PROJECT 29
All images supplied by SHC Consulting Engineers
University warms things up
By
Tanya Olckers
University of the Free State ( UFS ) needed to provide a hot water system to cater for 1 200 students . They chose heat pumps .
When there are over 41 000 students that need housing , it ’ s a good idea to ensure that they have hot running water . The problem with supplying that much hot running water is that it can quickly drive up costs , especially when it comes to energy consumption .
UFS faced this conundrum when it wanted to replace five redundant hot water systems for five student residences and houses for about 1 200 students .
This was certainly a mammoth undertaking , but one that had to be done . The university had already been using solar power to drive up sustainability and to lower energy consumption , however , this on its own wasn ’ t enough to meet the municipality ’ s demands .
It was decided to install heat pumps to bring down the cost of energy use and to reduce reliance on electrical boilers . The five redundant hot water systems were replaced by a central heat pump cluster with 12 Mitsubishi Electric CAHV hot water heat pumps .
The project was brought into reality by Bloemfontein-based SHC Consulting Engineers , who worked closely with the university to assist them in beefing
Pipe system .
June 2024 Volume 30 I Number 4 www . plumbingafrica . co . za