We started the removal of the old system in the May half term and during the 6 weeks summer holiday, we had at times 10 engineers and apprentices working on the project. The only part of the school which was worked on outside of that time scale was the teachers rest room. 

We completed the installation of the plant room and all ground floor heating, including low surface temperature radiators which were suitable for the safety requirements of the children who attended the school.

The electricity upgrade was completed by October half term to enable us to complete the commissioning. Between September and October half term the school used the LPG Boiler to heat the school if needed, once commissioning had taken place, the heating was switched over to the heat pump.

The school has now been running using heat pumps as the main source since October 2025. We have visited over the winter terms to make adjustments and carry out any maintenance required and have received feedback that the environment feels better, probably due to heat being constant over the whole area.