Suffolk Barn Renovation, GSHP Installation

Mr C, contacted us in 2023. He was embarking on a project of renovating a Suffolk red brick barn which was initially constructed in 1897 on his family land, this was to become his new family home. The barn had been out of use since early 2000 when it stopped being used due to farm machinery simply outgrowing the building. The barn was left for 20 plus years allowing nature to take over almost engulfing it in forage and fauna.

After 13 months of planning applications and surveys the customers were granted planning permission for the barn. In addition to the main barn an additional building was renovated as a games room.   

The barn was a total renovation, and the customer told us “We liked the idea of creating a self-sufficient, green, almost off grid home but with all the modern luxury’s coupling a full smart home control and solar for maximum efficiency and convenience”

“Initially when we started looking for a heating solution, we had already decided on a ground source heating system. Our criteria was simple, we wanted an established local company with knowledge of ground source heating solutions and positive customer reviews. Once we had done a little research on several companies the decision was easy choosing R A Brown. At this point we had not even contacted anyone at Brown’s. After the initial call to Brown’s and after 5 minutes of chatting to Dax we had a good feeling, we’d made the right decision. The mentioning of incorporating a third-party home control system didn’t phase Dax”

Due to the amount of land available, the customer decided to install a ground source heat pump to maximise the efficiencies available from a ground source heat pump system.

The customer was having underfloor heating fitted to the downstairs area, which was an extensive area requiring 5 manifolds and the upstairs was being built in the hayloft and radiators were fitted to this area. 

The plant room was built in a room which was integral to the barn and accessible both internally from the barn and externally through an additional external door.

“We decided to manage the project ourselves using local friends, trades and contractors, working evenings and weekends ourselves”
When the solution was specified, the total heat requirement for space heating and hot water combined was 38,673 kWh/yr.

R A Brown specified a Stiebel Eltron WPE-l 15kW GSHP, the plant room was fitted in an outbuilding attached to the property, which housed the heat pump, buffer and hot water cylinder.

After 3 test digs to 1.2 metres deep, it was established that the soil was dry sand conditions. Therefore 3200 metres of ground collector pipe was laid in the adjacent field. 

The building was very well insulated, with insulation added to floors and additional stud walls which were built during the renovation
The customer also had Solar PV fitted to the roof of the barn, the customers main priority was to have a system as energy efficient as possible as this was going to be his lifetime home.

This installation is a Stiebel Eltron 15kW Ground Source Heat Pump. Due to the results of the soil tests, which found the soil was very dry sand, this meant that a large amount of ground collector pipe was required and therefore 3200 metres of horizontal ground collector pipe was laid.

The downstairs of the barn had underfloor heating pipe laid and 7 radiators were fitted to the first floor of the barn.

CO2 savings to be made with our recommended solution

A ground source heat pump was the solution which was the most energy efficient and produced the least amount of carbon.
The estimated annual CO2 emissions for an oil boiler system, if it was installed would be 11,524.55 kg CO2/kWh per year.

The estimated annual CO2 emissions for the newly installed GSHP is 1,184.42 kg CO2/kWh per year.

Therefore by installing the GSHP system there is a saving of 10,340.13 kg CO2/kWh per year.

"We wanted an established local company with knowledge of ground source heating solutions and positive customer reviews....after the initial call to Brown’s and after 5 minutes of chatting to Dax we had a good feeling, we’d made the right decision”

Mr C, GSHP Installation customer