We were appointed on a design and build basis to create a new school block at Beauchamps High School in Wickford under the Essex County Council framework to support the growing number of students over recent years. The mix of toilets, science laboratories, music and classrooms provide another six teaching spaces, offices and group rooms over two floors off the main central core within a standalone SIPS frame.

The overall design concept features exposed services within classrooms. Coordination was crucial to ensure our installations were carefully positioned with the acoustic rafts, while allowing easy access for future servicing and maintenance.

This was a Net Zero project and employed the use of the latest green technologies, with two dedicated Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP) heating the building and a smaller third ASHP providing the hot water services.

Natural Ventilation Heat Recovery Units (NVHR) were used within the classroom spaces, with several smaller Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery Units (MVHR) deployed to ventilate the offices and group room spaces.

The classrooms also benefit from suspended acoustic raft luminaires and have been fitted with a smart lighting control and energy efficient and daylight dimming when natural lighting levels are sufficient.

New small power services were installed throughout, as well as a fire alarm package, disabled services and a security system. Located on the roof, a 30kW photovoltaic arrangement contributes to the renewable energy source and the net zero in operation for the development.

To ensure that the energy efficiency of the systems is maintained, the building is equipped with an extensive metering and monitoring strategy. This provides automatic data reporting of energy usage, temperatures and Co2 level every 15 minutes. This is uploaded to the K2n energy monitoring facility to allow monthly energy reporting.

Role:

Mechanical and Electrical Contractor

Client:

Essex County Council

Main Contractor:

Barnes Construction

M & E Consultant:

Ingleton Wood

Architect:

Concertus

Value:

£900K

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