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Woodcott Manor, a stunning six bedroom 929m² property, boasts extravagant design including balconies in every room, a 45ft high atrium and glass bridge linking the upper floors of the house. Complete with a 278m² basement housing a swimming pool, spa and a home cinema, the state-of-the-art property commanded an elegant heating system to match, and Kensa Heat Pumps, the UK’s award-winning ground source heat pump manufacturer, was able to specify a 30kW three phase ground source heat pump to deliver the enormous heating and hot water requirements of the manor.
Mr Mackintosh, owner of Woodcott Manor, wanted a sustainable heating system for the property in order to avoid using large amounts of oil, the only alternative due to the property’s off-gas location. The running cost savings that ground source heat pumps could offer on a property this size made it an economical choice, as well as a sustainable one.
The house has high standards of insulation throughout with marble floors and underfloor heating making it very energy-efficient. The ground source heat pump is housed in a specially built plant room inside the property, with an external chamber containing the manifold.
The ground source heat pump extracts renewable heat energy from the ground using six 50m slinkies buried in trenches under the front garden. Mr Mackintosh installed the system himself with the support from Kensa’s MCS umbrella scheme to cover the system design and to ensure that the installation was eligible for the Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), triggering quarterly payments for seven years that more than offsets the costs of the system due the high heat load of the property.
Mr Mackintosh said: “I think ground source is the future of energy generation and everyone should embrace this technology. We had no issues at all with the installation; it’s very simple really and any competent plumber or electrician could do it. We were happy with Kensa who were very helpful throughout.
“I say, if you have the land area for the slinkies and it makes economic sense then it would be lunacy not to do it! The money we get back from the RHI more than offsets the capital costs and it means the property is much more energy-efficient and less reliant on fossil fuels.”
Mr Mackintosh owns a successful business specialising in bespoke interiors made from natural materials. After furnishing other people’s houses for over 40 years, he wanted to work on his own project. The Woodcott project provided him with the opportunity to develop a property that was both architecturally bold yet sympathetic with its surroundings, incorporating some more traditional aspects such as oak frames.
The property features widened doorways and lifts to accommodate limited mobility. With such careful consideration of the projects design in regards to its location and role in the future, the Kensa ground source heat pump system perfectly complements the property’s sustainable and natural ethos.
