Forest Holidays installed Thermino heat batteries and Trianco ActivAir heat pumps in 12 new lodges in their Strathyre site, providing guaranteed hot water to the cabins and hot tubs.
The challenge
Leading sustainable holiday provider Forest Holidays looked to expand their Strathyre site, one of 13 locations across the UK, with 12 new luxury lodges equipped with hot tubs.
As the site was already nearing the limits in terms of power usage it was important to consider both the electrical load, and the need to meet building standards on environmental performance, when choosing the heating and hot water system for the new lodges.
From a guest experience perspective, it was essential to be able to provide a guaranteed hot water supply to the cabins and the accompanying hot tubs.
The solution
The team at Strathyre considered a number of options, including gas and solar PV, before deciding to use the 12-cabin expansion to trial a new and innovative heating and hot water system.
Thermino heat batteries and Trianco ActivAir heat pumps were chosen to provide heating, hot water, and heat the hot tubs in the lodges. The heat pumps ranged from 15kW to 22kW models to suit the size of the cabins, which range from 2 to 4-bedrooms.
The benefits
Choosing a Thermino heat battery allows Forest Holidays to fill each hot tub with hot water and still guarantee hot water supply to each cabin when guests arrive.
David Coster, who managed the project, advised that this wouldn’t be possible with a cylinder system. This gives staff peace of mind by removing the risk of complaints about cold hot tubs or a lack of hot water in the cabins.
Another plus point for staff is that the heat pumps are monitored remotely by Trianco, allowing them to remotely diagnose any issues without the need to call out an emergency plumber or electrician.
Before implementing this system in Strathyre, a small trial was carried out in two cabins at the Forest Holidays Blackwood Forest site, where biomass boilers were replaced with heat pumps and Thermino heat batteries.
Similar to Strathyre, Blackwood Forest is nearing maximum capacity in terms of power, so the team were pleased to see that switching from a hot water tank with an electrical immersion heater to a Thermino heat battery halved the electrical consumption of the two trial cabins – a significant reduction.
Operational costs are another key factor for Forest Holidays. David said, "We did a bit of a case study prior to committing to this heating system and we figured out that we'd be able to save £600 a year on electric costs per cabin. For here [Strathyre], that means that we're able to save £7,200 a year on electric, on just 12 cabins alone."
When modelling this on a 50 cabin site, this could mean a huge £30,000 reduction in energy costs – that’s on top of reduced servicing costs, and reduced capital costs as there’s no need to install gas infrastructure.
Finally, the plumbing and heating contractor used by Forest Holidays had no issues installing the heat pumps and heat batteries at Strathyre, seeing no difference in labour costs or time spent on installation and commissioning compared to alternative systems.
The system’s reliability and lower running costs means that the combination of Thermino heat batteries and heat pumps is likely to form part of the company’s strategy going forward, as Forest Holidays continues to expand new and existing sites across the UK.
