Buckhurst Park

Commission: Douch Biomass was commissioned to supply and install two wood chip biomass boilers and district heating networks to meet the space heating and hot water requirements of Buckhurst Park and 6 additional residences around the Estate. Utilising considerable managed woodland for fuel, this provides a genuinely sustainable and cost saving alternative to the previous oil fired heating systems. A full project design was created in consultation with the client, and two Herz FireMatic boilers were recommended, one a 199kW boiler and the other a 151kW boiler. The two boilers are hydraulically separated, allowing for RHI to be claimed separately on each at the below 200kW tariff rate. The garage was converted to become the new boiler house, with a semi-buried fuel store located immediately adjacent to the garage. This has a 60m3 capacity, similar to the system installed at Balcombe Estate. This provides a refilling period of around 3 weeks during peak winter demand but less frequently during warmer months.

Boiler Type: Two Herz FireMatic boilers, one 199kW and one 151kW

Fuel Type: Wood Chip

Fuel Storage: A semi-buried silo with a 60m3 capacity, similar to the system Douch Biomass installed at Balcombe Estate. This gave a refilling period of around 3 weeks during peak winter demand and less frequently in warmer months.

CO2 emission reduction: 3341 tonnes over 20 years

Case History: The origins of the current house at Buckhurst date from 1603, although it has undergone alterations at various stages since then. The Park was laid out by Humphrey Repton, a renowned landscape designer, in the eighteen century, with additions by other landscapers since then. The most famous part of the estate is the 100 Acre Wood, immortalised by A. A. Milne in Winnie the Pooh. Milne himself lived in Hartfield, one of the villages on the Buckhurst estate.

Date Completed: 22nd June 2014