The Challenge
Historic building heating presents many challenges when it comes to finding an energy efficient solution. In this case, it was a 19th-century country house-mansion in Hampshire. The Grange is owned by the Baring family and English Heritage has a guardianship deed on the scheduled monument and Grade I listed building.
After 1965 the building fell into disrepair and it was not until the 1980s that the roof was extensively restored and the external structure of the building stabilized. The romantically distressed interiors create an exciting event space, but the lack of insulation, missing floors and drafty doors make heating the ground floor reception rooms a challenge.
The building was not used as a venue during the winter months, and for spring and autumn events, temporary heating in the form of two noisy 65kW indirect oil-fired hot air blowers were used. These heaters consumed 13ltrs oil/hour and needed to run continually to make a noticeable difference.
The client was looking for an effective and energy-efficient heating solution which would enable events to be held during the colder months. A fast warm-up time was important as the building is only heated when in use.
As far as English Heritage was concerned, any new heating system had to blend with the architectural detail of the building to be approved Scheduled Monument Consent. From an ecological perspective, the new heating must not impact upon the resident bats.
To be more effective the heating needed to directly warm the occupants thereby avoiding the need to increase the air temperature. The latter would be a costly and pointless exercise as the warm air would only rise to the top of the building without benefiting the occupants, as occurred with the hot air blowers.
