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Achieving Five Star
Green Star Ratings
Hobsonville Point Secondary School and Hobsonville Point Primary School are the first PPP (Public, Private Partnership) schools to be built in New Zealand. Being run under a PPP means that a private company takes care of the management of the school buildings and grounds. This allows the principals to concentrate sole on the education of the students.
Both schools have been designed to be significantly different to any other New Zealand school in terms of construction quality, building performance and also in terms of their effectiveness as twenty first century learning environments. Both schools have also achieved a five star Green Star rating. Green Star is a rating tool that communicates the sustainability of New Zealand's commercial buildings with 5 star rating indicating New Zealand excellence.
A New Breed of School
By 2018, the high school will accommodate up to 1,500 students. The state-of-the-art school is currently catering to the students from the residential developments being built on the former RNZAF airbase and later to the wider Hobsonville/West Harbour area. With this many students in their care and future role growth expected, both schools required a reliable hot water heating system that was powerful enough to consistently provide hot water all year round while being cost-effective to run.
Hot Water Heat Pumps Limited was pleased to find they had been specified in the installation tender document, by global building engineers Aecom, to manufacture the equipment that would provide hot water heating throughout the school.
When engineers at Aecom consulted on the school's requirements, we recommended a Performance Plus heat pump water heater that was powerful enough to constantly provide hot water all year round without costing the earth to run.
Reducing Bills and Wasted Energy
Kevin Trigg, Sales and Marketing Manager at Hot Water Heat Pumps Limited says, "When engineers at Aecom consulted on the school's requirements, we recommended a Performance Plus heat pump water heater that was powerful enough to constantly provide hot water all year round without costing the earth to run."
The primary school was the first to open in the beginning of 2013. A Performance Plus 7GD42-3 heat pump water heater was installed to maintain two, massive 1000L water tanks providing hot water throughout the school. The tanks are maintained up to 60°C.
Hobsonville Point Secondary School opened a year later in 2014. Aecom specified; two 1000L duplex stainless steel insert cylinders (for outdoor use) and one Performance Plus 7GD60-3 heat pump. Installed on top of the school's roof by local firm Hanlon Plumbing, the tanks are maintained up to 60°C. Trigg comments, "With such large tanks, an energy efficient heating solution is more important than ever to reduce wasted energy and keep power bills down to a minimum. The heat pump extracts heat energy out of the air and puts it into the water. This means that on average, the running costs for the heat pumps should be two thirds of those of an alternative heat source."
It has been 4 to 5 years since these heat pumps were installed and have been put to good use by both schools. The maintenance providers who check the heating systems quarterly for the schools are happy with the performance of the heat pumps, saying that they are still running well and have had no maintenance issues.
Opportunity for Support & Savings
It is becoming more important than ever for companies to invest in clean, green, energy efficient options such as the water heating heat pumps used at both Hobsonville Point schools. The EECA (Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority) is helping to make this a more practical solution. They have investigated the efficincy of the heat pumps supplied by Hot Water Heat Pumps Ltd on a large community pool. The result; "Three months after the new heat pumps started operation the company is on track to cut its energy bill by a third, or over $60,000 a year, while maintenance costs have also dropped steeply." EECA are offering funding and support for businesses that meet their criteria. They state on their business website (https://www.eecabusiness.govt.nz/funding-and-support/) "Investing in energy efficiency will deliver returns for your business."